Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 American animated science fiction comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Loosely based on the 1978 children's book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett, the film was written for the screen and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (in their feature directorial debuts), and stars the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, and Neil Patrick Harris. The film centers around an aspiring inventor named Flint Lockwood who develops, following a series of failed experiments, a machine that can convert water into food. After the machine gains sentience and begins to develop food storms, Flint must stop it in order to save the world.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs premiered at the Mann Village Theater in Los Angeles, California on September 12, 2009, and was released in the United States six days later on September 18, by Sony Pictures Releasing. It earned over $243 million worldwide on a budget of $100 million at the box office. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its colorful visuals, humor, characters, voice acting, and the score, while the simple character designs were said to be unfitting. The film has since been expanded into a franchise, with a sequel, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, released on September 27, 2013, as well as an animated television series based on the film that premiered on Cartoon Network on February 20, 2017, with none of the original cast returning.
Plot
Aspiring scientist Flint Lockwood lives in Swallow Falls, a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Sardines are the base of Swallow Falls' economy, but the Baby Brent Sardines cannery has gone bankrupt due to worldwide dislike of sardines. One day, Flint invents the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" (FLDSMDFR), a machine that turns water into food, which ends up shorting out his house's electrical supply. Flint decides to power the machine by hooking it up to the large riser pole at the nearby power substation, sending it rocketing through town and destroying a park conceived by the town’s mayor before ultimately shooting up into the sky. Afterwards, Flint meets Samantha "Sam" Sparks, a weather reporter intern whose big break was ruined by the incident. Brightly colored clouds then float over the town and begin to rain cheeseburgers, delighting the residents.
Flint creates a communication device to send food orders to the machine, and Swallow Falls (now renamed Chewandswallow) becomes a successful "food tourism" destination. As Flint and Sam grow closer, and Sam opens up to Flint about her history of being bullied and the shame she feels about her nerdy demeanor, though Flint insists she's beautiful the way she is.
As the townsfolk become greedier, Flint notices that the food is growing larger. Despite Flint's concerns that the food is starting to "over mutate", Mayor Shelbourne, now morbidly obese, schemes to use the invention for personal gain. When a large tornado of spaghetti and meatballs ravages the town, Flint rushes to his lab to turn off the FLDSMDFR, but Shelbourne accidentally destroys the communication device after ordering a Vegas-style all-you-can-eat buffet. Now sentient, the FLDSMDFR creates a massive food storm that sends colossal food downpours to various cities and their landmarks.
After gaining encouragement from his father Tim, Flint places the kill code in a USB flash drive, and builds a flying car to reach and destroy the FLDSMDFR, with the aid of Sam, her cameraman Manny, Flint's pet monkey Steve, and Brent McHale (namesake of the Baby Brent Sardines cannery). As they approach the machine in the sky, they find that it is now serving as the core of a giant meatball asteroid which it created. The machine sends living food to attack them. Flint calls Tim and orders him email the kill code file to his phone. As Sam, Brent and Flint enter the meatball, they are accosted by living roast chickens, one of which Brent manages to take control of after it eats him.