“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2”
Directed by Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn
Starring Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Will Forte, Andy Sanberg, Benjamin Bratt, Neill Patrick Harris, Terry Crews, Kristen Schaal
Animation, Comedy, Family
95 Mins
PG

Behind the frothy purple food clouds and impeccably realized spaghetti-and-meatballs tornado, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs stood out of the crowd with pithy one-liners and a boldly farcical approach to an animated film. While there was plenty for everyone – with crisp animation and action beats keeping the kiddies thoroughly involved – many of the jokes seemed aimed directly at the 18-and-over crowd. In a lot of ways, it wasn’t a “kids” movie at all – it was a sharp comedy masquerading as a family feature.

It’s cast patched together from SNL greats alongside a host of smart casting choices such as Anna Faris, James Caan, and Bruce Campbell, there was a rich palette of vocal iconography at play that helped bring to life the emotional gravitas beneath the quick-firing zingers. Though perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, this first installment amply folded bouts of comedy, artistry, and just enough emotional oomph to dish up a surprisingly delicious product, while Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 just crams all the scraps in a blender and serves up that breed of casserole that everyone knows is made exclusively from leftovers.

Following the events of the first film, the folks of Swallow Falls have to relocate from their food-infested island to allow for a government cleanup (on aisle three). After a long stint back on the mainland, Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is put in charge of an expedition to locate his lost food-creating satellite, the Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator (or FLDSMDFR for short), by his childhood hero Chester V (Will Forte). When Flint arrives on the island though, he realizes that not only is his machine still in full effect but that it has begun to create life in the form of foodimals.

From the hippotatomus to shrimpanzees, and in the immortal words of Jurassic Park‘s John Hammond… life has found a way. Aided by his friends and family, Flint seeks to destroy the machine and eliminate the threat of the foodimals, particularly the devilish Cheesespider and an imposing Tacodile Supreme. While food puns like these keep the film feeling fresh, the delivery is often hung up. Instead of just letting the jokes flood out, they are set up for a younger audience who probably won’t appreciate the puns in the first place. Instead of just coming out with it, they add the pieces together like an equation from Dora the Explorer. “A chimpanzee and a shrimp? A shrimpanzee!” Had they stuck with the quick-witted, fast-slinging formula of the first installment, there’s no doubt these puns would have landed with uproarious laughter rather than meek chuckles.

We learned from our first meeting with him that Chester V is as nefarious as he is a riff on Steve Jobs and soon his manipulation of Flint opens a rift in Flint’s many other relationships. And yes, I mentioned Steve Jobs so let’s take a moment to dive into the comparison: Chester V is a tyrant of the industry, having turned his product, the FoodBar, into a must-have for every consumer. For a bar of food, the similarities with the iPhone are many, especially if you look at the wave of excitement resulting from the announcements of the FoodBar 2.0 in the past up to the most recent 8.0 version. The company logo is a light bulb, similarly fashioned in the Apple logo’s minimalist, pure-white style. Furthermore, an apple itself is one of the only fruits not personified on the island. A coincidence? I think not.

Why there are obvious blaring parallels between a villainous animated character and a deceased tech-giant is hard to pinpoint but the Hollywood presentation of Jobs has been not too kind following his demise. While the film never quite owns up to its riffing on Jobs, the storyline doesn’t really lead anywhere interesting, which makes it all the more disappointing.

Instead of upping the ante and addressing a new set of challenges, CWACOM2 took the easy route (or should I say gumdrop path?) and it resulted in a sparsely entertaining follow-up. Everything just feels second-rate and nonsensical. Even small details like replacing Mr. T with Terry Crews, having Will Forte voice a different character than he did before, and abandoning Bruce Campbell’s mayor character is metaphorical of the shift in quality. Couple that with the fact that directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller were replaced by rookies Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn and the sinking caliber all starts to make sense. Unlike the first, this is a movie for kids that adults won’t really be able to relish in.

As we learned in CWACOM 1, genius comes with a price. For all the short-term success of Flint’s FLDSMDFR, the resulting chaos proved too hefty a bill to pay – in many ways, embodying a similar message to Jurassic Park. That is – you shouldn’t play God. For however high you rise, the fall will inevitably come. The same can be said for this half-baked sequel. While number one took us to the top, this second is the inevitable plunge back into the realm of the mediocre. In the footsteps of its predecessor, it is marginally entertaining but majorly disappointing. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.