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[[File:cloudy_with_a_chance_of_meatballs_ver3.jpg|framethumb|250px]]
''Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs'' is a 2009 CGI animated film based on the children's book of the same name. In a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean named Swallow Falls, Flint Lockwood always dreams of "inventing something AWESOME," but his inventions never quite work the way he wants them to. Even when he grows up, he still prefers to invent more and more things instead of getting a suitable job at his father's sardine shop.
 
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Created by Sony Pictures Animation, who also made ''[[Open Season]]'' and ''[[Surf's Up]]''. Written and directed by the same two guys from the short-lived animated show ''[[Clone High]]''. ''Cloudy'' has had the biggest opening week for Sony Animation yet, and it stayed in 3rd place in the box office after a month in theaters. It was also nominated for a ''Golden Globe'' award.
 
A sequel, tentatively titled ''Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers'',, iswas currentlyreleased in the works, with aon February 7, 2014 release date. It is to be directed by newcomers Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn who have worked on the previous film, and is being written by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein of ''[[Horrible Bosses]]'' fame. Meanwhile, Phil Lord and Chris Miller will remain as executive producers.
 
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=== {{tropelist|The book provides examples of: ===}}
 
* [[Deliberately Monochrome]]: There is barely any color outside of the main story.
* [[Framing Device]]
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* [[Narrator]]: A girl for the [[Framing Device]], and her grandpa for the main story.
* [[Scenery Porn]]: With a premise like raining food, and illustrations as detailed as these, it's expected.
 
----
=== {{tropelist|The film provides examples of: ===}}
* [[3D Movie]]
* [[Actor Allusion]]: Officer Earl Devereaux is voiced by Mr. T, and his character sure acts a lot like him. One of his lines also includes a variation on "I pity the fool."
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* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The book was a story about a grandpa telling a tall tale about an island that had significantly different weather where it rained food. The movie is about a scientist who invents a method that turns water into food, and it affects the weather across the world.
* [[Adorkable]]: Flint, in ''spades''. Also Sam.
* [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot]]: The Remote Control television which runs off, & is then seen at various points throughout the movie doing its own thing. Also the FLDSMDFR {{spoiler|at the end of the film won't allow anyone to interfere with its endless food production to the point of creating a massive floating food fortress around itself which is manned by sentient food programmed to defend it.}}
* [[All of the Other Reindeer]]: No one in the town (except his mother, but she's [[Missing Mom|dead]] anyway) accepts Flint Lockwood and his [[Mad Scientist]] demeanor until he creates a machine that makes it rain delicious food, meaning that they no longer have to suffer through eating their disgusting sardines. {{spoiler|Flint must also use his mad scientist skills to save the town (and the world!) from this same machine when it starts malfunctioning in disastrous ways.}}
** Also applies to {{spoiler|Sam Sparks, who was teased for being a nerd when she was younger, but she reverts back to her openly nerdy demeanor just in time to save the world alongside Flint.}}
* [[All There in the Manual]]: Earl, Brent, and the mayor's last names are never mentioned in-film, but are given on the official website (Devereaux, McHale, and Shelbourne, respectively).
** Actually, Earl's last name IS revealed in the film for a few seconds. When Earl goes to Flint's lab to ask him for something special for Cal's birthday, it shows "Earl Devereaux" on the monitor for a few moments.
** Plus, the Mayor is credited as Mayor Shelbourne in the ending credits. Truthfully, Brent's last name (McHale) is the only one NOT mentioned in-film in any way. He's even credited at the end as "Baby Brent".
* [[Almighty Janitor]]: Manny. Doctor, pilot, comedian.
* [[Almost Kiss]]: Lampshaded repeatedly to great comedic effect.
* [[Always Chaotic Evil]]: Subverted with the Foodimals. It first appears that they're dangerous and the fact that they're learning to swim is something that would potentially lead to a disaster, but it turns out they're not dangerous and that Chester V was lying the whole time.
* [[Alternative Foreign Theme Song]]: Shoko Nakagawa wrote [https://web.archive.org/web/20190614042152/http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Y_QpyLRrIeY/?fr__fr=rec1oldtd "Rainbow Forecast"] as the Japanese ending theme, differing slightly from Miranda Cosgrove's "Raining Sunshine". If you picture the ending credits with this, the song actually fits pretty well.
* [[Anthropomorphic Food]]: Toward the end, giant roast chickens and walking gummi bears appear. In the sequel, this is expanded upon and foodimals and food people appear.
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: Almost literally. When we are first introduced to Officer Devereaux, he is stopping Flint from hooking up his food machine to the town's electric generator to power it. Flint distracts Devereaux with a jaywalker.
* [[Attack of the 50 -Foot Whatever]]: Not only does the food start getting bigger...▼
* [[Elements Do Not Work That Way]]: Water does not have a genetic code and thus can't mutate. Besides, most food is mostly made from sugars, and food made from water would have no nutritional value. [[Sophisticated As Hell|Unless he's mutating the microbes IN the water, which is gross.]]
** It also said he mutated the water with microwave radiation. That is not possible, as microwave radiation only speeds up the movement of atoms, causing it to heat up.
*** Plus he is surprised to see the atoms shaking around in the foods' molecular structure.
**** Though microwaves can't do that, it could potentially be a form of elemental fusion/fission. Remove two protons from an oxygen's nucleus and you get carbon... but that would still be [[You Fail Physics Forever|failing physics]].
** This film depicts a storybook world that runs on the [[Rule of Funny]]. Any scientific errors are probably as fully intentional as ''everyone'' in Swallow Falls being forced to eat sardines 24/7 just because the plant closed down.
*** Due to people finding them really gross no less (it reaches front-page news).
** In fact, Flint's whole [[It Runs On Nonsenseoleum|explanation of how the machine works]] amounts to an announcement from the writers that they're not even pretending to have done any research.
** If you consider "mutation" simply a change in basic structure or reasons of this structure and not necessarily DNA, then you can mutate water if you [[Techno Babble|employ strong electromagnetic field or somehow manipulate vacuum polarization effectiveness]] or even [[Beyond the Impossible|change universal constants]], but effects wouldn't generate meatballs, only possibly make existing ones inedible. However, if one would want to make food from thin air (or water), one would have to trans'''mutate''' a lot of atoms and combine a lot of molecules; the process could also provide enough energy to self-sustain the machine's work (if fusion and not fission is the dominating process), which actually happens in the story. This might be partially intentional.
▲* [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever]]: Not only does the food start getting bigger...
* [[Attack of the Killer Whatever]]: ...it starts fighting back!
* [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny]]: "Oh, my gosh, a jaywalker!"
* [[Author Appeal]]: Chris Miller and Phil Lord, the writer/directors, are total nerds, hence the shift from a tale about cool food to a tale about how awesome it is to be nerdy.
* [[Avoid the Dreaded G Rating]]: The sole content descriptor for the film (rated PG) is "brief mild language." "Hellhole," "crabballs" and "crotch kick!" (when {{spoiler|Brent first starts attacking the chickens}}) are probably what qualified the film for the rating.
** In the UK release, the language is still there, but the film is certified U (The UK equivalent to a G) with the content descriptor reading 'Contains one use of mild language and scenes of mild comic threat'.
* [[Bait The Dog]]: In the sequel, Chester V seems to be a benevolent scientist trying to protect the world from the dangerous foodimals, but it turns out, Chester V lied about them being dangerous and he's simply planning to make them into food bars.
* [[Bathos]]: The scene where Flint takes his father to the Roofless. It's a sad and serious scene, but you can help but laugh when the steak lands on Flint's head, and the commentary to the movie reveals this was intentional.
** During several scenes in the film, the drama is interrupted by food falling everywhere. The characters usually just ignore it.
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* [[Character Blog]]: Flint has a [http://twitter.com/Flint twitter account].
* [[Cheeky Mouth]]: Inverted; the animators deliberately altered the models so they would have a distinctive profile. See [http://davidanthonygibson.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/cloudy-animation-now-with-more-meatballs/ "Cutaway Mouths" header].
{{quote| The idea was to achieve an extremely clean silhouette while treating the mouth as a two dimensional element. If you could see the other side of Flint’s face its terrifying, the skin is pulled back almost to his ear wrecking all the geometry on that side of his face. In the end it didn’t matter as long as you could see clearly through his mouth.}}
* [[Chekhov's Armoury]]: ''Every'' minor detail will show up again eventually.
** Even the Hair Unbalder shows up again about halfway through. When {{spoiler|Flint is sitting in the trashcan outside his lab, he uses the Sprayon Shoes, Hair Unbalder, and himself as examples of trash}}.
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* [[Circling Monologue]]: Done very amusingly when the mayor, so obese as to need a cart, wheels around Flint and magically alternates whispering into his right, then left (then left again) ears. And then, slowly rises up from below(!).
* [[Crawl]]: Used every time the WNN is shown.
{{quote| '''Crawl''': And we have temperatures in the 60's in --what the-- what the heck are those cheeseburgers falling from the sky?!}}
* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: The reporter was more concerned with the change in Sam's appearance instead of the disaster that's befallen the town.
* [[Crazy Consumption]]
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* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: Baby Brent when {{spoiler|he, Flint, and Sam are surrounded by mutated roasted chickens inside the giant meatball. After he gets eaten by a chicken, he bursts out of it, and starts to effectively fight off the other chickens around him and [[Big Damn Heroes|carries Flint and Sam to safety]]!}}
* [[Cute Kitten]]: Flint manages to divert Sam's attention with [[Ascended Meme|a Flash animutation of these.]]
{{quote| '''Sam:''' Can you believe I've been watching this for three hours?!}}
* [[Deceased Parents Are the Best]]: Flint's mom was loving and supportive of Flint's inventive ways. She died off screen before Flint grew up, leaving the more distant and less supportive father behind to deal with Flint.
* [[Devil in Plain Sight]]: The Mayor.
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* [[Dramatic Curtain Toss]]: Almost as epic as the [[GASP]] below.
* [[Dub Name Change]]: In the Latin American dub, Flint's surname has been changed from Lockwood to Loko (as in "Krazy" in English), while Officer Earl's name was changed to Elias.
* [[Eiffel Tower Effect]]: Lampshaded when a news reporter mentions how all the national monuments are all getting hit before the rest of the world. Heck, the Eiffel Tower itself is turned into a giant sandwich!
* [[Einstein Hair]]: Flint.
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: When the Fldsmdfr {{spoiler|turns into a supermassive black hole made out of food. And that's just the OUTSIDE... The inside is some giant...[[Buffy-Speak|THING]] that repeatedly says, MARSHMALLOW in a distorted voice, before...well, it looks creepy, okay?}}
* [[The Elevator From Ipanema]]: to Flint's lab, actually. It's also a porta potty.
* [[The End Is Nigh]]: Two men with signboards in New York, one proclaiming "The End of the World is Today!" and the other "The End is Tomorrow!" {{spoiler|the second guy gets crushed by a giant hot dog, and the first guy gloats, "I was right!"}}
* [[Everything Makes a Mushroom]]: Flint Lockwood gets a mushroom cloud early in the movie.
* [[Everything's Better with Monkeys]], especially if they can talk!
* [[Everything's Better with Rainbows]]: The opening and end credits, the jelly bean rainbow, not to mention the Spray-On Shoes spray out a rainbow.
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* [[Eye Am Watching You]]
* [[Eye Scream]]: Flint gets accidentally kicked in both eyes at one point.
{{quote| '''Flint:''' It's fine, it's just ''pain''..}}
** Flint's eyes again seem to go through this when attempting to look his father in the eye. In all fairness, Tim's eyes are creepy when he lifts his [[Blinding Bangs|unibrow...]]
** The mayor gets a chili pepper in the eye when {{spoiler|he fights Flint in the laboratory.}}
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** And a literal version too.
** There's also a background character [http://davidanthonygibson.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/cloudy-animation-now-with-more-meatballs/ who mouths "What the fuck?"] during one crowd scene. The producer didn't think it was funny, but it stayed in the completed film.
* [[Gingerbread House]]: both the book and the movie feature a house made of Jello.
* [[The Glasses Gotta Go]]: Inverted when Flint convinces Sam to embrace her nerdiness. He prefers her ''with'' [[Meganekko|the glasses.]]
* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: The machine converts water into delicious food, and there's a lot of water in clouds...
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* [[In Name Only]]: Inverted. This is what many thought the film was going to be once they saw the trailer, but it actually retains many elements from the story book!
** Those who really know the book will be able to see illustrations lifted directly from the book during the good times montage.
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Barb insists on being called an ape instead of a monkey.
* [[It Got Worse]]: Since the {{spoiler|giant meatball}} appears, the entire end of the movie proceeds through this course. It Gets Worse at least five times. It's like the writers DON'T want Flint to win or something.
* [[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time]]: A possible aversion: {{spoiler|In order to win Sam's affections, Flint says that he is allergic to peanuts like she is. Later, in the Radioactive Meatball, they encounter a cavern full of peanut brittle:}}
{{quote| {{spoiler|Sam: If either one of us touches it, we'll go into anaphylactic shock!}}<br />
{{spoiler|Flint: Actually, I'm not entirely allergic to peanuts. I... might've just said that to get you to like me.}}<br />
{{spoiler|Sam: ...So you really thought having allergies would make you more attractive?}}<br />
{{spoiler|Flint: Eh...}} }}
** It might not fit perfectly, but the question of why Flint thought the Ratbirds would save the town comes to mind.
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* [[The Load]]: Baby Brent. '''So''' much. {{spoiler|Chicken Brent, however...}}
* [[LOLcats]]: Flint has a video of cats singing "Fight The Power" by Public Enemy on his computer, which he uses to distract Sam.
{{quote| "I can't believe I've been watching this for ''three hours!''"}}
* [[Mad Scientist]]: Flint.
* [[Magical Computer]]: In Flint's lab.
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* [[Miraculous Malfunction]]: Flint hooks up his machine to the town's power station to give it enough electricity to create food from water. Instead, the extra power makes the machine take off like a rocket and start orbiting in the lower stratosphere, creating food that comes down in showers using moisture from the clouds. Later, being overworked makes the machine start overmutating the food and it eventually gains sentience.
* [[Missing Mom]]: Flint. She did have a brief scene with him as a kid, and they mentioned she died. We just don't know how. She even appears as a ghost during the end credit montage.
* [[Mix-and-Match Critters]]: The ratbirds.
* [[Moment Killer]]: Overlaps with [[Almost Kiss]]. Flint gets a call when he and Sam are about to kiss inside the Jell-O structure.
* [[Monumental Damage]]: Lampshaded.
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* [[Mundane Made Awesome]]: Flint's habit of dramatically announcing even his most trivial and insignificant actions.
** "ROLEPLAYING!"
** "HANGING UP!"
** "RE-PSYCHING!"
** "Engage Coffee Break!"
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* [[Nobody Can Die]]: You'd think that food raining down at terminal velocity would hurt someone even ''before'' [[It Got Worse]], but despite spaghetti tornadoes and avalanching leftovers, the only serious injury in the entire movie is a child going into a "food coma" from eating too much candy. (He's revived by waving celery under his nose a la smelling salts.)
* [[Noodle People]]. Not just for the pun.
{{quote| "THERE'S A MACARONI ON MY HEAD!"}}
* [[No Ontological Inertia]]: averted at ground level, but the destruction of the machine creates a shockwave that apparently clears out the red sky ''across the whole planet.''
* [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]]
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* [[Poster Gallery Bedroom]]: Flint has posters of famous scientists in his room and puts up a picture of himself as a scientist.
* [[Present Company Excluded]]
{{quote| '''Mayor''': Otherwise I'm just a tiny mayor of a tiny town full of tiny sardine-sucking knucklescrapers.<br />
'''Brent''': But not me, right?<br />
'''Mayor''': Oh, not you, Brent, no. You've always been [[Like a Son to Me]]. }}
* [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner]]: At first Subverted, but then played straight between Flint & {{spoiler|The FLDSMDFR.}}
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** When people surprise Flint, he always does a silly kung-fu pose. It's pretty easy to miss the first time you watch it, but he does it every single time.
** "Saying what I'm doing".
* [[Runs with Scissors]]: Brent, with the ceremonial scissors:
{{quote| '''Brent:''' I really shouldn't be running with these!}}
* [[Scary Black Man]]: Parodied by Officer Devereaux's devotion to his job.
* [[Shaped Like Itself]]:
{{quote| '''Devereaux:''' And my eye represents my eye!<br />
'''Flint:''' Everything's made of Jello! This piano, those sconces, that ghetto blaster, that Jello... }}
* [[She Cleans Up Nicely]]: {{spoiler|Inverted on Sam.}}
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** The ending credits use a style inspired by ''[[Yellow Submarine]]''. As a nod to this, they feature a short scene of the central characters dressed as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
** Shout outs to other sources include:
*** The Baby Brent mascot may be based on the famous "Coppertone Baby" [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20171124071639/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppertone_girl\]
*** During his first action montage, Flint appears to be throwing a [[Street Fighter|Hadouken]].
*** The first scene with the Ratbirds may be based on [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s [[The Birds]], including the part where one crashes into the camera.
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*** When the Gummi Bears attack, it's just like when the destructo-bots attack in the first ten minutes of [[Star Wars|Revenge of the Sith.]] When the Flying [[Car Mark]] II blasts off there's a [[John Williams|familiar-sounding music sting]] as well ...
***** The Gummi Bears ripping up the wing on the flying car: "[[Twilight Zone|There's a thing on the wing of this plane!!!]]"
*** No way was the explosion of {{spoiler|the Fldsmdfr}} looking exactly like the [[Star Wars|Death Star's]] explosion unintentional.
*** Finally an insanely obscure one. The Remote Controlled TV strongly resembles the titular monster from the obscure 50's [[B-Movie]] ''The Twonky'', a killer alien that resembles a TV set with legs.
* [[Sleazy Politician]]: The mayor. According to [[Word of God|the directors]], the sleazier they made him, the more people liked him.
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* [[Suit with Vested Interests]]: The Mayor's the Suit and his Vest is the town's grand re-opening.
* [[Sure, Let's Go with That]]: Flint, with Sam's explanations of the Fldsmdfr.
{{quote| '''Sam''': So when you shot it up into the stratosphere, you figured it would induce a molecular phase change of the vapor from the cumulonimbus layer?<br />
'''Flint''': That's... actually a really smart observation.<br />
'''Sam''': I mean, the clouds probably have water in them, which, uh, I guess is why you shot it up there in the first place.<br />
'''Flint''': Right, right, that's why I, I did that... on purpose... right. }}
* [[Still Got It]]: So says the mayor of Baby Brent.
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* [[Toilet Humor]]: When Flint confesses he's never been in a snowball fight, Sam reacts with surprise and says "Even [[Everything Is Better With Monkeys|Steve]] is throwing chocolate snowballs!" Cut to Steve on a patch of ''vanilla'' ice cream throwing "chocolate snowballs." Sam reacts with appropriate disgust.
* [[Top-Heavy Guy]]: Officer Devereaux, Tim Lockwood and "Baby" Brent.
* [[Trademark Favorite Food]]: Throughout the film Steve wants Flint to make it rain gummy bears, but Flint refuses because "We know how you are around gummy bears!" {{spoiler|When our heroes journey to the giant meatball in the flying car to stop the food machine, at one point giant, living gummy bears appear and attack the flying car. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Steve subsequently goes into a frenzy, tearing apart/devouring them the whole time.]] }}
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: Some previews showed {{spoiler|When the machine went horribly wrong.}} Subverted as they didn't give details on it, but still.
* [[Tron Lines]]: Parodied. Flint deliberately paints them all over his lab and inventions, entirely because it looks cool. "Coolness enhancement... complete!"
* [[Troperiffic]]: Despite the [[Homage]] listed above, ''Cloudy'' takes the cliches of family films and makes them so blatantly obvious, toddlers could potentially understand what's going on! The directors themselves [[Genre Savvy|are aware of what they're doing]] anyway, pointing out the ENTIRE [[Chekhov's Armory]] in the audio commentary.
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[[Category:All CGI Cartoon]]
[[Category:Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs]]
[[Category:3D Movie]]
[[Category:Multiple Works Need Separate Pages]]
[[Category:Western Animation of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Western Animation]]
[[Category:Film]]
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