Inspired by Ron and Judi Barrett's beloved children's book of the same name, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS follows inventor Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader) and brainy weathergirl Sam Sparks (voice of Anna Faris) as they attempt to discover why the rain in their small town has stopped while food is falling in its place. Meanwhile, lifelong bully Brent (voice of Adam Samberg) relishes in tormenting Flint just as he did when they were kids, and Mayor Shelbourne (voice of Bruce Campbell) schemes to use Flint's latest invention--a device designed to improve everyone's lives--for his own personal gain. Mr. T. voices by-the-books cop Earl Devereaux, and James Caan voices Flint's technophobe father, Tim

SHORT REVIEW

Inspired by Ron and Judi Barrett's beloved children's book of the same name, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs follows inventor Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader) and a brainy weathergirl (voice of Anna Faris) as they attempt to discover why the rain in their small town has stopped, and food is falling in its place. Meanwhile, lifelong bully Brent (voice of Andy Samberg) relishes in tormenting Flint like he did when they were kids, and Mayor Shelbourne (voice of Bruce Campbell) schemes to use Flint's latest invention -- a device designed to improve everyone's lives -- for his own personal gain.

Starring, Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell , Mr. T , Bobb'e J. Thompson , Benjamin Bratt , Neil Patrick Harris , Al Roker , Lauren Graham , Will Forte.

Directed by Chris Miller, Phil Lord.

well this is a sweet and funny animated movie based on a children book. it is very age appropriate, i remember seeing it with fun and specially the 2nd half was very entertaining and adventurous. however this movie didn't totally satisfied me. Critics really liked it which is weird because i didn't thought it was that great.

good concept and plot that doesn't begin quite good but end up very nice. Screenplay was okay. animation was pretty average. it has some nice moments. some touching lovely moments and that food disaster was awsome. it is funny but not very silly. voiceovers weren't that great.

it is funny, clever, entertaining family animated movie which isn't great but you will have a good time.

it's been a long time since i've laughed til i cried... the movie itself, kept my 2-year-old's attention... the snowball scene will be one of my favorites for along time (it even had my husband and bro-in-law laughing)! the movie overall is a hilarious kid flick delivering an empathetic message of morals, family and love... i'm going to recommend everyone i know with small children! 4sho!

Sony Pictures Animation's acclaimed comedy ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'' began life in 1978 as a children's book written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett, which now has over a million copies in print. With its charming, visually inventive style, absurdist sense of humor, and fantastic premise - a town where food falls from the sky! - it seemed a foregone conclusion that the book would be adapted into an animated movie. But no one was quite able to do it until writer-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller came along and found inspiration from a seemingly obvious source - the book itself.

''It's a hilarious book and great inspiration,'' says Miller - noting that it was their favorite book as kids. ''The film we wrote starts with the book's overall structure - there's a town where food falls like rain, but that turns out to have great problems for the people - and builds from there. We get to find out the origins of how the town came to be Chewandswallow and follow an ensemble of unique characters through this crazy adventure.''

''We thought, wow, that would be a great action movie,'' says Lord. ''All of the events in the film would be very, very silly, but the characters would take them all very, very seriously.''

And you'd take it seriously, too, if a giant spaghetti tornado threatened your town, as it does to Chewandswallow. `Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' represents the ultimate in food fun and mayhem.

''I always had the feeling that this would make a great animated movie, and it turns out, Sony Pictures Animation did, too,'' says Judi Barrett, the author of the original book. ''Though it needed stretching and development in length, characters, and plot, they saw all its wonderful possibilities. The end results are extraordinary - in fact, they're mind-boggling.''

One of the changes the filmmakers chose for the film is the look of the story itself. ''The idea for the film was so silly, we felt that we needed the look to be silly,'' says Miller. ''Animation often requires exaggerated poses to convey the emotion of the scene, so we went with a look - big eyes, big mouths, big expressions - that gave the film an emotionally heightened feeling.''

Still, it seemed natural to the filmmakers to tip their hats to the book by re-creating some of its most memorable images - a giant Jell-O mold, a giant pancake settling over a school, a sandwich sailing ship, and several other images made their way into the film as the writer-directors built a new story around them.

In creating their new story for the film, the filmmakers would also invent a new cast of characters. At the center is Flint Lockwood, the wannabe inventor who yearns to invent something that will make people happy. And Flint 's town is unhappy - since the sardine-canning factory closed down, all they have to eat are the gross leftover sardines.

So, Flint invents something to solve that problem - a machine that turns water into food. And when it actually works, '' Flint goes from being an outcast to the hero of the town,'' says Miller.

''And Flint rolls with it,'' continues Lord. '''Well, I didn't mean for this to happen, but this is great!' Then, of course, it all starts to go wrong...''

You ever had that dream where on an early Summer morning you step outside of your house, you look in the sky and there is this giant 20ft hotdog plummeting at high velocity towards you and then you get crushed by said hotdog? No? Oh just me then.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is the latest 3D family movie from Sony Pictures Animation that takes this concept of giant food falling out of the sky and convolutes an entire 90 minute plot out of it. In fact, the origins of this movie comes from the Judi Barret children’s book of the same name back in 1978 but on with the story…

The movie opens with young kindergartner whizzkid inventer Flint Lockwood presenting his new device to his classmates during a show-and-tell – spray-on rubber shoes. The class are initally awestruck until the class bully points out a major fault – the shoes are permanently stuck! Throughout the years, adult Flint (an excellent Bill Hader) develops more and more contraptions each with their imperfections causing evermore disapprovement from his technophobe father (as voiced by James Caan) until one day he invents a machine that causes food to fall from the sky.

Back to the movie, I would consider Meatballs one of the finest family movies I’ve seen in a while, it entertains the kids but crucially keeps the adults charmed too. Did I mention that I watched this entire movie in 3D?? I mean, these monster pizzas were in my FACE at some points!