Foodimals. They’re the new minions and Sony Pictures should have a tasty hit on their hands with the exhilarating CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2, which brings back nearly the entire cast of characters from the 2009 hit (except Bruce Campbell’s Mayor and Mr. T- whose character’s voice has been replaced with Terry Crews). While the first one was a spoof of ARMAGEDDEON, the sequel is a rollicking send-up of JURASSIC PARK which picks up where its predecessor left off. Inventor Flint Lockwood’s (Bill Hader) genius is finally being recognized as he’s invited by his idol Chester V (Will Forte) to join The Live Corp Company, where the best and brightest inventors in the world create technologies for the betterment of mankind. Chester’s right-hand-gal – and one of his greatest inventions – is Barb (a highly evolved lipstick-wearing orangutan with a human brain). It’s always been Flint’s dream to be recognized as a great inventor, but everything changes when he discovers that his most infamous machine (which turns water into food) is still operating and is now creating these food-animal hybrids. With the fate of humanity in his hands, Chester sends Flint and his friends on a dangerously delicious mission.
Visually, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 is as good as any animated endeavor out there. It has a refreshing “cartoony” aesthetic that doesn’t try to make its characters look realistic – but it’s the foodimals everyone will be talking about. Flint and his friends battle tacodiles, shrimpanzees, apple pie-thons, watermelephants, a stampede of bananaraptors, and a double bacon cheespiders with multiple sesame seed eyes. (trivia: Flint’s girlfriend Sam is wearing the exact same outfit Laura Dern wore in JURASSIC PARK). But CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 is more than a bundle of digital eye candy. Like its predecessor, it’s seriously and deliriously demented and makes no apologies for it. It throws out rapid fire jokes, puns (“There’s a leak in the boat!” – cut to shot of an actual leek who screams in panic), and absurdities– some don’t work, but many, like the emission-free car that runs on cute (a kitten pops its head out of the gas tank), are gut-busters. The pace and tone of the comedy is actually pretty sophisticated and while kids will enjoy the visuals and the general frenzy of activity, many of the better jokes are aimed at their dragged-along parents (butter versus Parkay anyone?) And don’t look for any heavy messages about parent-child bonding or saving the planet. – CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 doesn’t go there but simply tries, and succeeds, to be a good time at the movies.
4 of 5 Stars
