Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

It is not exceptional, but it certainly is an above-average animated film about the fact that greed is harmful. In addition to the standard motif of parent-child relationships, about loving each other, respecting each other, and helping each other, it is a film about a consumerist world based on seemingly unrestricted consumption. The film has pace, plenty of crazy jokes, and it's original and supplemented with many references to famous films of the past. An experienced viewer will of course recognize the motif of the Death Star from Star Wars or the camera from the alien war machine from Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Overall impression: 75%. Unfortunately, the film suffers from the typical flaw of American animated blockbusters - its message must be formulated in a way that is understandable to as many people as possible. Some gags are too straightforward and there are so many jokes that the viewer is flooded with them and cannot enjoy them in certain moments... (10/25/2009)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs impresses with its novel premise with food, but it is all wrapped in clichéd filler that that at times overcomes the premise. It's a shame they kept a low profile with the humour – the dad (and his eyebrows) and the monkey (with his fetish for moustaches) were amusing, but I still felt more could have been made of it. The film's action line worked quite well, whether it was a spaghetti tornado, escaping a breached food dam or saving the world, and at times the film evoked an animated version of an Emmerich disaster blockbuster. It's a shame about the wasted potential, though. (01/08/2022)

A nice cartoon based around a crazy idea and an unbelievable amount of invention. Food falling from the sky would be a headache for the sanitation department, but it would still be great. The main character is a madman who shouldn’t be trusted even with repairing a TV and the main villain is an obese town councilman. Lord and Liller are excellent. (11/11/2018)

Animated films are usually made by people who have imagination and that's why people enjoy them... it's no different with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Great story, nice characters... so a nice fairy tale not only for kids. It is true that a little more humor wouldn’t hurt... that's why the 4 stars. (10/31/2010)

The strength of this animated film is in its frenzy. The mountains of gags of all kinds amused me more than in the later The LEGO Movie by the same creators, and I hardly thought about the (subtle and quite possibly actually differently intended) moralising thanks to them. (07/19/2010)