Stale Popcorn

Last year, my wife & I took our daughters to the cinema to see G-Force in 3D and, during the trailers, we saw one for Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, which they absolutely loved the look of. Unfortunately, we never got the chance to take them to see it in the cinema. So how popular was I when the Blu-Ray landed on my doormat for me to review? Very!

But how popular was I, and the movie, going to be by the time we finished watching it?

The Plot

On the island of Swallow Falls, situated under the “A” under “Atlantic Ocean” on a map, they used to be famous for their sardines. Unfortunately, due to a change in people’s perceptions of the little fish (as the world has realised that sardines are, in fact, “super gross”), the Baby Brent Sardine cannery has now closed leaving the people of Swallow Falls with a failing economy & only sardines to eat.

Wanting to help his ailing town is Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), who has always wanted to be an inventor. Unfortunately, his inventions never really work out that well, like the rat-birds. But that doesn’t stop Flint from trying and he soon comes up with his greatest invention ever – a machine that can make any food from water! During the Mayor’s presentation in the town square about how he will save Swallow Falls, Flint puts his invention to work, but an unfortunate power surge causes it to go haywire and destroy the square, before flying into the atmosphere and apparently disintergrating.

Flint, finally deciding that no matter how hard he tries he will never be an inventor, hangs up his labcoat. But then something amazing happens – and it starts to rain hamburgers! Soon, the island of Swallow Falls is famous for it’s raining food, reported to the world by the Weather Channel intern, Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), who was sent to the island to cover the Mayor’s announcement, and it looks like Flint’s dreams are all going to come true.

But there is a pasta storm coming, and it is up to Flint, Sam and the grown up Baby Brent to save not only Swallow Falls, but also the world.

Review

I’ll be honest, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. The animation is superb, but it’s the story that holds your attention. Sure, it’s a childrens movie but there is so much here that while the children are laughing at one thing, you will be laughing at something else and it all just works so well. Bill Hader is great as Flint, who he imbues with a lovely humanity, and there is obvious chemistry between his character and Anna Faris’ Sam Sparks.

And there is a wonderful supporting cast with the likes of Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Andy Samberg and James Caan all delivering fantastic performances.

But it’s more than that. It’s exciting, with it’s obvious homages to disaster movies, it’s really funny with more than few laugh out loud moments for children and adults alike. But it’s really clever as well, as it all makes sense. For instance, Flint’s monkey companion Steve, who he has made a thought translator for, doesn’t suddenly turn out to be a genius – he’s just a monkey with a fetish for mustaches and his thoughts are along the lines of “Steve, Steve, Steve” rather than in a lot of movies.

And if you were going to make snow angels in ice cream….would you be face up or face down?

Some people may be disappointed to learn that there isn’t the 3D version on the Blu-Ray, but I am happy to say that this is one of the first 3D movies I have seen where they don’t purposefully just throw everything that they can at the screen because it was being released in 3D. The lack of the third dimension doesn’t detract from it in any way, which is something I am really pleased with.

The Video

So how does it look? Well, thankfully, the 1080p/AVC encoding on the disc is more than up to the task of showing off the gorgeous visuals on screen. The colours on screen are vibrant and vivid, blacks have a wonderful depth and the whole thing looks absolutely gorgeous. And as for the detail, trust me when I say that the food looks good enough to eat!

The CG animation is of a superb quality which, while possibly never reaching the lofty heights of detail Pixar create, is an amazing thing to see in high definition.

The Audio

The DTS-MA 5.1 lossless audio track is the equal of the superb visuals, filling the room with ambience and glorious sound effects as you are tossed and turned around by what you are hearing, but it never once drowns out the dialogue with all of the action going on.

The Extras

As well as the Blu-Ray version of the movie you also get a copy on DVD, so you can “..enjoy the film whenever, wherever you want.”

Audio Commentary: A pretty mad, entertaining and funny commentary track featuring co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and Bill Hader. Definitely worth a listen!

Flint’s Food Fight Game: A Blu-Ray exclusive feature, where you play a Space Invaders style game against the Food Machine.

‘Raining Sunshine’ Music Video: (SD, 4 minutes) The music video for the closing credits song of the movie.

‘Raining Sunshine’ Sing-A-Long: And there’s a “sing-a-long” version, too.

Behind the Scenes of the ‘Raining Sunshine’ Music Video: (SD, 2 minutes) Just to make sure you’ve totally gotten your fill of Raining Sunshine, this gives a really quick look at how it was made.

The Voices of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs: (HD, 12 minutes) Some interesting footage of Bill Hader and Anna Faris during some of their voice recording sessions, but this is worth watching simply for Mr T. The guy is a legend!

Progression Reels with Commentary: (HD, 9 minutes) Visual FX Supervisor Rob Bredow takes you through various stages of the CGI animation, showing just how much work goes into the creation of a movie.

Extended Scenes: (HD, 3 minutes) Two extended scenes, which are interesting, but hardly essential to the plot.

The Making of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs: (HD, 11 minutes)

Interactive Splat Button: My daughters love this Blu-Ray exclusive feature. Using your remote you can “throw” a variety of food at the screen. They found it hilarious!

Afterthoughts

This isn’t a flawless movie, but you would have to have a pretty sad heart to not enjoy it. There is more than enough here for children and adults to enjoy and I’m quite sure it’s going to get many many viewings in our household. And what more could you want from a family movie?

While it might not quite beat Pixar at their own game, it comes damn close and should be pretty much an essential purchase for anyone, regardless of it being a “kids movie”.

Posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 1:42 pm under Blu-Ray Reviews by Gareth.

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