Review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is refreshing

I don’t usually review movies. The reasons are many, but the onus lies mostly on my abhorrent lack of knowledge in the domain so when I take the time to write an article on a film, you’d better to assume it’s worth the trouble.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I grabbed the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs BD off the aisle of my local rental store.

We sat down that night and fired it up on my newly (boxing day splurged) Sony KDL-52XBR9 and I was excited to see how the TV would perform with a CG animated movie, but I’m starting to ramble so let’s talk about the movie.

Flint Lockwood’s hamburger rain is welcomed by all

Based on a book published in 1978, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is produced by the Sony Pictures Animation studio (the guys who brought us Surf’s Up and Open Season) and features some of the most stunning use of colors I’ve seen in a long time. Seriously. Everything in this film has rich, vibrant, deep colors, especially near the half-way point of the film where multi-colored skies appear, candy rains down from the heavens or a spaghetti tornado ravages through the city firing down meteor-like meatballs. It is simply stunning and it saddens me to think I’ve missed this when it was presented in 3D in theaters.

Children drink orange juice from umbrellas

Being a computer animated film, the image is crisp and clear and presented in 2.35:1. Not my favorite ratio, but it wasn’t my choice. The render style is similar to Open Season where the creatures and people don’t really feature much texture and have over-simplified features and facial animations but engorge in soft lights and smooth features. Everything about the image radiates a certain calm and happy feeling.

A spaghetti twister rampages through town

Right, I’m starting to babble on. Long story short, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is one of the very few films I’ve actually purchased because I liked it so much. Go check it out and let me know what you thought.

The sound is clear, the music is fantastically computer-retro and the overall feel is amazing.

Oh, and it features Mr. T as officer Earl Devereaux who sports an awesome reverse mohawk. What more do you want?