The Ultra Fem

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs —

...was actually a pretty good movie! I smiled and laughed all the way through it. That's VERY unusual. The story was pretty thin, and there was too much emphasis on the hero trying to gain his father's approval, but it was entertaining and the jokes were funny. Most movies, especially animated movies, don't meet even those two simple criteria. (They couldn't resist throwing in ONE monkey-poop gag, though.)

The movie is in 3-D, and just like every other 3-D movie I've ever seen, there was no reason for it to be. It's just a gimmick. I mean, it didn't contribute to the story. It was probably the most effective 3-D I've ever seen, but again, no reason for it. The most creative and impressive uses of the 3-D design were during the closing credits, where all the animation was highly stylized into flat cut-outs floating past each other. Why couldn't the whole movie be like that??

Another couple of things about the closing credits: there was a song called Raining Sunshine which reminded me of the theme from Xanadu (which is a good thing), and there was a brief, meaningless tribute to Yellow Submarine, of all things. Why?? I mean, I liked it, but...??

Oh, and as all the characters paraded past the screen in amusing little vignettes, there was one brief appearance by a woman who appeared to be a floating ghost, and she had Lauren Graham's name beside her. "Who was THAT supposed to be?" I wondered. So I watched for Lauren Graham's name in the final scrolling credits, and she had played the hero's mother at the beginning of the film, who of course died when he was child. So they put her in the credits as a ghost?? Weird!!!!

UPDATE!
After reading a little about the original book, I can see why fans of the book are not happy with the movie. It doesn't appear to have anything at all to DO with the book... other than food falling from the sky.

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