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DVD (13)
Determined to have their cake and eat it too, writer-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller first invite us to revel in ice cream mountains and nacho cheese fountains, then clobber us with ham-handed nutritional moralism.
So what could be better than an endless supply of jellybeans and ice cream? Only a multiplex permanently stocked with smart, sweetly silly family films like this one.
It takes an iron stomach to watch this stuff and not feel nauseated.
No comedy should come bogged down with so many Important Life Lessons.
Food has never been funnier than it is in the spirited, animated family film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
But it's fun, it has some good messages and what kid won't enjoy seeing pancakes flatten a roof and an ice-cream blizzard that you can eat while you play in it? Especially when it's presented in colorful 3-D splendor?
The test for a decent family film is whether the kids want to watch it again, and both of mine were ready for a rerun the very next day.
Grownups will enjoy the witty dialog and zippy script, especially when it makes playful nods to big sci-fi popcorn romps like Twister, The Day After Tomorrow, Armageddon and Star Wars.
The humour in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is often anarchic, wicked, random and very funny. This is a fun film with a lot of spirit.
Visually imaginative and ethically rich, the apocalypse has never been as tasty as served in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs might not be as charming or heartfelt as anything from Pixar film, but bar Up, it's the best animated film of the year so far.
Spaghetti has never been more terrifying, Gummi bears more menacing, nor the pleasures and perils of exploring the frontiers of science more vivid
I'll avoid the meteorological puns, and just say that this animated movie is a real delight -- engaging, amusing and powered by smart writing that isn't needlessly showy.
It occurs to me that the pace and tone of the comedy is actually pretty sophisticated -- perhaps too much so for its supposed intended audience.
It's rare for a family film to deliver the goods with both story and visuals, but this insanely fun and fast-paced flick doesn't skimp on either.
The superb thing about Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is that it never once shies away from its ludicrous premise.
Writer-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have expanded a 30-page children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett into a 3D animated feature which boasts intricate design and goofy humour.
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is visually inventive and exuberant, and has some neat running gags. But its characterisations are a little disappointing.
This 3D cartoon based on the popular children's book is sweet and fun -- not to mention a little trippy.
The story outlined here is engagingly ridiculous, and the visual opportunities suggested by the book and expanded by the screenplay look stunning when seen in 3-D.
It all can be swallowed very easily, with the likeable characters, including the policeman Earl (Mr T), ensuring that the adventure serves up a tasty conclusion.
If Pixar are the modern equivalent of the sweet artistry of Walt Disney's best, then Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the slightly-skewy offspring of Chuck Jones and his Warner Bros. cartoons.
Humorous, fun and sometimes downright odd family flick, that doesn't address some of its thematic implications.
The concept might not be as high as alien invasion or mouthy mammoths, nor the art on the level of Pixar or Miyazaki or Selick, but in terms of sheer fun, this is the one to beat in '09.
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