CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 Review

Never have I been so hungry after seeing a comedy film. Thanks a lot for doing so CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2. 

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.

Meet the Foodimals in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2"

In Sony Pictures Animation’s new, 3D animated comedy “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2,” young inventor Flint Lockwood and his pals discover that the food machine is still active and is now churning out food-animal hybrids… foodimals!

“If you can find a good mix of an animal and a food that not only gives you a great design but also a cringe-worthy pun, that’s what we wanted,” says co-director Cody Cameron.

“One of the first missions we gave to Craig Kellman, our lead character designer, was go forth with those directives and show us what you got – in a weekend, he came up with a library of ridiculousness, a lot of which is still in the film: a taco plus a crocodile equals a tacodile, a watermelon plus an elephant is a watermelophant. We had to make sure we covered all of the food groups – the fruits, the vegetables, the meats – and we had certain action pieces in the film… the tacodile is one of the larger threats in the movie, and the cheespider – half cheeseburger, half spider – became the main large threat of the island, the one where you realize that something is wrong on the island. As the story developed, we came up with more and more. They’re going down the river, we found river creatures like the hippotatomus and the flamangos and the lemmins and the wild scallions.”

Cameron says, “The development of sentient food started with a conversation that [co-director] Kris Pearn and I had about what type of food we wanted in the film. After talking about pickles and strawberries, I spent a Sunday sculpting some produce and posing them in scenes in my back yard. I wanted to show what real fruits and vegetables would look like photographed in a natural environment, under sunlight,” he says. “We used that as part of our pitch.”



But that was just the beginning. “Kris and Cody came to me with the idea of the food puns – inspired by Lewis Carroll’s bread-and-butterflies – and they wanted me to see if I could come up with a bunch of those,” says Kellman. “I don’t know how many they were expecting, but in that first weekend I came up with a list of over 100 of them – and the guys laughed a lot. Some of the foodimals were created by other artists – Cody invented the watermelophants and the bananostriches, and our head of story, Brandon Jeffords, came up with the shrimpanzees. I did a lot of the really punny ones – the fruit cockatiels, the flamangoes, the susheep, the kiwi birds, the tacodile. There was no pun too stupid for me.”

“As much as they could, Cody and Craig kept the original identity of the food intact as much as possible,” says the film’s production designer, Justin K. Thompson. “We didn’t want to lose the texture and the detail that real food has – the watermelophant has the texture of a watermelon and the cantalope has the texture of a cantaloupe. As obvious as the puns are, that’s the fun – kids can recognize their favorite foods in the foodimals and be able to name them.”

“That comes from a mandate set in the first movie,” says Kellman. “Real world food can look unappealing sometimes, but all of the food in the world of “Cloudy” was idealized, like you see in commercials. So even though my original designs were kind of simplistic, children’s book renderings of the foodimals, we knew that in the end, the animators would bring them through that filter and come out more realistic – tasty and appealing, but with legs and arms and mouths and eyes.”



Since then, the foodimals have taken on a life of their own. “It’s been fun watching the animators get a hold of the foodimals,” Cameron continues. “Like the bananas – do they slip a lot? The pickles – they don’t have legs, they have little tassels that come out of the bottom, like walking on two mops. When the hippotatomus opens its mouth, steam comes out, like a baked potato. Every character, we try to find a different way to locomote – lots of variety in motion.”

“The foodimals are my favorite part of the movie,” says voice actor Faris. “The cheespiders, the hippotatomuses, the cantalopes. It’s really inventive and fun, how they gave these food creatures personalities.”



“I think Barry is the funniest character in the movie,” says actor Bill Hader. “There’s a scene in which Flint is trying to rally the troops, and Barry is behind Flint, translating what Flint’s saying, and it’s really, really funny.”

Opening across the Philippines in Oct. 9, 2013, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.

It's the Revenge of the Leftovers in "Cloudy" Sequel

The new, 3D animated comedy “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2” picks up where Sony Pictures Animation’s mouth-watering 2009 original left off. Inventor Flint Lockwood thought he saved the world when he destroyed his most infamous invention -- a machine that turned water into food causing cheeseburger rain and spaghetti tornadoes. But Flint soon learns that his invention survived and is now creating food-animals – "foodimals!" Flint and his friends embark on a dangerously delicious mission to battle hungry tacodiles, shrimpanzees, hippotatomuses, cheespiders and other foodimals to save the world – again!

Starring the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris, Terry Crews, and Kristen Schaal, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2” is directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn. Story by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller and Erica Rivinoja. Screenplay by Erica Rivinoja and John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein. Inspired by the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs written by Judi Barrett & illustrated by Ron Barrett.

Flint Lockwood and his pals discover that something big was leftover on the island of Swallow Falls. The action picks up just sixty seconds after the first film ends: Flint Lockwood has destroyed his greatest invention, the Flint Lockwood Diatomic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator, or FLDSMDFR for short. That invention was a wild success, in that it could turn water into food, and an unmitigated disaster, in that it unleashed a torrent of deadly food weather that threatened to destroy the world. Flint blew it up – or, at least, that’s what he thought.

“I love the world of Cloudy,” says Cody Cameron, who directs the film with Kris Pearn. A story board artist on the first three “Shrek” films, as well as the Sony Pictures Animation films “Surf’s Up,” the first “Cloudy,” Cameron says, “Of all the films I’ve worked on, `Cloudy' is my favorite. So to get the chance to go back and revisit the characters in this new, crazy world that we were developing made this a really exciting project for me.”




“When we started the brainstorming process, we found a very rich amount of elements to explore – not just a new adventure, but also the characters,” says Pearn, who headed up the story team on the first “Cloudy” film. “On this adventure, all of the characters get to express themselves more fully. For example, Earl, the town cop, wants to protect the home he loves so much. Manny – who was so silent through most of the first film – reveals more and more hidden sides of himself. Sam, the one person who understands Flint better than anybody else, is the one to see the island for what it is – an expression of Flint’s creativity.”

Cameron and Pearn were hand-picked to direct “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2” by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, the writers and directors of the first film. “I worked on the movie for 4½ years – the last 3½ with Phil and Chris,” says Pearn. “In the story department, you tend to have a small crew and you spend a lot of time with the directors. We got to know each other well and there was a lot of trust there. Cody and I were on the movie pretty much until the end, which is unusual, because it’s common as a film winds down to let board artists move on to other projects. So, once Phil and Chris decided they weren’t going to direct the sequel, it was an organic choice to allow us to take the reins – and not only that, but I think they saw how important it was to us to maintain the unique humor and quirkiness that made the first film so special as we embarked on the sequel.” Lord and Miller remain actively involved with the project as executive producers.



“On the first film, Phil and Chris were the first directors I’d ever worked with who treated the film like a writer’s room,” says Pearn. “Anybody with a thought that could help the film – even assistants and PAs – could pipe up. After all, a good idea can come from anywhere. We found that very helpful, and we’re keeping that going on this film. It’s very helpful when you can trust the crew and there’s a give-and-take in how the show is run.”

Lord and Miller say, “Kris and Cody were great collaborators on the first film and we loved working with them to bring these fun, unique characters back to life. The final result is a beautiful, stylized, funny film and we are thrilled that the Cloudy franchise has continued on in the hands of so many great people.”

Opening across the Philippines in Oct. 9, 2013, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.

Terry Crews' Character Channels Old Spice Powers for CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2

I'm willing to bet that the guys behind CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 are big fans of Terry Crews' OLD SPICE commercials as evidenced in this new clip. 

Here's the clip I was talking about...

Of course we'll all miss Mr. T who originally played Earl Deveaux in the first movie.

"Cloudy" also features the voice of Bill Hader, Anna Farris and Neil Patrick Harris. 

Meet the Colorful Characters from Dreamwork's TURBO

“Turbo” (in 3D and 2D) is a heart-stopping action adventure with lively characters starring the voices of Ryan Reynolds as Theo/Turbo, Paul Giamatti as Chet, Samuel L. Jackson as Whiplash, Snoop Dogg as Smoove Move, Maya Rudolph as Burn, Ben Schwartz as Skidmark, Mike Bell as White Shadow, Michael Peña as Tito, Luis Guzman as Angelo, Bill Hader as Guy Gagne, Ken Jeong as Kim Ly and Michelle Rodriguez as Paz.

The family film from DreamWorks Animation centers on the engaging crew of snails starting with a garden snail named Turbo who leaves his snail community behind to begin his journey to fulfill his dream of becoming a racer in the Indy 500. Swept from a freeway overpass onto the hood of a sports car, and is then propelled into the muscle car’s air intake valve, Turbo is then charged with explosive nitrous oxide, altering his molecular structure. The freak accident infuses Turbo with incredible speed – he can reach 200 miles per hour – and he now blazes across the streets of Los Angeles like a neon bullet.

Along the way, Turbo and his brother Chet meet new snails who help achieve his dream of joining the Indy 500 race.

Check out “Turbo’s Snail Crew” clip here - http://youtu.be/7OOCo1phfxo

CHET

Turbo’s cautious, protective and supportive brother voiced by multi award winning actor Paul Giamatti. Chet is a snail who is a stick-in-the-mud and do-everything-by-the-rules kind of guy. His philosophy is: “Do not try to leave your shell or do anything risky. ’I am not a risk-taker. I am ‘Mr. Safety’.”

WHIPLASH

The charismatic leader and reigning champ of the Racing Snails voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. A warm jovial guy who treats his crew like family who helps Turbo realize his dream. Whiplash has great inspiring abilities. He's able to rally people around him and to make them think that they're capable of doing things that they ordinarily wouldn't be able to do.

SMOOVE MOVE

The Zen-like, laid back racing snail voiced by multi-platinum artist, actor and entertainment icon Snoop Dogg. A super-cool-low-rider with a blinged-out shell whose motto is derived from what his mamma taught him “Don’t mess with what you’ve been blessed with. I’m S-to-the-M-to-the-double- O-V-E! Wouldn’t change that for the world! Preach.”

BURN

Burn is the only female in the crew voiced by SNL icon Maya Rudolph. A toughie who doesn’t have trouble holding her own amidst the testosterone-fueled, speed-worshipping teammates. Sly and sassy and always chewing gum, Burn hides her soft side under a hard outer shell (adorned with shooting flames).

SKIDMARK

Skidmark or Number 13, this master of skids is voiced by Ben Schwartz. Sentimental and gravity-defiant, his shell is souped-up like a dragster prone to make long skidding noises.

WHITE SHADOW

White Shadow resembles an intriguing cross between Jabba the Hut and Evel Knievel voiced by Mike Bell (a former DreamWorks Animation storyboard artist who initially done the temp voice but the short-term gig became a co-starring voice role due to the perfect voice initially rendered). Full of false bravado and real laughs, White Shadow considers himself to be “fast, like a shadow” – ignoring the fact that shadows aren’t inherently fast. White Shadow prefers to be mysterious and his dream is to have a burrito named after him to be called White Shadorrito.

Turbo 3D - High Velocity Animation

Meet Turbo (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), an underdog snail who dreams to overdrive just like his idol who races in the Indy 500. At the start, Turbo is somewhat of an outcast in the snail community, which is less about big dreams and more about punching a time clock at their place of employment.

Training tirelessly all his life, he miraculously gained speed at an opportune time he met a crew of streetwise, tricked-out es-car-goes. Learning that no one can make it on their own in the fast lane. He and his newfound pals help each other achieve their impossible dream of racing in the Indy 500.

"Turbo," says director and co-screenwriter David Soren, is a mash-up of superhero and racing film genres, but “at its heart, TURBO really is an underdog story. The character Turbo has all the hallmarks of an underdog. You expect nothing of snails, whose lives are stacked with obstacles, like being really, really slow. But once you dig into it, a snail is the perfect character to have at the center of an underdog story.”

But turning an everyday, garden snail into a mighty mollusk who travels at super-speed? “Turbo’s dream of becoming something that’s completely in opposition to its nature is ripe for conflict, surprises and a satisfying payoff” when the dream becomes reality,” says Soren.

Soren came up with the idea for "Turbo" almost a decade ago. He described it to DreamWorks Animation management at one of the company’s “pitch program” conclaves, at which DreamWorks employees can pitch their ideas for possible future projects. “At the time it was a very complex idea – the ‘Fast and Furious with Snails,’” he remembers.

As he developed the idea, Soren was inspired by events and people very close to home. His primary muse, he notes, “was my young son, who since before he could talk has been obsessed with toy cars and racing, and could identify virtually any car on the street by its make and model.”

Soren also found motivation in his own front yard, which had a “snail problem” that was eating away at his tomato plants. “This marriage of the slow [the snails] and speed [his son’s preoccupation] was the catalyst that led me to the bones of the story centered on a snail who dreams of racing glory.”

Luckily,the requisite comedic and dramatic acting chops, and bigger-than-life persona, are embodied by Ryan Reynolds, whom Soren describes as “the perfect match” for Turbo. “It all really sounded amazing, and I fell in love with its classic underdog story, which TURBO takes to a new level,” Reynolds continues. “It takes a unique if not insane perspective to bring a snail to life in this way. What I love most about Turbo is his tenacity and refusal to give up on his dream. In fact, it doesn’t even occur to him to give up. Talent is a collision between hard work and luck, and that’s what Turbo is.”

"Turbo" also features a stellar voice cast including Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Luis Guzman, Bill Hader, Snoop Dogg, Maya Rudolph and Ben Schwartz.

"Turbo" (3D) opens July 19 in theaters nationwide from DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.