Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2: The Foodening

     I’m going to get this right out of the way.  Yes, this movie is good.  It is more than good, it was great.  It completely holds up as a sequel and as a movie in it’s own right.  There’s a healthy amount of adventure, character building, and (most of all) comedy.  They didn’t reheat any jokes that had become stale, and new jokes were fresh and tasty.  New characters abound, all well-rounded.  If you have a kid, treat them.  If you don’t have a kid, steal borrow one or just go it solo.  This is a movie designed to apeel to both adults and kids (Okay, that last one was bad. I’ll stop.)

     Flynn Lockwood and the gang are back on Flyspeck Island (And how much do I love they basically found a way to name something ‘Poop Island’ and get away with it).  They’re trying to find the FLDSMDFR, which has somehow begun to make living food (No, it’s never revealed how that happened) and turn it off before the food destroys the only monument that wasn’t destroyed in the last film: Lady Liberty. (Yes, this is Flynn’s entire motivation for stopping the living food).  Once there, they encounter a smorgasbord of living food-related puns and sight-gags (sorry, not sorry).

     All of this you’ve seen in the adverts and previews.  BUT!  There’s actually a whole ton of other things going on in this movie.  From Tim Lockwood’s ever-frustrating lack of cohesion with his son, to a whole new villain with his own talking monkey ape.  Where the first movie’s themes centered around believing in yourself and not worrying about what other people think of you, this movie doubles back and reminds you that it’s okay to ask for help from the people who love you and the importance of friendship.  I know that sounds hackneyed, but it’s done in a well-written and true-to-itself way.

The only thing I would change about these movies is the latent fat-phobia.  Last time the mayor was fat and evil, this time Brent is fat and stupid(er than even before).  But having one gripe coming out of not one, but two movies meant for kids (and therefore not to be dissected so much so says the mainstream) is more of a triumph than a failure.

I would gladly go see this movie again, and will be adding the DVD to my personal collection.  Not to mention I totally need a Barry plush.

emooooooo

Author: Lady Malchav

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