A fun science fiction adventure with little or no rules where the writers are allowed to enjoy themselves, leads to creating an entertaining and interesting world. The creation of this creative environment has lead to science fiction masterpieces, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, or even Back to the Future. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) is one of those masterpieces.

The movie is full of fun creations: a tv with legs who becomes a recurring character, or a giant food catapult. These parts of the movie create a sense of simplicity, and childlike wonder. Yet the writing has changing moods from scene to scene making us care for the characters and view them as more human. The arguments between character seem legitimate and never escalate to an unreasonable extreme. Characters also have clear motivations, such as Earl who just wants to give his son, Cal, a better future and a happier day. These tonal shifts don’t feel forced or unexpected at all, it feels feels natural and grounded in reality.

Not to mention in this imaginative writing there are complex scenes stuffed with subtle things, such as why Flint and his father's relationship is strained without directly saying it, while still having great comedy for the whole family, like an amazing cat gif touch more on later. In Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, we follow Flint Lockwood, a struggling engineer who wants to help people but has a poor track record of how his creations actually work. But he soon becomes beloved by the town after his latest invention goes sky high. Will this fame last or will it all come down in flames as people’s greed grows?

One scene that exemplifies what I’ve written in this review is the scene where Manny and Sam come back to Flint’s lab for the first time. In this scene, we have a great moment of the three standing awkwardly close to each other in the elevator in silence. Which is fantastic way to set the tone for the rest of the scene. It’s funny to watch Flint awkwardly give a tour to quite possibly the first person ever. While giving the tour, Sam asks a question showing her inquisitive and curious nature, while simultaneously showing Flint he has a problem. Flint quickly distracts the two with a bit of foreshadowing, a cat gif that comes back a few times and once again in the climax. While they are distracted, Flint is able to construct a satellite to contact his creation. Moments of Flint creating things helps create a belief in Flint so near the climax, when he creates a flying car, it is believable rather than thrown in nonsense like Manny’s extensive background and vast history of careers.

Not to mention how this scene looks, which is amazing, it is such a cartoony look that’s consistent through every scene where nothing on screen ever looks out of place, which also allows for characters to move in semi inhuman ways, while still looking natural and moving fluidly. The sounds are well mixed, so if someone is far away, they will be quieter than characters next to “the camera”. Movie’s pacing is also good, as the size of the food slowly accelerates rather than an instant occurrence. There were side conflicts, that slowly built and were subsequently dealt with, which I appreciate as a single conflict can become boring and contrived over time.

Over all, it’s not a perfect movie, some jokes drag on, especially jokes I never thought were funny, such as Steve and gummy bears. But at least those jokes still served as good foreshadowing. Whereas other parts I could’ve gone without, like Sam’s inability to decide whether to be her self or what people want, which is basically boils down to will Sam wear a scrunchy? But it was still a great piece of science fiction with a unique concept, and I would rate it 4 stars out of 5.