Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

I wrote a little about this in a blog post a long time ago (mentioned it is more what I did). But you know, I had to dedicate an entire post to this because it includes my two favorite subjects to write about into one: nostalgia and TV watching.

This was my absolute favorite book as a kid, hands down. I LOVED it to pieces! The first time I heard it, was in storytime during 1st grade. After that time, every time we read it for storytime in class (1st grade-2nd grade), I was probably one of, if not the most excited kid there. Then when I got a little older and I could read for myself (3rd grade-4th grade), I began to seek out the book in the school library and always checked it out whenever possible.

When I got into middle school, I had forgotten about the book since we were encouraged to read novels and there were so many other books and stories on my mind. However, one day probably in like 7th grade when I was browsing through the shelves way below my level, I came across it again. I pulled it out and read it just for fun. Ohhh, it brought back so many memories C:

I think that was the last time I read it.

Now fast forward to fall of 2008. I'm now a sophomore in high school. I was in the school library after seminary, on the computer not doing anything in particular. I was just kind of looking up random stuff on the internet. I don't remember exactly what I was looking at (probably movie stuff. I love to brush up on my movie trivia when I get the time), but somehow I came across a link to a Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs movie on wikipedia. Naturally I clicked on it, remembering

the book from my childhood. I read the limited information and was excited that it was a legit project in the works. I was pleased that it was going to be an animated movie and that its planned release date was for the following year. I was also intrigued by the teaser poster.

I shared the news with my friends. They humored me as usual since I often get excited over things like that and not normal teenage stuff, but my one friend, Sarah Diekmann, was my fangirl buddy. We both tripped out together and squeed like crazy people. "OMG I can't believe they're making it into a movie! That was my favorite book as a kid!" and such.

I continually checked for updates on the movie as the months passed and kept Sarah up to date. I won't bore you with that stuff (I don't even remember most of it). Finally, practically a year later, it came to theaters. I went and saw it with Sarah in 3-D (fun fact: this was the first 3-D movie I had seen since they changed the red and blue glasses). It was everything we had hoped for!

Yeah... I totally love this story! I mean it's about food falling from the sky! What kind of kid wouldn't think that's totally awesome? And the illustrations were just so memorable and funny. And the food just looked so

good! (I remember particularly always wanting the giant donuts because I thought they looked so delicious).

Then the movie is so delightfully ridiculous that I just can't help but love it. Except for that one really bizarre part near the end where they're inside the giant meatball looking for the FLDSMDFR, right before Flint goes down the peanut brittle hole (everyone who's seen the movie knows exactly which part I'm talking about). Even though they change a lot of the plot, the whole general idea is still there and there's so many jokes/homages to the book that you wouldn't get/appreciate if you hadn't read it before watching ("There's a macaroni on my head!").

The characters they added (since the original story didn't really have any specific characters) are totally quirky and engaging and lovable. And each of their designs are great (oh my gosh, Flint's dad's eyebrows XD). My favorite character in particular is Earl the police officer. He makes me laugh so hard. But I love them all!

The movie is so quotable. Seriously, a lot of my favorite quotes come from this movie. And the slapstick of it and the wittiness! I love the humor in this movie so much!
(My favorite part):
Flint: Researching! Role playing! Dialling! Waiting!...
Sam: Sam Sparks.
Flint: Hanging up! Regretting! Re-syking! Saying what I'm doing!
Sam: Flint?
Flint: Hi Sam. How are you? That's nice. I was wondering if you'd like to go on a da-- uh, activity with me tomorrow?
Sam: ...Um, OK.
Flint: Great. Bye! Meet me in the forest! *hangs up* Nailed it!

Also the way they pay homage to all those disaster films like Day After Tomorrow or Twister or whatever else. ("It seems the food storm is hitting all the world's most famous landmarks first and is now spreading to the rest of the globe.") Good gosh, I love it so much!

I seriously could go on with everything else I love about the movie (it actually is one of my favorites), but I'm going to spare you. I'm for sure going to read this book to my kids and have them watch the movie.

Tim: "Can you look me in the eye and tell me you've got this under control and it's not going to end up in a disaster?"
Flint: "Yes... I'vegotthisundercontrolandit'snotgoingtoendupadisaster! Ohhh!"

(Oh, did you know that they're making a Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2? Yeah. Check it out.)