Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009): Review and Recap

After watching the previews for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) my interest with piqued and it looks like it would be a funny movie, so I decided to go back and watch the original before hand so I didn't have another instance where I saw the second cartoon movie before the first one and was completely lost.  And although it was completely stupid and the premise ridiculous (but does it really matter it is an animated movie) it was fun ride.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) is loosely based on the book of the same name by Judi Barrett.  I know that I read the book as a child but don't really remember the story line but I know that there were moment of food, such as the big food and toast ships that were referenced in the movie, but it is about an island where food falls from the sky. The movie is centered around Flint, voiced by Bill Hader, who is an inventor who was never understood by the people around him and his father, but his mother always encouraged him to follow his dream. When he grows up he invents this machine that will turn water into food, but like all of the things he does, things always seem to go wrong, and the machine gets sucked up into the sky where it starts raining food.  A weather girl intern Sam, voiced by Anna Farris, is there covering the story as the major of the town Major Shelbourn, voiced by Bruce Campbell, wants to turn their island into a tourist destination.  It is discovered that Sam is really smart and knows about weather and warns Flint that the machine is going to destroy the world.  So Flint with Sam's help fly up to try and turn off the machine and save the world before the giant food destroys everything.  While this happens a "like, like" connection blossoms between Flint and Sam, as well as Flint and his dad Tim, voiced by James Cann, work to overcome the disconnect in their relationship due to their inability to understand each other.
This movie is fun but doesn't really do anything special.  There isn't really anything surprising or that scary, although the giant meatball around the machine at the end of the movie has some danger to it.  It is worth a watch if nothing else is going on and a fun because of all the giant food.  I think the second one might be a bit more fun as I am looking forward to see more of Manny, voiced by Benjamin Bratt, who is the multitalented side kick cameraman to Sam.

My Rating: 2