Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 Satisfies Your Craving

In a Nutshell:  "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2".  Swallow Falls has evolved into an island inhabited of living food creatures, triggered by a machine that young scientist Flint Lockwood designed in the first movie.  Flint returns to his former home with a crew of endearing characters in order to restore the island to normalcy before the food-beings swim onto the mainland and destroy it as well (a la Jurassic Park.)

Things I liked:  The animation is colorful, detailed, and very imaginative.  I can just picture the film designers sitting around a board room table, brainstorming all of the inventive food creatures in the movie which include watermelephant, susheep, shrimpanzee, flamangos, bananostrich, cheesespider, and more.  Most of them are pretty clever and creative.  I love the way the dad’s eyebrows cover his eyes and show all of the expression on his face.  He is voiced by the legendary James Caan. Barry the Strawberry leads the cute factor in the movie.  The little sounds he makes are sure to please every little girl in the audience.

Things I didn’t like:  Be prepared for lots and lots of food puns.  You had to know it was coming.  Some are witty like when the dad captains a small vessel and yells “There’s a leak in the boat!”  The camera then zooms over to a little green leek who yells back at the dad, equally frightened.  Some of the food puns will make you laugh and roll your eyes at the same time, such as “It’s jammed!”, “We’re toast!” or “This is totally bananas!”  If you liked the first movie, there really isn’t much you won’t like in this delicious sequel.

Uplifting theme:  It’s hard to say, really.  The efforts of Flint and his friends don’t really reign in the mayhem on the island, but somehow it’s ok in the end.  There is an evil character (SPOILER ALERT) who appears good, but his greedy motivations are revealed in the end.  So, the moral of the story?  Be kind?  Try hard?  Have loyal friends?

Funny line:  Many of the funny lines are spoken by the beloved cop Earl Devereaux, voiced by Terry Crews, such as “I’m not a barista…I’m a polista” and  “Police tape – the one thing I can’t break.”  The kids in the audience I sat in squealed with laughter when he repeats a phrase from the first movie “It’s enough to make a grown man cry, but not this man…get back in there, tear!”  He’s so tough he can force his own tears to return to his eyeball, and make chest hairs to grow on demand. 

Things to look for:   - The pickle who wears fishing lures as earrings.

                                   - Watch for the “Cheese, Grommit” hand motion when you hear

                                      someone say “It’s made of cheese!”  (I loved the Wallace &

                                     Grommit shorts.)

                                   -  Simon, the Electronic Memory Game

Tips for parents:   It’s easy as pie to enjoy this movie.  If you’ve seen the first “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, then you’re already familiar with most of the characters and know what you’re in for…lots of silliness and chuckles.  There is no bad language or inappropriate material, unless you’re offended when it’s announced that someone cut the cheese.

Grade: B+