Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a computer-animated film produced by Sony Pictures Animation based on the 1978 children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett. The film was written and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in their directorial debuts and released September 18, 2009.
The film centers around quirky and aspiring scientist and inventor Flint Lockwood, who develops a machine that can convert water into food. While his invention initially brings joy and whimsical food-filled wonderlands to the town of Swallow Falls, overuse of the machine causes the food to overmutate, creating dangerous storms and natural food disasters. With the help of his friends, Flint must stop his machine in order to save the world.
Plot
See also Transcript
| “ | Have you ever felt like you were a little bit different? Like you had something unique to offer the world, if you could just get people to see it? Then you know exactly how it felt to be me. | ” |
— Flint Lockwood
|
From a young age, aspiring scientist Flint Lockwood dreamt of making the world a better place. His hometown of Swallow Falls, a tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean whose economy was built on sardines, had fallen on hard times after "everyone in the world realized that sardines are super gross." Forced to eat the sardines they could no longer export, Swallow Falls fell into an uninspired, depressive slump.
Flint's goal was to use his passion for invention to create something that would improve the lives of its citizens. However, every invention - from Spray-on Shoes to a Flying Car that doesn't fly or Ratbirds that escaped and bred uncontrollably - instead wreaked havoc on the town and its residents. Treated as an outcast due to his failures, Flint grew up isolated from his peers, his monkey lab assistant Steve being his only friend in the town.
Flint remained undeterred, with plans to unveil his latest invention: the Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator (FLDSMDFR), a machine that can turn water into food. However, when the machine overloads the breaker and shorts the power, Flint's father, Tim Lockwood, implored his son to work at the family tackle shop.
In a bid to revitalize the town, Mayor Shelbourne unveiled a sardine-themed amusement park called Sardine Land with a grand opening event featuring the live appearance of Swallow Falls mascot "Baby Brent." The opening ceremony provided Flint with the cover he needed to sneak out of the tackle shop and connect the FLDSMDFR to a local substation. Unfortunately the power overload sent the FLDSMDFR careening through the amusement park before rocketing into the sky.
The chaos weakened the support beams of Sardine Land's signature attraction, a giant fishbowl containing the world's largest sardine. The bowl rolled across Sardine Circle, crushing the new attractions before being launched into the sky by an explosion, landing atop Flint and Steve.
Ashamed and humiliated, Flint fled the square and hid beneath the docks, where aspiring weathergirl Sam Sparks accidentally kicked Flint in the face. The two of them were the first to witness a miracle: Flint's invention worked, using the water in the atmosphere to rain cheeseburgers on the town.
The strange and wondrous weather phenomenon gave Sam a second chance at her weather reporting career and redeemed Flint in the eyes of the town. The mayor seized on the opportunity to market the food weather to a global audience, rebranding Swallow Falls as Chewandswallow. On an Ice Cream Snow Day, Sam invited the global community to come to the Chewandswallow Grand Opening that upcoming Saturday.
Flint and Sam bonded over their shared passion for science, and Flint surprised her with a Giant Jell-O Mold, remembering her favorite food from an offhand comment made weeks prior. There, Sam confided that she had been hiding her true, nerdy self due to childhood bullying. Flint encouraged her to be herself, considering her to be beautiful even with glasses and a ponytail.
However, as the townspeople grew more and more greedy and gluttonous, Flint overburdened the FLDSMDFR, causing the food to mutate and drastically increase in size. Tim Lockwood expressed concern over the large portion sizes, which Flint interpreted as a lack of support from his father. The mayor, on the other hand, was overjoyed at the increasing amount of food and insisted that Flint make a spaghetti dinner for tourists arriving for the town's grand reopening.
The spaghetti dinner turned disastrous when it manifested as a spaghetti tornado, spitting meatballs and oregano across the town, destroying the newly-renovated buildings and causing chaos. Realizing he was the only one who can shut down the FLDSMDFR, Flint charged through the tornado and heads into his lab, but finds the mayor already there. In the scuffle to cancel the mayor's order of a Vegas-style all-you-can-eat buffet, Flint and the Mayor accidentally destroyed Flint's only method of communicating with the machine.
Detecting the scope of the danger using her childhood-wish weather radar, Sam patched through to the Weather News Network's broadcast with the help of her friend and cameraman Manny, warning the world that the storms were only going to get worse and spread across the globe. With no way to communicate with the FLDSMDFR and with the world in imminent danger due to his invention, Flint nearly fell into despair, but his dad encouraged him, reminding him that his inventing skills could still help people. Inspired, Flint redesigned the Flying Car. In town, Officer Earl Devereaux took accountability for contributing to the danger, then led the evacuation. Accompanied by Sam, Manny, Steve, and childhood bully and former town mascot Brent, Flint flew into the heart of the storm to destroy the FLDSMDFR using a kill code copied to a USB.
Upon reaching the FLDSMDFR, they discover it had surrounded itself in a giant meatball-like object made of food and created sentient food creatures for protection. As the group reached the interior, the flash drive was destroyed, prompting Flint to call Tim and instruct him to email the drive's code to his cell phone via his laboratory's computer. Finding the FLDSMDFR, Flint connected his phone with the flash drive's code sent by Tim to it, only to discover that the wrong file was sent. All appears lost until Flint uses his Spray-On Shoes formula on the machine, causing it to explode and destroy the meatball, ending the storm. After surviving the destruction, Flint reunites with Tim, who finally shows appreciation for his son's inventions, and Sam, whom he shares a kiss with.
Cast
| Role | Actor |
|---|---|
| Flint Lockwood | Bill Hader |
| Sam Sparks | Anna Faris |
| Steve | Neil Patrick Harris |
| Tim Lockwood | James Caan |
| Mayor Shelbourne | Bruce Campbell |
| Brent McHale | Andy Samberg |
| Earl Devereaux | Mr. T |
| Calvin Devereaux | Bobb'e J. Thompson |
| Manny | Benjamin Bratt |
| Patrick Patrickson | Al Roker |
| Fran Lockwood | Lauren Graham |
| Joe Towne | Will Forte |
Production
Development
| “ | From the first character to the last soda can took exactly two years. The can was a garbage piece that we crushed and put next to a dumpster. | ” |
— Marvin Kim, modeling supervisor
|
On May 9, 2003, a year after establishment, Sony Pictures Animation announced its first animated slate, including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a film adaptation of the book of the same name[1]. The Brizzi brothers were brought to direct the film, with Wayne Rice adapting the screenplay. In 2006, it was reported that the film had been helmed by new directors and writers, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Lord and Miller said later that year that it would be a homage to, and a parody of, disaster films such as Twister, Armageddon, The Core, and The Day After Tomorrow[2].
Story and script
After a year working on the script, Lord and Christopher Miller were fired for story issues and replaced with new writers, who after a year were also fired. Lord and Miller were then re-hired in 2006. The two completely redid the script, this time with the creative input of their crew. The new draft had the protagonist as a failed inventor who wanted to prove himself to his town. The two were almost fired again after Amy Pascal, then-head of Sony Pictures, criticized the film for lack of story. Although the film succeeded on the comedic front in the animatic stage, Pascal cited the lack of an anchoring relationship in the film as a failure in the story telling. Unable to create new characters and environments to suit the new story demands, the two elevated the character of the tackle shop extra to be the protagonist's father, thereby creating the relationship Pascal had requested. The pair's experience on Cloudy taught them two valuable lessons: the power of creative collaboration and the importance of emotion in a story[3].
Casting
On September 18, 2008, Variety announced that Bill Hader and Anna Faris had signed on to voice the two lead characters[4], with James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Benjamin Bratt, Al Roker, Lauren Graham, and Will Forte also in the voice cast.
Animation
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the second film after Monster House that was made using the animation rendering software Arnold.
Sound Effects
An alphabetical list of all sound effects used in the film can be found here.
Release
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs premiered on September 12, 2009, at the Mann Village Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The film had its wide release on September 18, 2009, along with a digitally re-mastered release to IMAX 3D theatres.
Home media
The film was released on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and PSP UMD on January 5, 2010[Citation needed] in the United States and Canada. A 3D Blu-ray was released on June 22, 2010. It was the first 3D Blu-ray sold individually in the United States.
Merchandise
In 2010, Burger King released a series of six Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs toys, accompanied by this commercial.
Carl's Jr. also released a series of three toys and a recipe book.
4D Experience
In 2011, a 10-15 minute subsection of the movie was shown in limited locations as a 4D experience.[5]
Reception
Box office
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs earned a total of $243 million on a reported budget of $100 million. Of the gross, 51%, or $124,870,275, came from the domestic market, while the rest, $118,135,851, from other territories[6]. The film earned $8,137,358 on its opening Friday, and ranked #1 at the box office with a total of $30.3 million for the first weekend. On its second weekend, it remained at #1 with a decrease of only 17%. Documents from the Sony Pictures hack revealed the film turned a profit of $6 million.
Gallery
References
- ↑ Sony Taps Six to Direct Animated Slate | Animation Magazine
- ↑ It’s Raining………Food? — Slice of SciFi (archive.org)
- ↑ Rewriting Collective Insights: Phil Lord at TEDxCoconutGrove - YouTube
- ↑ Hader, Faris spice up 'Meatballs' - Variety
- ↑ https://youtu.be/dE7VUT_QO3Q
- ↑ Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Box Office Mojo