Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
(2013)
(SPOILERS) Phil Lord and Chris Miller elected not to return
as directors for this sequel (unlike with their other franchise, 20-something Jump Street), although they
did contribute the storyline. Nothing about Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs 2 suggests they spent more than 10 minutes
brainstorming; if the first film saw them going for a disaster movie, here they
take the lost continent/ unexplored island route. The result is visually much
more inventive than its predecessor, but manages to be simultaneously both
narratively formulaic and thematically confused.
Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn make
their theatrical debut as directors, while the finished screenplay is credited
to Erica Rivinoja (a staff writer on South
Park, but more importantly on Lord and Miller’s Clone High), Jonathan Francis Daley and Jonathan M Goldstein
(partners on Horrible Bosses and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, so a
formidably average pair). Seven individuals contributing to the writing and
directing is more than enough to come up with a complete mess, and to get to
the point where they in desperation they decide to approve two “There’s a leak in the boat!” gags (it is funny the first time, but it’s the
desperate comedian who repeats himself during an encore).
Cloudy 2 picks up
directly after the original, unusual in itself for an animation, but any
ground-breaking qualities end soon after. Flint Lockwood’s hero, master-inventor
Chester V (Will Forte voicing a highly unsubtle riff on Steve Jobs), sends Flint
and his chums to California. Chester, the CEO of Live Corp (Apple; Chester even
unveils new improved versions of his famous food bar and has built “the coolest, hippest company in the world”)
has been charged with cleaning up their island of Swallow Falls. This in itself
has potential, running with the notion that science and business combined lead
to untold pollution; Sallow Falls is treated like an oil spill of enormous food.
Really, though, Chester just wants to get his mitts on Flint’s FLDSMDFR.
Hampered by mutant food creatures (monster cheeseburgers in particular) Chester
calls on Flint to find and destroy the FLDSMDFR (so Flint thinks). So it’s the
big mean corporation up to no good, which is fine but the delivery is entirely
half-hearted. There’s no relish to go with the rampant foodimals.
The transformed Swallow Falls is the best feature of the
feature. Arriving in mysterious, overgrown land, the inspiration is clearly the
mist-shrouded Skull Island and the Lost World (the Jurassic Park one, that is) complete with a technicolour explosion
of assorted oddments of animal food hybrids. They probably needed the five
writers to come up with the different medleys; shrimpanzees, cantelopes (okay,
that’s good), water melonphants, bananostriches and guacodiles (there are also
spring onion diplodocuses and hipotatoes); an entire ecosystem of living food. Which
provides a solid series of sight gags, but there’s little else here. Flint’s
enrapture with Chester (they were even both bullied at school) leads to him
shunning his friends, leading to an awkward churning of sentimental drivel concerning
the power of friendship; as with the first picture, none of this feels remotely
genuine. It’s there because that’s what’s required of a family animation.
And yet, there are some very peculiar implications in all
this. The vegetation gone sentient can only be seen as an allusion to GMOs
(which Chester plans to put in his food bars because they’re extra tasty).
Which makes Flint, as before, a really
highly destructive force. One might suggest there’s a subversive streak, as the
picture ends up at a point of protecting these foodimals from being skewered; “They are living creatures!” Perhaps the
makers want kids to avoid GM food for sentimental reasons, since telling them
it’s bad will do little to dissuade them. That’s clutching at straws, though.
The very strange thing is that one moment anthropomorphised vegetables are a
no-go area but the next Flint and his dad are killing fish in a father-son
bonding session.
Accompanying wit and commentary are in short supply, aside
from the lazy Apple material. This time, alternative fuel sources go no further
than “a zero-emissions car that runs on
cute”. There are a number of vulgar gags, the best of which is “Stand back – I’m going to cut the cheese”
and the worst involve a baby strawberry shitting jam out of fright and Brent
soiling his diaper. I appreciated the use of the Six Million Dollar Man sound effect. It can only be a matter of
time before Lord and Miller remake it.
Given the four-year gap, one might expect more than a “churn
it out” sequel but the original wasn’t really all that special in the first
place. Cloudy 3 will no doubt be
along in a couple of years. Hopefully there will be a bit more thought behind
it, lest we get another movie where the subtext is that Monsanto are the good
guys and Apple are the bad ones (the pendulum may be swinging against the
latter, but such a take on the former beggars belief).
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