Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Blu-ray) (2009) |
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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Blu-ray) (2009) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Animation |
Audio Commentary-Writer/Directors Miller & Lord with Actor Bill Hader Featurette-Making Of Deleted Scenes Featurette-Early Development Scenes Featurette-Progression Reels Game-Splat Mode Music Video-Miranda Cosgrove - Raining Sunshine and Making of Game-Flints Food Fight Featurette-Cast voices |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2009 | ||
| Running Time | 89:00 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Ads Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By |
Phil Lord Chris Miller |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Bill Hader Anna Faris James Caan Andy Samberg Bruce Campbell Mr. T Bobb'e J. Thompson |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | ? | Music |
Mark Mothersbaugh Mary Hidalgo Justin Thompson |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (4608Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) French DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 (4608Kb/s) Arabic Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Dutch Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 1080p | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English English for the Hearing Impaired Arabic Dutch French Hindi Dutch Audio Commentary English Audio Commentary French Audio Commentary |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is the latest blockbuster animated feature for Sony Animation. The DVD version of this film was recently reviewed on this site. That review can be found here.
I won't restate the plot which is ably detailed in the earlier review. The real question for any purchaser with a Blu-ray player is whether the added expense of purchasing the Blu-ray version is justifiable. That really depends on a few factors:
The last one is a bit of a personal call. Do the kids watch DVD's on the old TV out back or are films watched in a family environment, in a dedicated home theatre area? If you view this as a kids flick and the kids are not to be "seen or heard" then the DVD sounds a pretty good proposition. Actually, even that is not fair as, for a few dollars more, you can buy a version which includes the DVD as an extra.
I concur with DanielB that this is a fast , fun film with a few thought provoking issues thrown in for the kids, including accepting who you are and reigning in consumerist tendencies.
The voice cast is good but the direction and style is the real winner. There are also plenty of adult chuckle moments.
So, one point out of the way, the others are considered below.
In a word - stunning.
The film is presented on Blu-ray, as with DVD, in the correct theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
In the extra feature on the progression reels the lead animator describes by illustration the extent the animators went to keep to a colour scheme consistent with the mood of the film as it changed from beginning to end. Though I can't say I really noticed the progression, other than to note the difference between the old town and the new town, I can say that the colours are by far the film's best asset. There is a literal explosion of colour in the film. The animators clearly had licence to go wild with the colour charts and each is rendered with extraordinary stability in this Blu-ray transfer.
This really is a film to show off to your friends when looking at your new home theatre system. Of course, animation always looks good on Blu-ray but this comes very close to reference quality. Each piece of food looks good enough to eat. The animation is deliberately cartoony in that the characters have outsized physical features and this look translates perfectly to a film that has raining burgers and a jello castle!
The use of light is also well handled and the blacks are deep.
There are no technical flaws with the transfer.
There are subtitles in English, French, English for the Hearing Impaired, Arabic, Dutch and Hindi. The commentary track has subtitles in English, French and Dutch. They are easy to read and give a good account of on-screen action.
| Sharpness |  |
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| Film Artefacts | |
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The audio for Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs comes in a banquet of flavours.
This Blu-ray sports five audio options; an English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 as well as a French counterpart, and Arabic, Dutch and English Audio Descriptive Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks running at 640Kb/s. The commentary track is Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack running at 192Kb/s.
The voice acting is high quality and the dialogue can be heard clearly and is easy to understand.
Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh provides a perky and engaging score for the film including the main theme which is stirring enough to accompany a war film.
The sonic range of the film is on a par with the visuals. There is sound coming from everywhere - corn here, ice cream dropping there and the sound of a town being devastated by a giant twister. The sub-woofer has a field day with deep bass throughout as the food items hit the ground with an almighty splat.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
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| Surround Channel Use | |
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| Overall | |
So, what extra extras does the Blu-ray get you? Not many as it turns out. The bulk of extras are the same as in the standard version although they do come in High Definition.
A fun, flying, food based game. Enhanced for Blu-ray which , I guess, means it looks better.
I always approach commentary tracks for animated features with some trepidation. After all, the actors can't really talk about the trials and tribulations of 3 months on set and the directors are really animator shepherds. Still this is a lot of fun mainly due to the personalities of the three. They are a young bunch of fun guys and this is reflected in a commentary that may not be extremely informative but is a lot of fun.
An interesting Making of delivered in a breezy, fun style. Actors, directors and animators get a look in and there is ample footage of the CGI work at various stages of rendering.
Always a fun part of an animated DVD we get to see the faces behind the dialogue.
Two scenes are included:
The first is just an early development but the second is a fully realized scene. Both are a fun watch.
Storyboard versions of two extra scenes being :
The first shows how the script was tightened and improved as this long, pretty unfunny scene was the original introduction to the wacky inventions of Flint. The twister scene was also less interesting than the final version.
The Visual Effects Supervisor introduces the scenes below and takes us through each stage of the animation process. A stunning amount of work went into recreating set pieces such as the giant spaghetti and meatballs twister.
This is a Blu-ray exclusive. It enables you, whilst watching the movie, to flick a piece of food at the screen and watch it go, well .... splat. This seemed like a perfectly infantile task but everyone who walked past the screen when it was on wanted to have a crack at it so I guess it is addictive!
Why wouldn't you want to sing-a-long to the music video of I Carly star Cosgrove singing the end credit number? Especially when you can indulge in following the words in a choice of multi-angles of four different food-based-bouncing-balls.
Maybe you should just watch the video?
Then watch a video about the making of the video. Pity there wasn't a featurette about how the team put together the making of video!
The Blu-ray starts with a teaser for Open Season 3 and a trailer for Michael Jackson : This Is It.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Blu-ray of this film is fairly identical to other Regions, containing only minor variations in the trailers and language options.
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is a great animated feature that is perfect family fodder, with enough jokes to keep adults entertained whilst kids are enjoying the visual fireworks.
The transfer is stunning both in sound and vision terms and can be pulled out by any hi def bore to extol the virtues of Blu-ray to sceptical friends.
The extras are a bunch of fun even if they don't offer much beyond the standard definition experience.
| Video | |
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| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer BDP-LX70A Blu-ray Player, using HDMI output |
| Display | Pioneer PDP-5000EX. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Onkyo TX-SR605 |
| Speakers | JBL 5.1 Surround and Subwoofer |