If you have Roku on your television, you might have noticed that they advertise movies on their own channel.  I never paid attention to these until they made Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022).  Then again, they have not made anything of that quality since then, at least not to my knowledge.  Since that release, the only films I see them promote are ones that might have once had some name recognition, but have since faded from memory to a degree.  This cycle is particularly evident in the animation genre because, you know, kids and their attention spans.  All of this neatly describes today’s selection, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009).  It is a title I have basically seen before, though I should not have been watching it at all given that I was supposed to be lifeguarding.  Dive-in movies are chaotic enough without one’s focus being diverted.  Hopefully, you will be able to focus long enough on this review to make it to the end.

Life has not always been sunny for Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  As a young child (voiced by Max Neuwirth), all he ever dreamed about was being an inventor.  This means he is smarter than most, and if you grew up in the United States, this means that you are bullied.  His first idea is spray on shoes, but everyone laughs at him when he tests them out in front of his class and he cannot get them off.  It is his mother, Fran Lockwood (voiced by Lauren Graham), who cheers him up and encourages his tinkering by getting Flint his own, official, lab coat.  Unfortunately, at some point in the next ten years, she passes away, leaving Flint with his less-than-enthusiastic dad, Timothy “Tim” Lockwood (voiced by James Caan).  He is stuck in his ways and does not think much of technology.  He is trying to connect with his son, though, but only on dad’s terms.  This means opening up a fishing store on the island on which they live.  Off the coast of America, their one claim to fame had been sardine harvesting until the world apparently realized that they taste gross.  Though everyone is getting sick of the diminutive fish, Tim insists that the shop be run by father and son, much to Flint’s disappointment.  Hoping to take the town in a new direction, Mayor Shelbourne (voiced by Bruce Campbell), hopes to unveil a new sardine themed amusement park.  He is having a big unveiling, and Flint insists his dad goes to it while he minds their store.  While Tim is away, Flint decides to take his new machine, a food creation device, to nearby electricity transformers in order to give it the necessary power it needs to work.  As soon as he hooks it up, the machine goes haywire and blasts off like a rocket.  It ricochets around town and ruins the unveiling until zooming into the lower atmosphere.  Everyone blames Flint, but the hardest part for him is seeing the disappointment on his dad’s face.  Flint’s reaction is to run to the docks to hide.  There he encounters Samantha “Sam” Sparks (voiced by Anna Faris).  She is a weather reporter sent to the island for her first big break, but does not do so well with her first time being on camera.  When they meet, Sam is initially thrilled with Flint’s gadgets, but quickly changes her intelligent talk to sound less smart.  It is during their exchange that it begins to rain cheeseburgers from the sky.  This is the result of Flint’s device absorbing moisture and turning it into food, in this case the cheeseburger he had been trying to conjure.  When the sky begins raining these slabs of bread, meat, and their usual accompaniment, everyone immediately grasps the significance.  The one who sees the most selfish potential is Mayor Shelbourne, whose quest for fame is unbridled.  He makes demands on Flint to continue with the culinary weather, and Flint promises to make this happen despite not having a way of communicating with his creation.  Nonetheless, he does so because he is eager to impress. Soon, the town is being blanketed daily by whatever almost anyone can think of to eat, and Flint is a celebrity.  Mayor Shelbourne wants to build up the island as a tourist destination for cruise ships.  Meanwhile, there are two peoples whose hearts Flint hopes to win.  The first is Sam, for whom he builds a mansion made completely out of her favorite dessert: Jell-O.  This seems to work, though the other person is proving harder to crack, and that is Tim.  Yet, so long as Flint’s fame grows, he can at least tell himself that he is helping people.  Thus, what could go wrong.  Of course, problems begin to occur with the food.  There is a gauge to tell Flint when things are becoming unstable, and it is beginning to drift into the yellow.  Regardless of the dangers, Mayor Shelbourne continues to put pressure on Flint to produce food.  Everything breaks loose on the same day as Mayor Shelbourne’s opening the island to tourists.  It starts with a spaghetti and meatballs tornado.  After that subsides, Sam notices a larger storm brewing.  As this is happening, Flint feels powerless to do anything, and decides to literally throw himself in the trash.  It takes a pep talk from dad to help Flint regain his confidence.  With it duly restored, he whips up a flying car to get to the machine and shut it down before it destroys the world.  There are a whole host of cartoon antics in between all of this, but this is a basic rendering of the events.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is full of the kind of attempts at humor that you would expect from such a film.  Yet, in seeing the aforementioned advertisements on Roku, my Catholic imagination began to wonder at the possibilities.  To be clear, the heart of the film is the relationship between Flint and Tim, dealing with Fran’s passing and learning to co-exist with one another.  It is a beautiful sentiment, they hardly particular to Catholicism.  Instead, what interests me more is Flint’s desire to help people.  The Church teaches that this desire is something imbued into all of us.  The enemy can use these sentiments against us at times.  Seeing the happiness that Flint’s food brings to everyone in town is a powerful enticement for Flint to not heed the dangers he can so clearly discern in continued use of the machine.  The adulation of the crowds is a fleeting one.  In God’s eyes, there is nothing wrong with trying to assist others.  When handled properly, neither is the notoriety that can come with powerful acts of generosity, and it can lead to further benefits.  It is clear that Flint does not and he therefore does not know his worth.  It takes his father, and I hope you get the double meaning here, to tell Flint his true value.

If this is too serious of a take on Sunny with a Chance of Meatballs, just know that there is a talking monkey in it named Steve (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris).  Between that and the colorful pictures, it should keep any wee one occupied during its runtime.  Us adults will probably have different ideas, but an hour and a half is not too bad.  Takes this for what you will.