Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Het Regent Gehaktballen (2009)

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Het Regent Gehaktballen (2009)

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Flint Lockwood thinks he's a genius. But none of the things he invented are things that make sense or are useful. However, he has the support of his mother but when she dies, he's left alone with his father who thinks he should give it up. When the community that he lives in, is in an economic crisis because their primary source of income a sardine cannery was shut down, Flint decides to try his latest invention, a machine that can turn water into food. But something goes wrong and the machine ends up in the atmosphere. Later it starts raining food. And so the shifty mayor tries to use this as a way to help their community. But when Flint sense something's wrong with the machine, the mayor convinces him to ignore it. But as Flint predict chaos ensues.

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Het Regent Gehaktballen (2009)

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Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is een mislukte uitvinder, die met creaties als een apengedachtenvertaler helaas weinig succes oogst. Tot hij op een dag een machine uitvindt die ervoor zorgt dat het donuts, ijsjes en gehaktballen regent. De enige vriend en collega van Flint is Steve, een aapje dat alleen maar aan eten denkt. Sam (Anna Farris) is een enthousiaste stagiaire die voor een weerstation werkt. Ze droomt er van om een professionele weervrouw te worden en die droom zou wel eens werkelijkheid kunnen worden wanneer ze als enige bericht over een bui van cheeseburgers.

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Het Regent Gehaktballen (2009)

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Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is an inventor of oddball and impractical gadgets, including spray-on shoes that never come off meant to solve the "untied laces" epidemic. His mother encourages his dreams, and years later, Flint is on the verge of a breakthrough: a device that will turn water into any type of food imaginable, a desperately-needed gadget on the small island of Swallow Falls, located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (underneath the "A" in "Atlantic," in fact) and where sardines are the only thing available to eat. When it turns out that Flint's device is in need of more power to work, his father Tim (James Caan) instructs his son to give up on his dreams and come to work at his fish store. Undeterred, Flint finds the necessary power but inadvertently launches the food-making device into Earth's atmosphere during the town mayor's (Bruce Campbell) grand unveiling of a new scheme to attract tourists to the dull island. Soon thereafter, a pickle falls from the sky, and then a piece of cheese. No sooner can anyone say "meat patty" do thousands of scrumptious cheeseburgers begin falling from the sky.

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Het Regent Gehaktballen (2009)

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A weather network intern sent to cover the town's festivities, Sam (Anna Faris), finds herself broadcasting the biggest meteorological story of her life while at the same time falling for fellow "nerd" Flint. It doesn't take long for the mayor to use the falling food to his advantage (and to the detriment of his waistline) in promoting the town as the world's hottest tourist attraction. However, things turn messy, and not from the gallons of hot fudge pouring from the sky; Flint's invention is producing ever-larger food, and as the town quickly comes to realize that too much of any good thing has a net negative impact, it's up to Flint, Sam, and friends to stop the food before it devours the entire planet.

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Het Regent Gehaktballen (2009)

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A film made by "a lot of people," Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is as scrumptious as a five-course meal; it's hip and happening with plenty of action and genuine laugh-out-loud humor, all surrounded by a heart that puts plenty of other and more ambitious pictures to shame. Indeed, it's Meatballs' effortless approach that makes it such a winner. Not a picture with lofty goals, the film nevertheless works far better than many others of its kind thanks to a wholly genuine and wholesome approach to its material. It's never pretentious, forced, or preachy.

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Het Regent Gehaktballen (2009)

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The simple life lessons that revolve around overindulgence and the negative side effects incurred when there's too much of a good thing are well-shrouded underneath layers of fun and originality, gadgets and gizmos, a light romance, well-developed primary characters, plenty of food, and heartfelt drama that's perfectly entwined into the story's humor and larger-than-life visuals. Whether physical comedy and accentuated visual gags or more subtle humor that older audiences may very well find just as appealing as the more obvious fun, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs takes full advantage of its setting, characters, and story, the result a film with nary a dull second intermixed with purposeful drama and sincere father-son moments that just might bring a tear to the eye, and not simply from a stray house-sized onion, either.

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Het Regent Gehaktballen (2009)

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From a technical perspective, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is just as impressive as its fun and honest story. The film's animation is top-notch, with characters, locations, and, of course, the food all wonderfully realized and exceptionally detailed. Swallow Falls never once feels artificial but instead organic and real, whether during the early "calm before the storm" moments or in the midst of falling steak, cake, or clam bake. Additionally, each character is wonderfully designed; no two people look alike, and each is given a physical appearance that compliments their personality nicely. Some are tall and lanky, others short and rotund; some have squared and large noses, others but a hint of a sniffer.

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Het Regent Gehaktballen (2009)

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The digital artists have taken care to design each character with love and attention to detail, each complimented by seamless voice acting that never screams out "actor" but rather meshes from the first syllable to the last with the voice cast's respective characters. Such names and recognizable voices as those belonging to James Caan, Bruce Campbell, and Mr. T are never once easily identifiable in the midst of the movie; that's a compliment to the talent of the actors, the strength of the script, and Meatballs' perfectly-balanced approach that never accentuates anything but the food and smartly places story, purposeful dialogue, heartfelt drama, and plenty of laughs ahead of haphazardly forcing name voices into the movie.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman