cloudy with a chance of meatballs

[samsong]

am i the only one who saw this?

[picolas]

yes but i hear it's great ("David Lynch for kids!") and want to see it.

[samsong]

lynch for kids is a stretch, but you knew that already.

i really enjoyed this, despite it being a bit abrasive.  sometimes it gets to be too much, but that's to its credit though; for better or worse, it takes each laugh to the absolute breaking point without compromise.  mark mothersbaugh's music is typically on point.  the movie is equal parts disaster movie spoof and hyper-self-aware family movie.  this would be a worthy inclusion for a time capsule as an indicator as to what this generation's sense of humor is like.  some visually thrilling stuff, and probably the best use of 3d for an animated film that i've seen.    it's such a fun movie that i'll probably be seeing it again soon.

[matt35mm]

I liked it as well.  Genuinely funny and pretty clever.  I also really liked that the lead female character actually becomes more attractive when she puts on her glasses and shows her inner awkward nerd, and she also is very active in the movie rather than being a passive object.

Another plus is that it teaches kids not to trust politicians.

Mr. T is great.

Kids should be watching this instead of the brainless stuff that they usually get between Pixar releases.

[picolas]

WONDERFUL. really really funny. some clone high writers wrote it.

[Pubrick]

yeah this was the best non pixar american animated film i've ever seen.

it makes great use of 3D in that what could be over-cluttering on the screen especially towards the end has the opposite effect of what i might feel in 2D, which is indifference at all the detail which might look like just a big mess, and instead becomes multilayered detail which makes you focus more intently on precisely the layers that matter.

the film is just hilarious. no big statements here, maybe but it would be a stretch, no the best way to review this is actually like silias:

[silias] i left the cinema with a big smile on my face. [/silias]

i was constantly surprised by the ingenuity of what seemed on paper to be a really thin premise with nowhere to go. even the speaking monkey didn't come off as a Pixar rip off but a sensible extension of the crazy and consistent logic of the film. great choice for everyone involved cast-wise, especially anna farris, this must be a fluke for her.

[cine]

i'm confused.. did i miss a joke somewhere with this movie? i always thought this was for like.. 8 year olds. so its actually worth seeing?

[Stefen]

It's really funny. Has some good visuals. Character development is sloppy but maybe that's just because Pixar spoils us. It's a strange movie. In a good way. It's really funny.  

[samsong]

finally picolas and i agree on something.

blu-ray on the 5th.  can't wait.

[modage]

This was okay.  It was funny but felt like it could have been 30 minutes long.  I am spoiled by Pixar.

[picolas]

it's not pixar and it's not trying to be. it just happens to be cg and targeted at kids.

[Gold Trumpet]

I know it's not trying to be Pixar, but it should have taken from their cue. Cloudy is like other Animated CGI comedies in that it has a story that could be the skeleton of a Pixar movie, but it compacts the entire story into something so quick and fast paced that it feels like it is emulating a 30 minute tv cartoon. Things that could be elaborated on are not and the story takes convenient routes to developing plot arcs and quickly resolving them.

Pixar is better because its story emulate great movie structures. A lot of Wall E feels like a Chaplin film in not just characterization, but also structure and story. The film even gets a lot of tonal features of Chaplin correct. UP feels like the best parts of Keaton's more ambitious and lengthy films while adding on a more elaborate plot and story that Keaton couldn't dare tackle, but the point is that Pixar makes crucial story decisions to transcend the convenient 30 minute story capsule of most animated movies. Even though all other animated films are obviously longer, their basic structures are no more complex or different than a basic show.

Cloudy is fun and entertaining, but it's not memorable. I have no interest to watch it again. The film needs to transcend its conventions.

[pete]

I think it's memorable.  it's so odd and funny and has I guess a less-likable hero and less charming story, but it just makes it up with total zaniness.

[Stefen]

Everyone I recommend this to goes, "really?" then they watch it and tell me I was right.

[SiliasRuby]

[silias] i left the cinema with a big smile on my face. [/silias]

Nailed it right on the head. This had a wild, zany way about the way it was told and while I didn't think it was phenomenal, I had plenty of fun watching it.