Review of Cloudy with Meatballs 2 (no spoliers) and a Discussion about the Barrett Books (with spoilers)

“So a decision was made to abandon the town of Chewandswallow.” (Barrett, 1978, Cloudy, n.p.)


Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 opens with the town of Swallow Falls leaving their island. The founder of a company called Live Corps, best known for its production of a food bar, and Flint’s childhood idol, comes to clear the island of the excess food, while SF’s citizens are relocated. Six months later, the group of friends find themselves traveling back to Swallow Falls to shut of the Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator which has started creating foodanimals that are proving to be uncontrollable and dangerous to the Live Corps crews. Operation shut down the replicator begins . . .

As usual, I have a feeling that our review will differ from many other reviews (our paper gave it a 2 out of 5). I will admit that many of the jokes were not funny (the few poop jokes were just yucky) and the character development that existed in the first film was absent from this version. Other the other hand, I thought the soundtrack was great, the visuals were stunning (and reminiscent of Barrett’s—that discussion to come later), and according to my husband, Victor, there were a scattering of really funny moments. He also finds it slightly better than the Percy Jackson film, if that helps. 

Emery's comment:I like how it has the same dialogue as the first movie in some parts. Ex wwwwwwwwhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is also another weirder ape. And the food are so cuuuuttteeee!!! Plus it has a nice balance of puns.

Now, onto a discussion of the Barrett books (I'm going to keep this short, but occasionally I feel the need to show my literary side). 

The Barrett books (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (1978) and its sequel, Pickles to Pittsburgh (1997) and the recent Planet of the Pies (2013) which I haven’t read yet, but will!) are told from the point of view of a young girl, and her brother Henry. After their grandfather accidentally flips a pancake onto Henry’s head, he’s inspired to tell them a bedtime story about Chewandswallow, a town where food rains down from the sky, and people are content, until the foodweather becomes increasingly dangerous and the islanders flee for their lives on slices of stale bread.

In the sequel, the grandfather sends a postcard that inspires his granddaughter to dream about Chewandswallow, which “from the air looks like gigantic feast” (Pickles, 1997, n.p.). The two children then explore the various vegetation which consists of oversized food.

Although the differences between the two books is obvious, (the kid tells the story, there’s no scientist, the food is not alive in the sequel), there are many similarities in the representation of the island. For example, I noted the pats of butter that are featured in both versions and the look of the island from the distance. I like how they book starts and ends in black and white, whereas the scenes on Chewandswallow are in color. And grandfather has a bushy mustache much like Flint’s father’s.

I think the film adaptations are nice and admit that a film just showing two kids climbing over large food probably wouldn’t make for an engaging hour and a half. Alas, as in many film adaptations of children’s books, the largest difference can be found in the “messages” the book and film delivers.

First, the film.

Live Corps turns out to want to use Flint’s machine to replicate the island’s inhabitants to grind into their food bars.

Now, the book.

Crews harvest the “non-living” food on the island to solve the world’s hunger crisis.

Thoughts?