Writer: Lai Swee Wei

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Watch this if you liked: “Ratatouille”

"These taste significantly better than sardines!" - According to a civilian of the small island, located behind the letter "A" of "Atlantic", where sardines play a huge part of their staple diet - their only diet. Indeed it even looked far more appetising as countless delectable cheeseburgers fall from the sky like rain, followed by the brainy weathergirl Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) TV report wisecrack, "You may have seen a meteor shower, but I bet you've never seen a shower 'meatier' than this."

Inspired by Ron and Judi Barrett's children's book of the same name, "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs" follows hyper inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) and weathergirl Sam Sparks as they attempt to stop Flint's water-turn-food invention from causing harm to the town when things go out of control. Expect plenty of quirky fun and puns while you feast your eyes on the massive array of food overloading this small town.

You have the classic nerd Flint Lockwood who never fails to add some sort of "cool" element in his laboratory and inventions, reminiscence of the early cartoon days of "Dexter's Laboratory" minus the uncanny ditzy sister Dee Dee. He is in fact a social outcast as many of his inventions have caused the town havoc. Saturday Night Live's Bill Hader couldn't have done a better job with as Flint. Having been the man of many voices, he in fact had to get used to his using own voice but just execute a heightened version of it to suit the hyper character.

Then there's Sam Sparks, a bubbly smart chick who is brilliantly voiced by Anna Faris of "House Bunny". This time, she performs out of her usual dumb blonde character and turns her voice in to play an amusing nerd. Aside from the two leads, there's also Flint's father Tim, a computer illiterate fisherman, who looks as though he's been taken out from the Sesame Street clan with eyes hidden under his thick unibrow and Flint's gummy bear loving monkey Steve, an entertaining sidekick with an awkward fetish for moustaches.

The screenplay has a lot of laugh-out-loud moments suited to entertain both kids and adults alike. Although the animation isn't as stunning if you want to compare it with Pixar's films such as "Wall-E" or "Up", nonetheless it does have its own original cartoonish appeal. Watching it in 3-D does give it a visual taste of its own making the colours more vibrant and food more feasible as it showers down from the sky.

Regardless of the 3-D effect, this film is an amazing family film where you can't help but fall in love with the story, characters and creative visionary animation. Where else can you see a sandwich skewered by the famous Eiffel Tower? Plus, the jokes are genuinely hilarious!

Cinema Online, 12 October 2009