Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs Trailer Whets Our Appetite For Cheeseburger Rain
Brace yourself for a storm of foodie delights, with the Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs trailer. Featuring Flint (new character), and his invention that makes the skies rain treats, plus Mr. T's in it.
Flint, a failed scientist, finally gets it right with an invention that makes food pour out of the skies. Until things go disastrously wrong, and the food starts pummeling pedestrians, with donuts and worse.
There are so many things they got right about this adaptation (which I'd feared the worst for, because it's my favorite bedtime tale). First off, they got Bill Hader to voice the main character, which means I'm going to see the movie no matter what. But it's also got the vocal talents of Bruce Campbell, Anna Faris, James Caan, Tracy Morgan, and Mr. T. So you know this movie means business.
Next on the list of great things about this movie is the fact that the CG (which is executed in a cute style) is quite similar to the awesome illustrations from the original book by Ron Barrett, as you can see from the trailer, plus the image below. Also, the scene where the spaghetti splats on the open-air restaurant-goers — and of course, the scenes of the pancake atop the school — are all included in the original work, as written by Judi Barrett.
And finally, the adapted story is really adorable: just look at Hader's running TV set. Also, this is one of the first films that I feel actually deserves its 3D production, because who doesn't want to stand under a storm of mashed potatoes?
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs will be in theaters September 18th.
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I have to say, I'm in the "it doesn't need a mad inventor plot" camp. The book as a whole actually had more substance than people give it credit for, and half of the fun was see how they used the "regular" food weather in their daily lives. Next we're probably going to see a generic love interest this "Flint" needs to win over with an amazing invention, etc... etc... And soon the movie becomes another typical production with a little "food as weather" twist thrown in.
Honestly, this feels just like any story, or movie, or tv show that happens to be set in a science fiction setting for no discernible reason, and then ignores said setting in every meaningful way beyond a few "ooh shiny" moments. The original story was all about what life was like in a land where food rained down naturally, and what it might be like when that went wrong. Isn't that enough to tell a story with?