Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 Blu-ray Review

By: Lynn Barker

Young inventor Flint Lockwood goes to work for his hero at Live Corp only to be sent back home when his food-making invention, still working, has now stocked the Swallow Falls Island with “foodimals” and…they are learning to swim! Can Flint and pals save the world yet again?

Flint and friends' first look at the foodimal kingdom

Story Goes

After the first “Meatball” film, inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) and pals had to escape the island town of Swallow Falls when a food storm caused by Flint’s chow-making invention destroyed everything. In “Cloudy 2”, Flint is recruited by his inventor idol Chester (Will Forte) to work for Live Corp where he can join young genius inventors and prove himself.

Flint and Chester search for the foodimal machine

Also joining Flint now living SanFran Jose, Ca. is girlfriend/weather person Sam (Anna Faris). Although Flint’s new inventions haven’t been successful, Chester sends him back home to Swallow Falls because his food-making machine is still working and has combined animals on the island with food. These “foodimals” are on the warpath and are learning to swim. Once they do, goodbye world!

A happy moment on the foodimal island

After gathering up old pals Brent (Andy Samberg), cameraman Manny (Benjamin Bratt) and cop Earl (Terry Crews), Sam and Flint are joined by Chester’s right hand “monkey”
Barb (Kristen Schaal), Flint’s dad Tim (James Caan) and monkey Steve (Neil Patrick Harris) and, on the island, discover foodimals like hipotatomuses, shrimpanzees, flamangoes and the huge, seemingly hostile tacodile and cheespider (a giant cheeseburger with French fry legs!). The gang uncovers a plot and Flint and friends learn that all is not what it seems. Can they save themselves, the foodimals and still protect the planet?

Chased by a cheespider

Special Features

On the Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD set we received there are a load of extras:

Filmmaker Commentary – The two directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn are very funny and their comments are well worth a listen for laughs and info.

Mini-Movies  - cute shorts that include “Steve’s First Bath” in which Flint tries to plan a romantic evening for himself and Sam but Steve’s odor sets Flint on a crusade to bathe him. Of course he invents a machine to do so that doesn’t quite work. Cute.

Steve and Flint face foodimal danger

In “Super Manny” Sam’s cameraman Manny has an adventure just trying to get to work. His superhero behavior saves various animals. Sweet

“Attack of the 50 Foot Gummi Bear” is, yep, a machine-enlarged Gummi on a rampage. It takes an enlarged Steve to bring him down. Fun

The new foodimal world makes Earl cry with delight

“Earl Scouts” presents Officer Earl taking Pickle and Strawberry on a survival of the fittest campout in the boonies. This results in a “Coyote vs. Roadrunner-style” war until the two learn to cooperate to survive. I liked this short the best.

Pickle foodimals hang out on Tim's boat

Deleted Scenes – These are very short and fully animated. All are fun but not needed in the film.

Production Design: Back to the Kitchen – Producer and Directors reveal that the film was based on a monster movie theme but with “friendly” misunderstood food monsters. For this second film, they went for a larger environment and a magical, super colorful world. Cute fact? One guy actually poured out a ton of syrup and walked through it so he could animate the scene in the movie! Yuk!

There's a leek in the boat!

Cloudy Cafe: Who is on the Menu? – This is the character bio extra in which all the voice actors talk about their characters, how they see them and how fun it was to voice them. A cute extra.

Anatomy of a Foodimal – Actors talk about how inventive the foodimals are and the directors show us how to make actual funny animals out of real food. These guys had way too much fun making and posing their foodimals into little scenes etc. Guys! Didn’t your mom tell you not to play with your food? Their response? “Working on this film made us hungry”. Fun.

The dreaded Tacodile

Awesome end Credits – This is a very interesting extra and you will want to go back and watch all that happens under the end credits. Filmmakers talk about how they used cute 2-D animation and stop motion techniques to tell the story of how the foodimals and humans live together on the island after Flint saves the day. Very interesting and fun.

La Da Dee Music Video – this is an upbeat love ditty written and performed by Cody Simpson. Fun to dance to. There is also a very brief “Making of La Da Dee” that has Cody on set.

Flint meets his first foodimal Barry...the berry

Delicious Production Design – This extra expands on the other Production Design featurette as we get more about creating the town of SanFran Jose and making the island look both wrecked and taken over by foodimals. Why the choice of “bioluminescence” and the “living painting” look of the movie is explained. Also how to make foodimals fun and not really scary.

The Mysterious Sasquash -  One of the foodimals was a squash made into a “bigfoot” style creature. The filmmakers had fun hiding him in the background like “Where’s Waldo” throughout the movie. Just a silly insider joke but they show us where to look for him and that can be a hoot!

Hiding on the island

Wrapping Up

This film is a colorful eyeful! You can also see it again and again to discover all the fun background foodimals you probably missed. There are a few twists in the story to make it interesting and this Blu-ray set is well worth adding to your collection. It’s loaded with short but fun extras and the directors’ commentary is entertaining for a change.

The gang walking through the syrup bog

All the voice actors, many “Saturday Night Live” alums, do a great job and you even get a good lesson about the evils of some large corporations and learn that you shouldn’t judge a book or foodimal by its cover. For the set as a whole, we go 4 stars.

Sam confronts the cheespider

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 Blu-ray Rating:

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 Blu-ray Cover art

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 is available on Blu-ray + DVD now!