Inside Out (2015): Pixar Back in Action

Pixar was the gold standard of animation for the dozen years after the Disney Renaissance petered out, from about the time of "Monsters Inc." in 2001 through "Brave" in 2012. Pixar's dominance was partly due to Disney's stumbles, which in turn were caused partly by running out of creative juice after an unprecedented run of masterpieces of animation and partly due to the sorts of issues that can arise after such success (cf. Orson Welles' career after "Citizen Kane"). The proof is that Pixar's great run at the top began as the Disney Renassance ended; and Pixar's own dominance ended, not due to anything that it did, but rather because of the 2013 Disney juggernaut that was "Frozen."

Kyle MacLachlan and Diane Lane voice Riley's parents

As if accepting that times indeed had changed, Pixar did not release any films for the two years from June 2013's "Monsters University" (which, fittingly, was a prequel to the film that began the Pixar streak in 2001) to "Inside Out" (2015). The latter film thus is a sort of comeback attempt, and it works well as such. Directed by Pete Docter (who did "Monsters Inc.") and Ronnie del Carmen from a screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley, "Inside Out" is an animated drama takes an old idea and puts a fresh spin on it. It does not break much new ground, but does re-establish Pixar as a creative force in the industry.

The promotional materials focus on primary colors, apparently to show how primary emotions are to our well-being - and to reinforce that this is about a little girl.

Riley is a Minnesota girl who is approaching puberty. We are quickly introduced to the inner workings of her mind, which is emotionally controlled by five central impulses: Anger, Joy, Sadness, Fear and Disgust. These emotional impulses rule Riley from their Headquarters in Riley's consciousness and can influence her perceptions and reactions. Joy is in nominal control, but the others take over when the time is right.

The intercuts between inside and outside can be a bit voyeuristic and is a bit of a cheap shot in comedy terms, sort of like commenting on the stars' outfits on the Red Carpet at awards shows. We should be reacting to the action on screen, not characters who are on the screen. We are reacting to reactors, which gives the entire film a sort of clinical feel.

Everything proceeds normally until Riley, 11, moves with her family to San Francisco. Suddenly, Sadness begins to take a more active role in Riley's life, causing some incidents at school. Joy tries to intervene, but instead only makes things worse by disrupting Riley's core memories, which had kept her stable but which now become dislodged and lost. The core memories ultimately have to try to figure out a way to return to their prominent place in Riley's mind while Anger, Disgust and Fear fight to keep control over Riley. Their efforts only worsen matters, and soon Riley's personality is in danger of completely disintegrating in the Memory Dump, a graveyard of lost memories. Joy and Sadness also wind up there.

The '70s furniture idea is an interesting choice.

The others try to be helpful, and Sadness directs Riley to return to Minnesota to recover Joy, who is now missing. Joy and Sadness, though, are trying to return to Headquarters and encounter Bing Bong, Riley's childhood imaginary friend who also is lost. Bing Bong has a plan to return to Headquarters by riding the Train of Thought, but they find out it no longer leads there.

The static Headquarters becomes a bit of a bore after a while, with the characters standing around reacting to events.

Meanwhile, Riley is about to board a bus back to Minnesota, so Joy, desperate, tries to ride a Recall Tube back to Headquarters alone, but that also is blocked. Joy and Bing Bong wind up in the Memory Dump, where Joy sees some old happy memories that give her an idea about recovering control over Riley. Bing Bong tries to help Joy to escape in Bing Bong's old song-powered wagon, but ultimately comes to realize that he is only preventing Joy from returning to Headquarters and jumps out. Joy then combines with Sadness to use the wagon to return to Headquarters, which they find that Anger has shut down. Sadness springs into action and takes control, inducing Riley to give up returning to Minnesota and go home.

There was some thought early on that the film would be entitled "Vice Versa," but that wound up being only the French title.

Sadness goes to work, reinstalling the core memories and causing Riley to finally tell her parents how much she misses her old life in Minnesota. Joy then combines with Sadness to create a new core memory that helps form a new personality island. This restores Riley to stability, and we see Riley a year later with a new, improved Headquarters that has control over entirely new personality islands and complex core memories.

Overseas box office is vital to Hollywood success these days, and promotions there can take on a decidedly different slant than in the US. For instance, Japanese marketing focuses on Riley's alienation and sadness in a dark world.

"Inside Out" is one of those films that is better as executed than it is as an idea. The conceit of an anthropomorphic group modelled on a NASA Mission Control controlling a person has been around at least since Woody Allen's 1972 "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)," and it was used in Fox's sitcom "Herman's Head" in the early 1990s. In the music industry, they distinguish between a "good song" and a "good record," and "Inside Out is a good record.

There is an enduring edge of darkness throughout the film, though that is not always obvious.

Pretty much everybody loves "Inside Out," as demonstrated by strong box office performance and standard critical raves. The film took about five years from initial idea to the screen, which is fairly typical for a top animated film, and was a very calculated effort. for example, a young girl was chosen as the subject because of research showing they were very emotional (and probably also because it is a key target demographic). Since "Inside Out" came at the end of a long absence of Pixar, the film was eagerly awaited but expectations fairly low. Still, there were hints that the Pixar magic was beginning to run the slightest bit thin: "Inside Out" did not debut at #1, coming in behind "Jurassic World," though it did capture the top spot a couple of weeks later due to weak competition.

For some reason, the Joy character reminds me of Tinkerbell.

Overseas box office was strong, though it didn't break any records like, say, "Frozen," and there is no chance of winning the year's box office crown. Pixar built its reputation on happy-go-lucky characters who overcome adversity with a smile, so why it bet the big comeback film around a sad little girl and then threw in the ubiquitous "animated characters must find their way home" storyline is a bit of a mystery, but box office doesn't lie. The script essentially takes well-known buzzwords about the psyche and anthropomorphizes them, which is a good way to illustrate the craft of animation and insert 'comic bits' without actually creating much that is new. Worries that the storyline might be too complex for a younger audience were misplaced, but even the best animation in the business can't hide a pedestrian and over-plotted storyline.

The cast is led by Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Mindy Kaling as Disgust, Lewis Black as Anger and Bill Hader as Fear. Pixar pulls an old trick by getting genial veteran tv character actor Richard Kind to play Bing Bong, the sort of sentimental self-sacrificing role that he is ideally suited to, and John Ratzenberger continues his string of appearing in Pixar films by voicing Fritz. There also is a bit of insider casting decisions, as puppeteers Dave Goelz and Frank Oz of "The Muppets" were given small voice roles. Veteran Pixar contributor Michael Giacchino ("Up") composed the score, which is pleasant but does not contain any show-stoppers or guest artists.

Even the animated figures in the live shots seem, well, unhappy.

Overall, "Inside Out" is a worthy effort that continues the string of Pixar successes. The craftsmanship is superb and undeniable. However, it definitely is not one of Pixar's best, such as "Monsters Inc." or the "Toy Story" films. You will enjoy the brisk 94-minute running time and probably wind up looking forward to watching "The Good Dinosaur," Pixar's late-2015 follow-up. Odds are that you will swiftly put the decidedly light "Inside Out" out of your own mind.


Below, someone collected together all the various clips of "Inside Out" that have been released so that, basically, you can watch half the film. The first two clips were intended to be included in the film, but ultimately were taken out, so that's an extra treat if you are big fan.




2015

"Inside Out" Teaser Trailer

"Inside Out"

This is the first teaser trailer for "Inside Out," which is the big summer 2015 release from Disney/Pixar. Pixar is making it, and Disney is distributing it.

Pixar took 2014 off - well, the animators and others working their butts off probably don't think that, but in terms of feature film releases it did - so there is a lot of pressure on "Inside Out" to perform.

Of course, with the blow-out success of "Frozen," and "Big Hero 6" about to come out, Disney itself is sitting pretty and has nothing to worry about. Pixar itself, though, has a boatload of fans who are crossing their fingers over this one. The studio really could use a big hit next summer to rejuvenate its fan base which has been waiting for a long time now.

You can't tell much from a teaser trailer, so we withhold any kind of real judgment until more is released. This could turn out to be another jewel in the Pixar crown, you never know. But this concept, well, let's just say Pixar has a big wall to scale to make this interesting.

I will point out that the colored lettering that they employ reminds me (and not in a particularly good way) of the phonics way that they used to use (and maybe still do for all I know) to teach you how to read. Even the font they use is the same. I'm guessing they did a lot of research on this and came up with the conclusion that this is a way to subliminally get across the idea that this girl is learning something very basic, along the lines of how to read - but in this case, how to manage her conflicting emotions.

That's a very murky area for an animated feature film. Neuroses? Fear? Sure, there are comedic possibilities, but they are facing a very fine line between getting bogged down and being too light-hearted about issues that face real people.

Anyway, all that, combined with the lettering of the title card and the background music, sort of creates the impression that this is going to have some kind of '60s vibe. How that fits into a tale of a modern girl's inner emotions is going to be interesting to see.

The animation looks top-notch, as always from Pixar, but is this a film about a grump?

Overall, the trailer seems to have a rather downbeat air. That's not like Pixar, which made its reputation on sunny takes on life. So, we'll have to see about this one.

From the youtube page:

Inside Out comes to US theatres in 3D on June 19, 2015.

From an adventurous balloon ride above the clouds to a monster-filled metropolis, Academy Award®-winning director Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc.,” “Up”) has taken audiences to unique and imaginative places. In Disney•Pixar’s original movie “ Inside Out,” he will take us to the most extraordinary location of all—inside the mind.

Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it's no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley's main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school.

Original concept art for "Inside Out"

2014

Pixar's "Inside Out" on Track for a June 15 2015 Release

Inside Out

It's hard to believe, but the next Pixar film on the horizon is very far out on the horizon, namely a full year away.

It is "Inside Out," a comedy feature animation filmed in 3D CGI. Pete Docter, famous for directing "Monsters Inc." and "Up!," wrote the story and directs.

The outline of the story is that Riley is a normal, innocent girl. We are inside Riley's head, where there are five characters representing her principal emotions: Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness. We follow these characters as Riley leads her life, moving from Minnesota where she is happy and carefree to San Francisco, where she encounters new problems that send her emotions into overdrive.

The cast:

•  Amy Poehler as Joy
•  Lewis Black as Anger
•  Mindy Kaling as Disgust
•  Bill Hader as Fear
•  Phyllis Smith as Sadness

Pixar's "The Good Dinosaur" Set for November 2015 Release

"The Good Dinosaur"

"The Good Dinosaur" is another dinosaur film from the Disney empire. Inevitably, it will be compared to 2000's "Dinosaur." Undoubtedly Pixar would have used that earlier name, but it was taken.

"The Good Dinosaur" is set for a November 25, 2015 release. It is sure to be that Thanksgiving's major animated film in circulation.

This film has been a rare problem for Pixar. Bob Peterson, who came up with the idea for the story and directed the film until August 2013, was released for reasons unknown. Usually when that happens, it is because the director has a view of the film that the studio finds incompatible with other objectives - perhaps it was taking too long, or he wanted it to be a grander film than the studio wished to nurture. However, the possibilities are endless as to the true reason for Peterson's replacement.

The official synospis:

"The Good Dinosaur asks the generations-old question: What if the cataclysmic asteroid that forever changed life on Earth actually missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? The film is a humorous and exciting original story about Arlo, a lively 70-foot-tall teenage Apatosaurus with a big heart. After a traumatic event rattles Arlo''s tranquil community, he sets out on a quest to restore peace, gaining an unlikely companion along the way - —a young human boy named Spot."

The cast could change, but as of this date the voice actors are:

•  Lucas Neff as Arlo, the youngest of the Apatosaurus family
•  John Lithgow as Poppa, father of the Apatosaurus family
•  Frances McDormand as Momma, mother of the Apatosaurus family
•  Neil Patrick Harris as Cliff, middle-sibling of the Apatosaurus family
•  Judy Greer as Ivy, middle-sibling of the Apatosaurus family
•  Bill Hader as Forrest, older brother of the Apatosaurus family

We will report new developments as we learn of them.




2014

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013): Foodimals on the Loose!

Embrace the Colorful New World of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2"

When you have a good film formula, you don't want to tamper with it too much. Audiences buying tickets to a sequel already know what to expect when they come in to see your product, and it's not a good idea to disappoint them. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" (2013), directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn from a screenplay by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and Erica Rivinoja, certainly does not disappoint, though it doesn't really satisfy completely, either.

Flint and Sam remain an item

While the authors of the original source material, Judi and Ron Barrett, went off in a completely different direction with their own follow-up, "Pickles to Pittsburgh," that is not what Sony Pictures Animation, the producers of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2," had in mind. They play it safe, simply following up the first film and repeating the same format which worked so well. The changes basically are only those essential for continuity and adaptations from the first film to make this one smoother and more audience-friendly. That should satisfy the many viewers of the first film, though it also means the follow-up isn't as clever or inventive as the original "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."

Just like in the original, Flint uses modern technology

Flint Lockwood, having in the original "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" after great effort shut down the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" (or "FLDSMDFR" for short), which went crazy and produced too much food, now works at Live Corp Company in San Franjose. The entire town of Swallow Falls, in fact, has had to move there (it's a bit unclear why they all wound up in the same place) while crews from Live Corp clean up its Atlantic island. Live Corp is a kind of think tank, full of scientists and inventors who work tirelessly to make the world a better place "for the betterment of mankind." It is run by the world-famous and eccentric Chester V, who is aided by Barb, Chester's orangutan assistant.

Sam holds Barry the Strawberry

Tim Lockwood, Flint's dad, is trying to get to know his son better, while Sam Sparks, the TV weathercaster, is still in love with Flint. Manny is Sam's cameraman, while Brent McHale is now the owner of a chain of Chick-N-Sushi restaurants. Flint's pet Vervet monkey, Steve the Monkey, is still around communicating by using the Speak and Spell thought translator that Flint invented. Steve tends to cause a lot of mischief while constantly reminding Flint that he's hungry.

The FLDSMDFR has created a whole new world

Chester V, as you might imagine, has ulterior motives for hiring Flint. Take one look at his Live Corp campus, full of high-tech glass office buildings and neutral tones that contrast completely with the utterly normal and prosaic Swallow Falls, and you know that Flint and his crew are out of their element. It turns out that Chester in fact is not quite the benevolent despot that he, with his corporation's avowed intent to simply help people, pretends to be.

"Oh no, it's a strawberry!"

In fact, Chester's team isn't really there to clean up Swallow Falls at all. Instead, they want to fix the FLDSMDFR so that Chester can use it to buy up what little of the world he doesn't already own. Flint returns to Swallow Falls and finds that the FLDSMDFR hasn't just been fixed, but it has gone crazy and now is churning out whole new life forms, or "Foodimals." There are cheeseburger bullies that run around on spider legs composed of French Fries, lettuce-spitting taco-dile supremes, bananostriches, PB & jellyfish, melonheads, shrimpanzees, moquitoasts, watermelophants, applie-pie-thons, and, in fact, 39 different new species of foodimals which inhabit mountains, rivers, swamps and jungles all created by the FLDSMDFR.

Mosquitoast

It's very scary in a way, but the foodimals turn out to be inoffensive, even friendly. Chester, though, ultimately wants the foodimals to leave the island and inhabit the rest of the world. Flint and his crew once again, after various stops and starts, must figure out a way to shut down the FLDSMDFR before its creations invade the entire planet.

The animation really is superb in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2"

The plot of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" isn't any more inventive than was the plot of "Ghostbusters 2" or similar replicas of an original triumph. Once again, Flint's wayward creation is causing problems that only he, it turns out, can solve. Where "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" scores is with its animation and 3-D effects. The script is very clever in a way, because it opens with the sterile, metallic-and-glass dryness of the corporate world, and then juxtaposes that lifeless wasteland with the wildly and shockingly colorful and wacky creations of the FLDSMDFR. The change is a welcome relief, literally and metaphorically taking us on a journey from our own normal, everyday drab world to a wonderland filled with the kinds of crazy and exquisitely detailed alien life forms that show off animation at its best.

Flint and his sidekick, Steve the Monkey

So, like the saying goes, the people behind "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" sell the sizzle, not the steak. The defining characteristic of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" is characters with their mouths wide open in astonishment. There are food puns galore, a zany tone and manic pace, and lots of action. The original "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" took care and time in establishing relationships and characters, but the sequel isn't about that at all. Instead, it is loud, with screaming and running around and an excess of energy that betrays the fact that, aside from the presence of the obligatory evil guy to set in motion essentially the same complication that was at the heart of the first film, nothing new is going on.

Officer Devereaux becomes a "foodie" for a while

Those with a historical bent might wind up comparing "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" with another zany comedy from an earlier era, "Yellow Submarine." In that earlier film, you have a similar dull, dreary world suddenly replaced by a colorful and crazy animated one. There even is a character whom the Beatles meet in "Yellow Submarine" who is vaguely reminiscent of the foodimals in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2." A more direct link between the two films is that former Beatle Paul McCartney, whose single "New" is featured in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2," was one of the stars of 1967's "Yellow Submarine."

There are many scenes of characters with open mouths

Bill Hader is back as Flint, Anna Faris as Sam, James Caan as Tim, Andy Samberg as Brent, Neil Patrick Harris as Steve, and Benjamin Bratt as Manny. Will Forte, who voiced Joseph Towne in the original, rejoins the proceedings in the new character of Chester V, while Kristen Schaal does what she can with the limited role of Barb. In an interesting twist, at least for animation insiders, the foodimals are voiced by production staffers. Thus, the shrimpanzees are done by director Kris Pearn, Barry the Strawberry is voiced by director Cody Cameron, and so on and so forth. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the music, while young Australian Cody Simpson contributes the song "La Da Dee."

Neil Patrick Harris holding his character, Steve the Monkey

Will you enjoy "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2"? Most likely, because it will be like visiting an old friend that you haven't seen in a while and are glad is doing well. Will you wind up thinking about it weeks or months later, rhapsodizing to your friends about how clever it was and how much you want to see a sequel? Probably not, because you've already seen this before and it is unlikely to change your view of animation or anything. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" is food for the eyes and ears, not for the mind. Now, the best animated films - make that, the best films in general, not just animated - focus on and explore relationships. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" is not about exploring relationships at all, because those were all established and run through in the first film. The sequel simply inserts a generic bad guy who replaces Flint's naivete with guile as a foil for Flint and his cronies to battle, and we've all seen that before. The undemanding younger crowd is probably going to like "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" the most. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" will be dynamite, by the way, when played in the Blu-ray player right after the original - who needs that pesky character development anyway?

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" is good fun, a great meal that will satisfy your craving for fun animation until the next offering comes along. Below is the US trailer, with the international trailer following.







2013

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) - More Fun for Flint and Sam!

Get Ready for Leftover Food Fun!

The sequel to the hit Sony Animations animated film "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" is coming, and once again it involves food! Many of your favorite characters return to partake in Flint's wild inventions.

Below are trailers for the film, scheduled for US release on September 27, 2013. Once again, it stars Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, and Neil Patrick Harris as residents of that food-challenged community, Swallow Falls.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) - A Food-alanche of Fun!!

Get Ready for a Giant Food Fight in ChewandSwallow!

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" (2009), a computer-animated science fiction film from Sony Pictures Animation, stems from the children's book of the same name. Written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett in 1978, the book is a favorite of teachers who are teaching their students how to read. With that kind of built-in audience, it was only a matter of time before an animated feature film arrived. This is a good one, though the adaptation does differ from the book in many significant respects. Loaded with congenial voice actors like Bruce Campbell, Al Roker and Neil Patrick Harris, and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the film was a hit that has resulted in a sequel, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2."

If this looks oddly familiar - you probably first saw it when you were about 10 years old

Flint Lockwood is an eccentric inventor who lives in Swallow Falls, a small town in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Flint's inventions, such as a hair un-balder and a flying car, haven't been too successful. In fact, they haven't succeeded at all. Flint's father, Tim, is a nice man but doesn't believe in Flint's inventions. The whole town is dependent on one industry and is forced to live on the only local product, sardines. Flint's best friend is his pet monkey, Steve.

Flint working on his newest invention

In order to create some different food for the town, Flint invents a "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" (or "FLDSMDFR" for short). This device turns water into food. He has some trouble with it, though, and it blows the circuits in his house. Hooking it up instead to the local powerplant, the machine gets supercharged and rampages through town, destroying the new tourist center and rocketing up into the atmosphere. Unhappy about his newest failure, Flint meets Samantha "Sam" Sparks, a weather intern who is out of work because of the destruction caused by the FLDSMDFR. While they are talking, Flint and Sam find they have some things in common, and then the unexpected happens - rainbow-colored clouds overhead begin raining cheeseburgers.

Flint and the FLDSMDFR

Now that he has found out that the machine works, Flint begins sending it signals to rain down different kinds of foods. The townspeople are happy and rename the town "Chewandswallow." Tourists come from around the world to witness the food rainfalls. The townspeople, however, start requesting more and more food, and they grow fatter and fatter.

Sam is quite fetching

The increasing demands for food creates a deadly tornado composed of spaghetti and meatballs. Flint tries to turn the machine off to save the town, but the Mayor throws a radish at his radio and destroys it. With the world threatened with destruction, Flint returns to his earlier inventions and gets his flying car to work. Flint and Sam, along with her crew, set out to deactivate the FLDSMDFR using a "kill code" in a USB flash drive. The machine, however, is protected inside a giant meatball, which tries to kill them, and during the attack, Flint loses the flash drive.

Nobody knows what to expect from the approaching storm

The Chewandswallow townspeople flee as the nearby mountain, Mt. Leftover, collapses and unleashes a food-alanche that destroys the town. Tim, however, stays in the lab even as it is covered in leftovers and manages to send a kill code to Flint's cellphone. Flint managed to penetrate the meatball protecting the FLDSMDFR and plugs his cellphone into it to turn it off. The code that Tim sent, however, does not work. Thinking fast, Tim uses another of his inventions, for Spray-on Shoes, and that destroys the FLDSMDFR. The town is saved, Tim finally respects Flint, and Flint and Sam kiss, and the Mayor gets his just desserts.

The Mayor is delighted

It isn't often that you will find a children's book that is centered around food and how to make it, and the film pulls out all the stops in trying to make everyone who watches it as hungry as possible. It is full of quirky humor and slapstick comedy, but the core, as with any successful animated film, is the successful drawing of real-life relationships.

Mr. T wants Flint to be more like his son

One can make the complaint that everything is over-the-top and a bit obvious at times. The most reliable and, thus, over-used theme in animation is the clever-but-misunderstood young genius who just can't get people to accept how wonderful he is (see, for instance, the wonderful Disney film "Meet the Robinsons").

Everything is going fine - for now

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," though, is a children's film and should be appreciated as such, not measured against the standards of jaded critics who have seen too many animation films for their own good. For sure, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" is not the most original plot ever devised, but you can also say that "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a colorful feast for the eyes with child-friendly characters that should please its intended audience.

Trouble is approaching

The engaging cast adds to the fun. Bill Hader plays Flint, while Anna Faris is properly spunky as Sam. Film veteran James Caan plays Tim with his usual panache, while television star Neil Patrick Harris, who also is busy these days as a lead character in "The Smurfs" and "The Smurfs 2," voices Steve the monkey. Bruce Campbell is appropriately evil in his avuncular manner as the Mayor who almost winds up destroying the world, while Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt and Al Roker round out the cast. Mark Mothersbaugh created the amiable soundtrack, which features such classics as "Inside the Meatball" and "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows," sung by Lesley Gore.

Sam working hard during the storm

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" was a minor success at the box office, only earning $243 million on a budget of $100 million, but that was enough to put a sequel in the works. Partly, that is because the film has done very well in the aftermarket. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" was released on DVD, Blu-ray and PSP UMD on January 5, 2010 in the United States and Canada, while a 3D Blu-ray was released on June 22, 2010. A measure of Sony's satisfaction with the film is that "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" was the first 3D Blu-ray sold individually in the United States, which was quite an honor.

Flint is a genius with an arsenal of useful inventions

While "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" undeniably is a children's film, derived from a children's book, and clearly intended for children, adults can appreciate the advanced computer animation and the obvious romance developing between Flint and Sam. This is a terrific film for parents to watch with their children, especially if the children have to read the book for class.

Below are the trailers for "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."







2013