Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – Parent Movie Review by Southern Outdoor Cinema
MPAA RATING: PG
GENRE: Animated / Children
Flint Lockwood is just your average everyday genius who creates unusual gadgets as he continues to chase that one invention that will change his life forever. In the process, Flint creates several gadgets that get him close to his goal but always leave him just short of his dreams. After a long stream of what seemed to be failed inventions, Flint creates his Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator, and life as he knows it changes forever.
World hunger becomes a thing of the past as Flint’s new invention seems to do exactly what its name says it can do. Simply place tap water into the machines opening at the top and tasty food comes out of the opening at the bottom. It’s as easy as that and Flint couldn’t be happier with his most valuable of inventions.
Just as Flint begins to get used to his new life as a successful inventor, things go completely wrong and his new food replicator goes crazy. Instead of ordinary rain falling from the sky, the town gets covered with gravy with mountains of hamburgers and mashed potatoes on the side. Flint’s success quickly turns to failure and in embarrassment, Flint begins cleaning up the mess that his new invention has made of the town.
Just when things seem to be at their worst, along comes Chester V, scientist and hero to Flint. In a shocking gesture of goodwill, Chester V offers to help Flint clean up his mess while providing the town’s residents with a new place to live until the job is complete. He also offers Flint a position in his company, LifeCorp, which couldn’t make Flint happier. You see, LifeCorp is a company where only the smartest of the smart are employed and for Flint, this is just another step in his journey to success.
Flint has a couple of additional reasons for his incredible desire to succeed in that he wants to make his girlfriend Sam proud, and give his dad a reason to hold his head up high when walking through town. Keeping his friends around wouldn’t be a bad thing either but the embarrassment caused by his most recent invention didn’t help much in that area.
Meanwhile, the food machine that went from incredible invention to catastrophic event creator overnight was thought to be out of order for good. The problem is that it wasn’t and Flint’s nightmare of a creation is now creating food shaped animal monsters and worse still is the fact that they have come to life. Flint isn’t left with much time to come up with a plan as the food monsters are on their way to the new location of the town’s residents and at a pretty good pace.
Flint is left with but one option and that is to find his nightmarish invention and destroy it before it can do any more harm. But can Flint accomplish the task before the monstrous food creations get to him? That is the question and that is the quest that Flint finds himself on in the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.
Positive Elements
There is a strong emphasis on friendship as the friendship between Flint and Brent is tested by Chester V. While one Chinese proverb is used in an attempt to break up their friendship, another is used to show that friendships are more precious and valuable than anything else in life.
Flint and his dad continue to work on their relationship as they focus on encouraging one another. They find that this is most important in those times when things seem to be at their worst and as they continue to encourage each other, their relationship grows stronger.
The relationship between Sam and Flint grows stronger throughout the movie. The importance of their commitment to one another becomes evident as they progress from personal relationship to business partnership.
Negative Elements
The movie has several moments that seem to produce a more negative outlook on the overall storyline. One dad finds himself getting hit by a softball in the crotch which brings about more of an uncomfortable moment than anything else. Someone passes gas (or so it seems) while cutting a piece of cheese. There is a scene where a live strawberry is left shooting out jam while in the middle of a frightening situation.
Spiritual Elements
The Hindi Salutation “namaste” is used in a number of scenes not only by Chester V, but by several of his staff members in the company.
After Flint’s invention goes crazy for the second time and creates living ferocious food animals, several statements are made referring to the fact that they need their creator in order to survive (in reference to the food machine). All of the food animals seem to die once the machine is turned off.
Violent Elements
There are quite a few scenes that involve the foodimals chasing and attacking people basically resulting in lots of lettuce, sprayed cheese and special sauce being spilled. In the end however, it is the foodimals that help fight off the robot like creatures. Flint’s dad is forced to deal with abuse from many of Flint’s inventions. Flint and many of his friends slap each other in an attempt to kill bothersome insects.
Sexual Elements
Flint and his girlfriend kiss in several scenes during the movie.
Drug & Alcohol Elements
While literal drugs are not evident in the film, caffeine seems to be a popular item as a number of LifeCorp employees are encouraged to stay high and awake on it.
Conclusion
Friendships seem to be the underlying tone throughout this cute little movie and it places a strong emphasis on how even past enemies can make wonderful friends. In fact, it shows that it is more likely for a past “enemy turned friend” to stick around through those tough moments in life. This is how Flint finds the strength to make it through the toughest moment in his life.
While there might be a few crude and seemingly improper moments spread out through the film, they are laid out in a way that presents them as cute and funny which can be both a good and a not so good thing. The main thing to keep in mind is that the overall message is one of the benefits of committing to those we love and care for. Even with the mixed in raw and quirky moments, we see the story behind the story.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is a fun flick for the entire family to watch.
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Southern Outdoor Cinema
About Paul B. Murray
Paul is founder of Southern Outdoor Cinema, an outdoor cinema event production company and a dad to 2 pre-teen girls. When he is is not traveling to create outdoor movie nights for communities, he is spending time playing board games, reading books and of course watching movies with his girls.
