Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)


Possibly not the ideal animated feature to be viewing just as the self-disgust of Christmas crapulence takes a firm hold of one's conscience. "Rather revolting," was V's conclusion, though she'd singled out the jelly scene and the rolling fish bowl as the movie's most delicious early appetisers.

This tale of a young scientist (voiced by that man Bill Hader again) who builds a machine capable of turning water into fast food before launching it into the upper atmosphere, is packed with stunning visual jokes, but the rendering of human characters is a little primitive.

Kermayo compared it to a Disney-Pixar flick directed by David Lynch and the Guardian's Film Weekly pairing raved about the roast chicken attack. (Apparently this is even more disturbing and surreal in 3D.)

There are certainly plenty of eye (and mind)-catching moments, but it does tend to curdle into a relajo in the final half-hour; this perhaps the inevitable consequence of following the structural implications of spoofing the overblown apocalypses of Roland Emmerich. And yes, I know it's for kids, but sometimes it feels more of a celebration of the American way of eating than a subtle condemnation of it.

(There's a drôle sequence of gags about London and how, no matter what, it always remains damp and grey...and everyone still wears bowler hats. Average annual rainfall is higher in Paris I'll have you know.)

Grade: B+


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