CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 Review

I adore Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s adaptation of the classic children’s book is one of the most unexpected and successful book adaptations of the past several years.  Most movies based on children books are belabored, tiresome affairs, and Cloudy turned the simple idea of food falling from the sky into a weird, adorable, and hilarious animated comedy.  It set an incredibly high bar for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, but new directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn have come close to giving us a movie as wonderful as the original.  Everything that made the first Cloudy a success is still in place, even though there’s more reliance on some cheap gags.  The sequel has cemented the identity of the series even though the story leaves some residual guiltiness about being a carnivore. Picking up right where the first movie left off, Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is ready to build a science-based theme park, “Sparkswood”, on his tiny island of Swallow Falls with girlfriend and meteorologist Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), cameraman Manny (Benjamin Bratt), security guard Earl (Terry Crews), bully-turned-friend Brent (Andy Samberg), Flint’s dad (James Caan), and talking monkey Steve (Neil Patrick Harris).  But before they can even begin, famous scientist and Flint’s childhood hero Chester V (Will Forte) comes charging in under the guise of cleaning up the leftovers and to offer Flint a job at Chester’s science utopia, Live Corp.  But Flint is soon called back in to shutdown the ...