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Parents' Guide to

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 6+

Sequel gives new meaning to playing with your food.

Movie PG 2013 85 minutes
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 6+

Based on 10 parent reviews

age 4+

Where do I even start?

There's so much wrong with this film, I can't even list everything. The only things good about this are the visuals and the cuteness but that's about it. This movie was a complete kid-appeal cash grab that screwed up the first one. Flint has gone from a smart, idealistic scientist who wants to help the world to an illogical coward who cares only about some guy that he didn't even give a heck about in the first film. Like, what kind of 18 year old would believe that bullies can't redeem themselves? Steve has gone from just an annoying, two-dimensional monkey to a cruel, thieving beast who made Flint cry at one point. All the other characters are shadows of their former selves who do barely anything and have lost the depth and charm to them and the new ones are two-dimensional and nothing special. Chester V is the predictable character the hero admires who turns out to be a villain. The story is also pretty much a rehash of the first one as well as Flint's character development. There are so much food puns in this movie it's tiresome really fast. There were probably like 2 or 3 jokes I laughed it and the rest is cringy. I cannot imagine Flint inventing wedgie underwear. Sorry for my angry comment but I love the first one quite a bit and was sorely disappointed in how much this has ruined it. Go watch the first one, while it's not the most groundbreaking and not Pixar tier, it has a much more creative story and more well-developed, quirky characters than this mediocrely-written garbage. Unless you have kids under the age of 11, it's not worth the viewing.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
2 people found this helpful.
age 7+
Fun movie with cute Food animals my daughter loved this one more then the first one.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (10 ):
Kids say (39 ):

Since the original made it clear that this cinematic story was only very loosely based on the beloved children's book, it was easy to step into the story again without preconceived expectations. To keep the food machine (that is, the Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator, or "FLDSMDFR") plot going, the writers devised a conceit in which the FLDSMDFR is able to create "living" food that looks and acts like a host of different real (and extinct!) animal-food hybrids. Some of the frightening predators -- like the cheespider, the taco-diles, and the apple pie-thons -- will momentarily scare younger viewers, whereas others -- like Barry the strawberry, the fruit cockatiel, and the mini marshmallows -- are sweet and huggable.

In addition to "foodimals," the story introduces viewers to new characters who might seem friendly to kids, but adults will recognize them as evil right away -- like Chester V (voiced in a perfectly creepy falsetto by Saturday Night Live alum Forte), a Steve Jobs-like visionary with a thing for facial hair, turtlenecks, and grand pronouncements. His interest in the naive and insecure Flint makes for an interesting conflict, and his talking-ape assistant, Barb (Kristen Schaal), is the kind of confused character who just wants to be considered a friend. The focus on the Live Corp. characters leaves less for Flint's friends to do, but they manage to add enough comic relief for fans of the first movie. As for the squishy Barry, the marshmallow family, and Mr. Lockwood's new fishing pals (the hilarious pickles with a love of sardines) -- they're like Despicable Me's Minions -- funny bundles of adorable.

Movie Details

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