Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 American animated science fiction comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Loosely based on the 1978 children's book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett, the film was written for the screen and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (in their feature directorial debuts), and stars the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, and Neil Patrick Harris. The film centers around an aspiring inventor named Flint Lockwood who develops, following a series of failed experiments, a machine that can convert water into food. After the machine gains sentience and begins to develop food storms, Flint must stop it in order to save the world. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs premiered at the Mann Village Theater in Los Angeles, California on September 12, 2009, and was released in the United States six days later on September 18, by Sony Pictures Releasing. It earned over $243 million worldwide on a budget of $100 million at the box office. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its colorful visuals, humor, characters, voice acting, and the score, while the simple character designs were said to be unfitting. The film has since been expanded into a franchise, with a sequel, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, released on September 27, 2013, as well as an animated television series based on the film that premiered on Cartoon Network on February 20, 2017, with none of the original cast returning. Plot Aspiring scientist Flint Lockwood lives in Swallow Falls, a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Sardines are the base of Swallow Falls' economy, but the Baby Brent Sardines cannery has gone bankrupt due to worldwide dislike of sardines. One day, Flint invents the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" (FLDSMDFR), a machine that turns water into food, which ends up shorting out his house's electrical supply. Flint decides to power the machine by hooking it up to the large riser pole at the nearby power substation, sending it rocketing through town and destroying a park conceived by the town’s mayor before ultimately shooting up into the sky. Afterwards, Flint meets Samantha "Sam" Sparks, a weather reporter intern whose big break was ruined by the incident.