Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Not to mince words, Kimberly Gadette asks: Can Sony bring anything 'new'-tritional to the 3D animation table?

This is not some cartoon leftover that didn't make it to the summertime picnic lunch. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a brilliant break in the weather, ushering in a new season, seasoned to perfection. From the opening credits that read, "A film by … a lot of people," this 3-D pièce de résistance from Sony Pictures Animation is a veritable visual, verbal feast. Yet even amidst the corny-copia of fast, faster, fastest food falling from the skies, the filmmakers cook up some serious food for thought – but served on the side, just as we like it.

Based on the 1978 bestselling children's book of the same name, writer/directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord have expanded the story like a soaring soufflé. The animation style is exaggerated whimsy, the initial muddy palette of the simple fishing town of Swallow Falls (located directly under the capital "A" of "Atlantic Ocean," as depicted on any generic map) giving way to a fantastical, rainbow-colored Pleasure Island where, to paraphrase Shakespeare, we are such foodstuffs as dreams are made on.

But let's put the brakes on this food train of thought … I fear I'm jumping from soup to nuts. Nerdy child turned overeager inventor Flint (Bill Hader) has been trying to win the approval of his skeptical father (James Caan) ever since he was a kid walking around in a lab coat six sizes too big. Flint's past inventions have been less than appetizing, ie mutant rat birds, monkey-thought translators, spray-on shoes. It seems that all his schemes have been pie in the sky … until this new one literally takes the cake. The ingredients may be a bit off, but with an added dollop of disaster, Flint succeeds in creating the first Food Weather Machine and voila! – stormy skies transform into sunny side up. Foul weather is now, um, fowl weather. Or, as the cute new weather girl Sam (Anna Faris) says, "You may have seen a meteor shower, but you've never seen a shower meatier than this."

Hunger becomes a thing of the past as Flint's fame and news of the town's foray into tourism spreads far and wide.

But as is expected when we bite off more than we can chew, trouble's a-brew. Cue the ballooning mayor (Bruce Campbell), the virtual embodiment of political pork whose plans of expansion are eating him, as well as the town, alive.

Unlike the film's hefty flying steaks, the usage of 3-D is not overdone. Instead, the filmmakers select particular moments to emphasize an underlying emotion, such as in an early classroom scene when young Flint has just failed at another invention. His classmates' pointing fingers pop out at him in 3D, underscoring his shame.

Ditto the handling of the movie's messages, lightly sprinkled just below a shimmering Jello surface. We witness nods to greed, junk food, over-indulged children, corrupt civil servants, women afraid to embrace their inner brain, as well as the customary look at parental/peer pressures and the discovery of finding one's own voice. It's all here in manageable portions, cafeteria style: take what you like and move on please, you're slowing down the line.

While the script bubbles over with wordplay and fast repartee (eg, the zippy verbal sparring between Flint and Sam), the writers know when to hold back. Flint's conversations with his father, who substitutes clumsy fishing metaphors for dialogue with his son, are painfully funny – perhaps a reminder of many of our own halting talks with our father figures. In a later scene, the two stumbling toward a mutual understanding, the script surprises with a beautifully subtle hand.

The voice talent is delectable. Hader captures Flint's vulnerability, Anna Faris is a comedic standout, Mr T smokes it, and James Caan, voicing the uni-browed, simple fisherman, is marinated to perfection. We're treated to surprise mumblings from Benjamin Bratt's Guatemalan cameraman and Neil Patrick Harris' monosyllabic monkey.

In a movie where you don't throw food because the food throws you, in which "chicken wings" describes the action as well as the entrée, the sky's the limit. Or is it?

Attention Disney/Pixar, Dreamworks, Fox and any other animation factories currently stirring up savory dishes: You've been served.

Rating on a scale of 5 spaghetti westerns: 4.5

Release date: US and UK: 18 September, 2009
Directed by: Chris Miller & Phil Lord
Screenplay by: Chris Miller & Phil Lord (based on the book written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett)
Voice cast: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Andy Samberg, Mr T, Bobb'e Thompson, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris
Rating: US = PG; UK = U
Running time: 90 minutes