Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 (2013) Review

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 (2013)

Directed by Cody Cameron & Kris Pearn

Starring Voice Actors:
Bill Hader
Anna Faris
James Caan
Andy Samberg
Neil Patrick Harris
Benjamin Bratt
Terry Crews
Will Forte
Kristen Schaal

Music by: Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo! Yo Gabba Gabba!)

Studio: Sony Pictures Animation

Running time: 95 minutes

Plot Synopsis:
Flint Lockwood’s invention, the FLDSMDFR, has not been destroyed as previously believed and is now creating food/animal hybrids which are attacking those trying to clean up the island. The FLDSMDFR must be stopped before these dangerous foodimals take over the world.

My Opinion:

I would love to have some of the drugs the filmmakers were on when they made this movie. I mean, the first film was crazy enough but this one is bananimals.

I’ve sort of seen the first film a couple of times (I slept through most of it the second time). It’s okay. You certainly can’t say the story lacked originality! That’s definitely the case this time around as well. It continues immediately after the end of the previous film (I think. From what I remember). After the FLDSMDFR is destroyed (or so everyone thinks), an inventor (& the CEO of Live Corp) named Chester V arrives to clean up the island with a team of other scientists while Flint and his friends are sent to live in California where Flint takes a job at Live Corp.

I felt that this section of the film was a little overlong and I was a bit bored. The movie is very slow to begin with. Luckily, Chester V needs Flint to come back to the island after his team of scientists are attacked by cheespiders (You know! Giant cheeseburgers with spidery French fry legs!). Turns out the FLDSMDFR wasn’t actually destroyed and it’s now churning out these crazy food/animal hybrids (foodimals, FYI) that could take over the planet. And Chester V needs Flint’s help to shut his invention down before more foodimals are created! Dun dun DUUUUUNNNN!

This is where the movie finally picks up and gets much better: When Flint & his friends come back to the island which is filled with all kinds of weird & wonderful foodimals. I was going to try to remember all their funny names for this review but, unfortunately, I’m old and have a terrible memory now. Let’s see…

I remember the huge “tacodiles”. Tacodile Supreme, actually. Um, Shrimpanzees? Watermelophants? Mosquitoast? And, of course, the “leek in the boat!”. Haha! The pickles that Flint’s father befriends are pretty funny and the family of marshmallows is adorable. But NOTHING is cuter than the little strawberry Flint’s girlfriend names… “Berry”! SO FREAKING ADORABLE! Okay, Berry totally made the whole movie for me. I want to adopt Berry. Berry can come live with me and we’ll watch things like Strawberry Shortcake together.

Really, I don’t know what else to say about this. It does have some funny moments but it’s all pretty mental. It’s nowhere near the level of the stuff we get from Pixar or Disney. The characters are all likeable enough but I’ve still not fully bought into any of them after two films in the way I did with Pixar characters like Sulley & Mike. It’s a fun enough film to sit through with your kids, though, and I like it more than the first one. Because Berry isn’t in the first one! Your kids will love it and you won’t hate it.

My Rating: 6/10