It’s a rare sequel that can take the best of the original
and come up with a creative follow-up.
“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2” has an engaging voice cast and
hordes of ‘Foodimals’ that keep this movie rolling along (as long as you don’t
think too hard about story coherence). The movie picks up moments after the
conclusion of the first Cloudy With a
Chance of Meatballs. After stopping a natural disaster from wiping out his
home of Swallow Falls, Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is ready to start his own
lab with his friend Sam (Anna Faris), his father (James Caan), local cop Earl
(Terry Crews), the local bully now a friend Brent (Andy Samberg) and Sam’s
cameraman Manny (Benjamin Bratt). But then Flint’s childhood hero Chester V
(Will Forte doing is evil best) arrives to recruit Flint for his tech
conglomerate LIVE Corp. Soon Chester’s motives become apparent: he wants
Flint’s food machine (the FLDSMDFR), capable of producing any good out of a few
drops of water, for himself. Since it’s stuck in the middle of Swallow Falls,
Chester sends Flint to get it and a journey into an edible Jurassic Park
begins.
Swallow Falls is overrun with animal/food hybrids with
predictably groan-worthy names: Bananostriches, Wildabeets, Watermelephants and
flocks of Fruit Cockatiels. Then there’s Barry, an anthropomorphized strawberry
who speaks adorable gibberish and a crew of fishing pickles (who are quite
cute). But my favorites are the Tacodile, Shrimpanzee and Cheespider. There’s a
lot going on and kids especially will appreciate all of the food puns (e.g.,
there’s a leek in my boat!). The colors and animation are engaging and it’s
certainly worth seeing in 3D. “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2” is strange,
colorful and wildly cute. 9/21/13
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