On The Bookshelf: "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"

- Posted by Rusty

What did I read? Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – Written by Judi Barrett, Illustrated by Ron Barrett

What did I think? I know what you’re thinking: “Really, Rusty? Kids’ books now??”

Very fair questions...but this was just too good to pass up. So, if you guys are with me, let me explain my crazy reasoning behind it...

I saw the movie based on Cloudy last weekend, but, right before it started, they ran that gorgeous preview for Where the Wild Things Are. And that got me thinking—a lot of people I talked to have wonderful memories of reading these two books, even if they don’t remember all the details (my co-worker, in particular, was too adorable when she recounted how much she loved the flying food in Chewandswallow). But I just couldn’t relate to that—unfortunately, I was never driven to pick up either of them. Not that I stayed away from kids’ books—I grew up on Russian fairy tales, like the evil, forest-dwelling Baba Yaga, and I learned English through Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl (especially Matilda and James and the Giant Peach) and the pretty-bad-but-incredibly-addicting Goosebumps. Once that phase was over, though, I read books every now and then, but I didn’t really embrace reading until high school—by that point, I missed out on these must-read classics, thinking myself “too grown-up”, or just plain not-interested to give them a quick read.

But, as I saw over the last few weeks, I was missing this experience—the chance to see a years-old American favorite transformed to the big screen, to get all lost in cozy memories, and geek out over beloved books you haven’t talked about in years. Of course, I can’t recreate that, but I can certainly give the original book a shot. Cloudy, in particular, looks like the kind of warm-hearted, joyful fun you’re supposed to love as a kid…so, well, I just couldn’t resist. I went straight to Borders after work, asked for the picture books section (and maybe mumbled something about it being “for my niece”…who’s, ahem, 3 months old), and came home, ready to read both classics in one fell swoop (although I’ll tackle Where the Wild Things Are in a later column—its fascinating ideas about growing up deserve a section of their own).

Even better, it’s interesting to experience these types of books as an adult. For those who know me, I’m pretty much a big kid at heart (if that—most people probably don’t even add the “at heart” part), and I have an innate love for children’s stories, especially if they’re done well, with real heart and imagination. Moreover, I always believed that good stories for children, the true kid-lit classics, have much more to offer than just pretty pictures and exciting plotlines. If you look carefully, you’ll often find some truly great, thought-provoking ideas, and powerful messages to add to the fancy events on display. True, many times, the stuff we loved as kids (I’m looking at you, Goosebumps!) doesn’t stand the test of time, remaining more as passing entertainment than something that actually touches you. But other stories are something really special—the kind of books that adults can’t wait to read to their own kids—stories that, no matter how crazy (like Alice in Wonderland), end up being all-ages pleasures (much like good family films, something Pixar excels in).

Well, I couldn’t be happier that Cloudy lives up to all that—it’s just a wonderful all-around story, with beautiful, very witty illustrations, a wickedly clever concept, and a warm, strong focus on family at its center.

For those who don’t know, or want a quick refresher course, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett, takes place on a winter day at home, with a grandfather telling his kids the bedtime story of the town of Chewandswallow. A tiny island in some far corner of the sea, Chewandswallow is remarkable for one specific reason: its weather. It never rains, nor snows, nor blows anything “normal” from the clouds in the sky—instead, the weather only produces food. That’s right, three times every day, the sky would churn out different meals, whether it’s raining pancakes, syrup, and orange juice in the morning, or hurling down steaks for dinner. No one ever goes hungry in Chewandswallow, and people always walk around with cutlery in pocket, ready to chew themselves silly at a moment’s notice! But then…the food starts getting bigger and bigger—suddenly, meatballs for dinner doesn’t sound as enticing, especially if said meatballs are a hundred times normal size, and crash through and bludgeon down every rooftop in town. Even worse are those pea soup fogs—when you can’t see anything but green all around you…not to mention those pesky flying peas…and tomato tornados…and pasta avalanches…well, you get the idea.

Like it sounds, the premise is just a great deal of fun—full of inventiveness and great visual moments…even for me, and I’m probably far from the target audience. Best of all, if you’re a kid or just a fan of good artwork, the drawings are lovely—they’re sprawling, colorful bits of imagination, relishing every bit of food falling from the sky. There’s also a great witty energy to them: take for instance the memorable image of a giant pancake flattening a school (it’s in the movie as well, and you can catch it in the trailer)—the details are fantastic, but next to all the shocked people and helicopters desperately trying to lift the pancake, there’s a little boy running on the side, tearing up his schoolbooks, and running in joy. I love that, and that would have spoken directly to me when I was 9 years old, when I kept wishing for LA to have some funky weather, just so school would finally be cancelled. Forget possible damage to the buildings—as long as I got to stay home, play hooky, and hopefully watch Saved by the Bell reruns (or Ducktales!), all was good.

Judi and Ron Barrett seem to really understand kids too—after all, isn’t that a very childlike idea, to have all your favorite things whenever you want it? To have a place so cool and unique that it’ll just rain down whatever you like, three times every day…forever? I think it taps into that—that hidden dream to enjoy every last morsel of something that you love…something we definitely have as kids, but slowly lose (for good reason) as adults. When I was growing up, my mom used to make this amazing dish—it was fresh strawberries, mixed with tons of sugar, and all topped off with whipped sour cream. It literally was the most delicious thing in the world, and I remember thinking that I could eat this every day for the rest of my life—it was that good—who needs all that vegetables and meat when you have something so mouth-wateringly fantastic at your disposal? But, of course, I would have hated eating it by Day 2…and then hated the dish in whole…and probably my mom for making me eat it. I think, as kids, we don’t realize that sometimes there can be too much of a good thing…at least not yet. Things don’t usually work in extremes, but we don’t see that until much later—as a kid, when you’re full of energy and imagination, anything seems possible, and those impossible things are way too tempting to dismiss. Cloudy works off of that idea—Chewandswallow falls apart precisely because of what makes it so awesome to kids. As a wish-fulfillment place, it shows you the dangers of having everything you could want…and, really, what kid would want to spend their days avoiding deadly, flying, giant meatballs…let alone suffer stomach aches from having to eat all the moldy bread off the bread-blocked streets? It’s an important lesson, but it's delivered with subtlety and plenty of good-natured humor.

Finally, one of my favorite things about the book was its element of family and story-telling. The entire book is centered on one grandfather’s story, supposedly from his own experiences; his grandchildren are totally skeptical at first, but, of course, get lost in the story before they know it. And that rings very true to me—stories are the best way to bring people closer together, whether it’s in a friendly or family setting—I think we bond by sharing our experiences, or just sharing silly, ridiculous, too-cool-to-be-true flights of fancy, like a food-raining town. Also, from a personal perspective, my grandpa was the greatest person I ever knew…and he was just born to tell stories. He had that voice, so full of warmth, humor, and wisdom, and every story he told was something special, be it from his own life or some Russian tale he was saving to mess with me and my sister. The relationship in this book, between the grandfather and the kids, captured that bit of story-telling magic that my grandpa perfected. It was charmingly done, and, really, it shows that you don’t need fancy things, like televisions, video games, etc, to keep people together—all you need is a good, loving audience, and the wonders of the imagination. A beautiful message indeed.

In the end, it’s no coincidence that the kids bond with their grandfather over a lively fairy tale—that’s exactly what a good children’s book could do. A good story is the bridge between any age, and Cloudy in whole is the perfect example of that.

Would I recommend it? As strange as this will sound… definitely “yes”. If you have an eight-year old relative or acquaintance, this is mandatory reading. But, then again, if you’re proudly weird like me, I’d recommend giving this a read (and, come on, it’ll take you like 10 minutes tops—no one will ever have to know…). If you read it as a kid, it will be a welcome bit of nostalgia; if you never read it before, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the sheer joy and creativity on display.

Would it make a good movie? Absolutely—that colorful world of Chewandswallow is begging to be a family movie! But, like pretty much every classic children’s book, there’s one big caveat: it’s a tiny story. At 30 pages, it might be long for children, but it’s not nearly enough to sustain a 90-minute film (this is where a lot of kid lit adaptations stumble, notably the Dr. Seuss ones). Plus, minus the grandpa and the kids, there aren’t really any fully-developed characters—at least, the characters that we have don’t really go through a journey, they don’t change in any way—they just listen to a very cool story, and for the purposes of the book, that’s perfectly fine. Thus, it will be up to the filmmakers to flesh out the world—we have the town, the crazy weather, and the fact that the falling food starts to mutate—all great elements for the filmmakers to play with, and a loose blueprint for what the final product could be. With that, the challenge lies in developing a story around those pieces, finding characters that will take us through this world, and all the while maintaining the fun and very clever spirit of the book.

Is it a movie? Yep, and a very successful one at that (it’s been #1 at the box-office two weeks in a row). Ace already reviewed the movie for you guys—he was very lukewarm to it, and that’s cool—everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, and the movie just didn’t work for him.

Me, on the other hand? I loved it—outside of the first two Shreks and the Pixar movies, I think this is one of the strongest animated films out there.

The film opens up with a fancy credit: “A Film by…a lot of people.” And that’s all we get—with nothing else to distract us, we plunge straight into the story, all about young Flint Lockwood (very well voiced by Bill Hader), and how he dreamed to invent something to give his poor, sardine-saturated town some great food. From the outset, it’s clear that the filmmakers love the source material, and that shines brightly through the rest of the film, following Flint and his genius machine that gets the sky to produce food…and the dastardly town mayor (Bruce Campbell) who tries to abuse it.

Like I said before, the filmmakers did exactly what they had to—not stretch out the minuscule story into 80 padded minutes, but rather build and expand upon the original ideas. Pretty much everything is new—the town’s crazy weather gets an origin, the plot’s extended to include the evil (but very clueless) mayor, and the whole story is brimming with well-developed characters, including Flint, his sardine-shop father, and his love interest, a perky weather girl played by one of my biggest crushes, Anna Faris (in a very shrewd bit of casting—I won’t spoil anything, but for a smart girl who plays ditzy better than anyone, this role’s especially fun knowing it’s her behind the microphone). Like Ace said in his review, fans of the book still get the iconic moments, like the pancake flattening the school and the giant jell-o castle, but now they feel like natural parts of this new narrative, and not random leftovers to please fans of the book.

Most importantly, like the best adaptations, the movie stays true to the spirit of the book. The focus on family is maintained, through the sweet (and strained) relationship between Flint and his man-of-very, very-few-words father (a well-cast James Caan). And, of course, the fun and inventiveness of the original concept is still here, now personified by Flint Lockwood, the much too earnest inventor with big dreams for Chewandswallow. The animation is also a bit off-center—these characters don’t look realistic, but they all have quirky, cartoony features, like giant eyes or (in the case of Flint’s dad) hilariously bushy, obstructing eyebrows. As such, the whole look to the film preserves the tone and visual playfulness of the original story, while the food-attack scenes rank among the best animated sequences in recent times.

Mostly, though, it’s just really funny. I won’t waste your time here with a full review, but this is one of the most purely entertaining movies I’ve seen in a while, perfectly capturing the humor of the book and its illustrations. It doesn’t reach the heights of Pixar, but it’s not really aiming there—you could tell the writer/director combo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller (both from the TV show, How I Met Your Mother) just wanted to honor the original book, and deliver us some smart family entertainment in the process.

There are a few problems (mostly having to do with Andy Samberg’s character, an ex sardine-can poster boy, who really doesn’t amount to much), but I could easily overlook them because I was having such a good time…especially with the scene-stealing voice work of Mr. T!

So, all in all, I made two great discoveries: an animated film to add to my Favorites collection, and a wonderful book for children (one that will probably be just as enjoyable for the adults who’ll read with them). Now I finally get the big smiles that appear when people think back to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It’s a deserving classic, and I think the book, along with the movie, will continue to enchant readers for many years to come.

And here are some fun facts before we go…

Fun Fact 1: The filmmakers said they tried to make the film work like an affectionate parody of big-time, expensive disaster movies, like Armageddon, Twister, and (one of my favorite stupid movies) The Day After Tomorrow…just with food. I love that idea, and if you watch the movie, you can see the elements of those disaster spectacles—ominous clouds, Michael Bay-style meteor attacks (but actually giant meatballs), and the ragtag group of everyday heroes who must save the day. Once again, just another fun bit the movie has to offer.


Fun Fact 2: This is a really good time for films based on kids’ books. In a few weeks, we’re getting Where the Wild Things Are, by Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze. Later, we’ll get The Fantastic Mr. Fox, based on Roald Dahls’ book, and brought to life in stop-motion style (like The Nightmare Before Christmas) by Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore). And, of course, in March of 2010, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland hits theaters in all of its mad visual glory. I’m really excited for all of these—like the clever Cloudy, these don't look like cookie-cutter, bland family films, but rather original visions from interesting filmmakers, all of whom actually want to breathe life, magic, and intelligence into these beloved stories. Now can someone maybe make a Golden Compass sequel? Ah, I can only hope...

Images courtesy of Atheneum Books, Sony Pictures Animation, and Columbia Pictures.