A young man named Flint Lockwood shares his journey on becoming an inventor starting from his childhood. He invented spray on shoes—except that they couldn’t come off. Despite that, though, his mother encouraged him to continue inventing things.

Over time, Flint created lots of other inventions—only for all of them to fail. Even his father wants him to stop inventing and help him in his business (Flint’s mom died sometime prior). Yet Flint won’t stop—particularly when he finds out about how his hometown, Swallow Falls, only has sardines to feed their people. And they all dislike sardines.

Regardless of his failures with past inventions, Flint works on a special machine that can convert water into food. However, it ends up soaring into the sky. Not only that, but it also destroys an amusement park called Sardine Land right after it opens.

Flint comes across this meteorologist, Sam Sparks. She is disappointed in what he’s done—until it rains cheeseburgers from the sky. Flint and Sam are the first to eat some—and they taste delicious. Then everyone in Swallow Falls enjoys free cheeseburgers.

From that point on, the citizens make requests for food from Flint, including from Mayor Shelbourne. Flint works extra hard on giving people what they want, even if it increases the danger levels in his machine.

In addition, Flint also develops feelings for Sam. She also shares a backstory on how she was seen as nerdy when she was a child and constantly bullied by her peers. And it sounds quite similar to Flint’s youth.

Later Flint discovers that his food-making invention is producing bigger foods since it has increased its danger levels. In spite of that, though, Mayor Shelbourne forces Flint to continue with it.

So far, the larger foods aren’t a problem. And the citizens of Swallow Falls come up with creative ideas to present them and have them consumed.

However, that all changes when a tornado made of spaghetti and meatballs goes all over Swallow Falls, and then eventually the whole world. Everybody now turns on Flint.

But he still has a kill code in a USB drive, which can deactivate the machine. So, he goes into a flying car and travels to achieve that goal. His monkey, Sam, Brent McHale the former “Baby” mascot for a sardine commercial, and Sam’s cameraman, all go with him.

Crazy things happen along the way. But can Flint still succeed with disabling his machine?

Like many other animated films, this one kept me engaged with its fast pacing, humor, and decent levels of tension. Buts its premise was especially strong. I admire the idea of a machine that can transform water into food and with different features to do that.

This movie was also loosely based on the picture book from 1978, which I actually read when I was little. I was even able to recognize elements that were also in the book.

Anyway, back to the film. Flint was smart, determined, and creative. But he also wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes that angered others, which makes him credible. Sam was also likable and made a good girlfriend for Flint.

Flint’s dad was harder to like due to him discouraging his son from following his passion. But otherwise, he was a good character.

I will admit, though, that his design was kind of peculiar. His eyebrows covered his eyes and made him look eyeless. And he could still see through them. I guess that’s just a form of cartoon logic.

A lot of the extra females had pretty much the same default design. My mom actually pointed that out to me when I saw it in the theaters as a teenager. And I do think it’s a little lame for a movie released in 2009 to do that, after CGI has been out for several years.

Yes, these types of films (and all others) do take a lot of time and cost practically a fortune. But there were other CG animated movies that featured extras with more diverse designs that came out before this one.

Otherwise, I enjoyed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was a fun watch that people of all ages can see.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.