Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 Parent Guide
This creative diversion cooks up a tantalizing tale about the power of friendship, family relationships and scientific integrity. That makes it a pretty appetizing entertainment option for families.
Parent Movie Review
Food takes on a life of its own in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. After his food making machine, an invention that turned simple water molecules into scrumptious entrees, went berserk in the first movie, Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader), his father Tim (voice of James Caan) and everyone else on the island of Swallow Falls are forced to evacuate.
An environmental group, The Live Corp, is called in to clean up the leftovers and restore the island. At the head of the company is Flint’s idol Chester V (voice of Will Forte). While deploying his team of ecological engineers, he invites Flint to be part of his ultra hip, caffeine-driven, cubicle dwelling work force. Theses are the people always toiling to invent something new and fantastic for Chester V’s consumption hungry public.
But after one dismal failure follows another, Flint begins to wonder if he’ll ever get a chance to be part of Chester V’s inner sanctum of scientists. Then one day he is summoned to the head honcho’s high tech office and given the opportunity to return to the island and take on a secret, one-man mission. Flint is so excited that he fails to withhold this confidential information and before long he is headed back to Swallow Falls with his father and his friends Sam Sparks (voice of Anna Farris), Brent (voice of Andy Samberg), Manny (voice of Benjamin Bratt), Earl (voice of Terry Crews) and his monkey Steve (voice of Neil Patrick Harris).
Once they’re back home, the group discovers the food machine is still working. But now it’s creating food-animal mutants like shrimpanzees, apple pie-thons and green onion brontosauruses. In order to stop the machine, Flint and his friends have to get past the hungry tacodiles, wade through the maple syrup bog and scale the big rock candy mountain.
The fantasy elements in this film rise to a new high with a Jurassic Park-like theme on the island. Even the musical score sounds surprisingly similar to the dinosaur movie. Thankfully the script contains a healthy helping of jokes for the parents and plenty of imaginative creatures for young viewers. Some brief moments of peril (involving a hungry cheese throwing hamburger spider and the threat of falling into a giant food grinder) along with moments of bullying and an apparent death are the movie’s biggest concerns for parents of little children. Otherwise this creative diversion, with its crazy food creatures and an earnest young scientist, cooks up a tantalizing tale about the power of friendship, family relationships and scientific integrity. And that makes it a pretty appetizing entertainment option for family audiences.
Directed by Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn. Starring Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Will Forte, Neil Patrick Harris. Running time: 95 minutes. Theatrical release September 27, 2013. Updated July 17, 2017About author
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
Rating & Content Info
Why is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 rated PG? Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 is rated PG by the MPAA for mild rude humor.
Violence: A male character is hit in the groin. A character is bullied and humiliated in front of others. Characters experience brief peril when chased by animals. One character appears to be eaten. A man is pushed over the edge of a cliff. Characters tumble over a waterfall. A group of people is tied up and hung over a giant food grinder - one character falls in. Characters argue briefly.
Sexual Content: Characters kiss briefly. One character is seen in his underwear, and a girl is shown in her bikini.
Language: The script contains some brief name-calling and bullying threats.
Alcohol / Drug Use: Characters drink excessive amounts of coffee and use multiple caffeine patches at the same time to keep them awake.
Other: The script contains a couple of brief bathroom and flatulence jokes. A cow is shown with her partially born calf hanging out.
Page last updated July 17, 2017
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 Parents' Guide
The first film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is based on a book by Judi Barrett, and illustrated by Ron Barrett.
This movie takes the tale in a whole new direction. What similarities can you find between the book and the movies? How much creative license have the screenwriters taken with the original idea?
How are scientists portrayed in this movie? What two sides of scientific invention and integrity do we see?
Food idioms are a common part of the English language. List as many of them as you can and then check your list against this one.
Home Video
The most recent home video release of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 movie is January 28, 2014. Here are some details…
Home Video Notes: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
Release Date: 28 January 2014
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 releases to home video in the following packages:
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (3D Blu-ray & Blu-ray Combo Pack) exclusives include:
- Mini-Movie: Attack of the 50-Foot Gummi Bear (Flint’s mischievous gummi bear grows to 50-feet by using his new food-modifying invention while Steve is in charge. Steve must frantically chase the gummi bear and transform him back to normal size before Flint returns to the lab.)
- Mini-Movie: Steve’s First Bath (Flint’s failed date with Sam is because of Steve’s mischievous ways.)
- Mini-Movie: Super Manny (Manny, the Jack of all trades, saves an adorable kitty with his many skills.)
- Mini-Movie: Earl Scouts (The Foodimals join Earl’s scouting program but are very competitive.)
- Deleted Scenes
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD):
- Filmmaker Commentary with directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn
- Featurette: Anatomy of a Foodimal” - Flamangos, Cheesespiders, Hippotatomuses! Oh my! (Sit down with filmmakers to discuss the inspiration behind these wacky food-animal hybrids that have taken over Swallow Falls, and chat with the gang to find out how they came up with the Food-imal’s creative and amusing names.)
- Featurette: Production Design: Back in the Kitchen (Where do you go after it rains cheeseburgers all over Swallow Falls? Back to the kitchen of course! Hear from filmmakers Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn on how they came up with stories and jokes for the film.)
- Featurette: Awesome End Credits (Dive into the end credit sequence with the filmmakers and discover how they used a mix of 3D, 2D, stop motion and live action.)
- Featurette: Cloudy Café: Who’s On the Menu? (Hear from newcomers Will Forte and Kristen Schaal about what drew them (pun intended) to this animated feature and how they “discovered” the voices of Chester V and Barb. Then, sit down with Terry Crews, as he steps into the pair of size 12 shoes left by Mr. T to portray Officer Earl Devereaux. Plus, hear from all your returning favorites including Anna Ferris and Bill Hader.)
- Featurette: Building the Foodimals (Animators discuss creating and animating the foodimals.)
- Featurette: The Sasquash (Exploring all the places in the film that the sneaky Sasquash is hiding.)
- Featurette; Delicious Production Design (Animators discuss the design of the film.)
- Cody Simpson “La Da Dee” Music Video and Making of the video featurette.
Related home video titles:
This movie is a sequel to Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Bill Hader can also be seen in Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian and heard in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
Related news about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
