Flint Lockwood is at it again, this time he needs to go back to his Swallow Falls to find his invention, the FLDSMDFR, which has survived the first encounter. Now Flint re-assembles his friends and ventures back to the Swallow Falls to turn his invention off once and for all.
There's a ton of things to love about 'Cloudy'.
The characterization for all the characters was great particularly for Sam Sparks who does not settle for being the typical 'damsel in distress' chick in animated movies. She's smart and sassy(pants) and is the voice of reason for the group. Flint Lockwood however takes the cake here as he's experiencing new stuff when he gets hired to work in LiveCorp, the company built by his idol, Chester V (played by SNL Alumnus Will Forte).
The film for all it's entirety is colorful, bright and wonderful. Kinda makes you think of happy thoughts for the entire 2 hours that the film is running. And it's not limited to the former Swallow Falls as even the animators made it possible to make a dull and boring looking San Franjose, California a spectacle.
The cuteness factor also gets jacked up in this movie to the next level. Felt like the minions from Despicable Me 2 was cute, wait till you get a load of the animals here in the film such as Barry the Berry.
Another great thing about 'Cloudy' is that it rarely relied on slapstick humor to get people laughing. Oh and let's not even dabble too much on the puns, this movie's just full of it.
This moment alone passes for gold as Flint's dad, the technophobic Tim Lockwood tells Flint that he's got the situation and that said situation is a piece of cake with which the camera pans right to reveal a cake who just shrugs at the mention and attention. I guess that comes off from the comedic caliber of the cast which includes SNL guys like Bill Hader, Will Forte and Andy Samberg, Anna Farris and Barney Stinson himself, Neil Patrick Harris.
Like a double edged sword, this factor could be a bad thing as the Pinoy audience grew up and prefer slapstick humor in their animated features. I mean, seriously, the screening I attended last night had kids who were either perplexed by the puns or just missed the whole punchline. But the adults sure loved it.
Then there was Terry Crew's character (and my namesake) Earl Deveaux. Originally voiced in the first movie by Mr. T, Crews takes over and brings some manliness to the film and at the same time carries over some OLD SPICE humor into the scene. Seriously pay attention to whenever the focus goes to Earl and you'll know what I mean.
"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" might just be the freshest and most-natural animated feature film I've seen this year. It's clever and new and breaks the mold of family-oriented movies.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 is now showing and is distributed locally by COLUMBIA PICTURES PHILIPPINES.
Movie looks adorable. You've convinced me it would be 2 hours well spent, with or without your kids.
ReplyDelete