I was kind of taking it easy for a while today before some people pop by later.  I saw ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ on NetFlix instant view.  I had heard some positive things about it and thought I would give it a go in the background while I ate some lunch.  All I have to say is, damn!  This movie was absolutely fantastic.

I’ve always been a sucker for animation, hell I went to school for it.  The problem is most animated movies are either for small kids or anime.  Now both of those types of movies occasionally produce some great stuff for adults too, but as a whole it’s pretty dumbed down.  That’s why I love movies like ‘CWACOM’ because it delivers the goods for everyone watching, no matter your age.

I think at first I was turned off by the trailers for the movie because I thought it looked kind of cheap.  Wow, I was really wrong.  The character models definitely aren’t the most detailed ever, but they really work for this type of story.  What helps it as well is that it is a very full and believable world.  Everything fits and they spent a lot of time making sure that is the case.  Also, the animation itself is pretty stellar.  I love the way the characters move in this reality.

The voice acting was top notch in this as well.  A lot of animated movies just cram famous people in the roles to get some star power in their movie.  Generally you could have put anyone as the voice and you wouldn’t notice the difference.  Most of the time that is because these are actors, not voice actors.  There is a difference and not everyone can do both.  With ‘CWACOM’ they got some names but none of them huge but they all perfectly inhabited their roles.  Bill Hader absolutely is Flint Lockwood, Anna Faris is lovely as Sam Sparks, Mr. T is an awesome cop, James Caan plays the bewildered father to a ‘T’ and even Neil Patrick Harris gets in the act as the monkey Steve.  The guy who may have stole the movie is my hetero man-crush, Bruce Campbell as the always plotting Mayor.

The story itself is pretty straight-forward and pretty predictable in most parts.  That isn’t really a problem.  If you can make me love and care for the characters on the screen I will cut it some slack for not being the most original thing in the world.  There is some depth here if you are looking though and there is more to several of the characters than you usually see in fare like this.

All in all I would heartily recommend this movie to absolutely anyone.  This to me is an instant animated classic that deserves to be up with some of Disney’s in their hey-day.  While not as deep or as imaginative as most in the Pixar line, I have to say I had a better time watching this than several of those.  Make sure you check this one out when you get a chance, you won’t be disappointed.

See you on the other side – Derek