Story
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 begins as young inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is invited to work with his idol, Chester V (Will Forte) at the Live Corp Company. This is a place of innovation, which aims to improve human life through scientific design. The company has been asked to clean up an island after a food storm caused by Flint’s most recent invention, which aimed to turn water into food. In fact, it caused food to come to life in the form of creatures known as ‘foodimals’. Chester sends Flint out on a mission to find his old machine and destroy the apparently dangerous foodimals.
Chester tells Flint to keep the operation secret, but Flint tells his good friends and they come along to help. Once they arrive on the jungle-like island and encounter the foodimals, Flint and his friends realise that the foodimals aren’t dangerous as Chester has said. The foodimals just want to live in harmony with their family and friends. Flint wants to obey Chester and can’t see that his mentor has a hidden agenda, but he slowly comes to believe his own friends. He makes the difficult decision to protect the foodimals from Chester.
Themes
Friendship; good versus evil; acceptance of diversity; invention and science
Violence
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 has some mild animated violence. For example:
Sexual references
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 has some very limited sexual references. For example, Monkey, Flint’s pet and companion, drinks some coffee and burns himself. He says, ‘Hot!’ A woman walks past at the same time and says, ‘Not so bad yourself, Monkey’.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
None of concern
Nudity and sexual activity
None of concern
Product placement
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 shows some branded food products. Merchandise associated with the movie is also being marketed to children.
Coarse language
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 has some very mild coarse language that young children might copy.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is an animated adventure about friendship and trust. Flint allows himself to be manipulated by Chester, and because he idealises Chester, Flint forgets that his true friends are the ones who really care about him.
The movie also shows that situations are not always as simple as they seem. It suggests that everyone should think for themselves, rather than just accepting other people’s opinions.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is generally a family-friendly movie, although there are a few scenes that might be scary for children under six years.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include:
- trusting in your friends and not taking the people you love for granted
- never doubting your own abilities
- believing that everyone – no matter how inexperienced – can make a worthwhile contribution to society
- seeing other people for who they really are, without either idealising them or putting them down.
This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues such as:
- balancing independence with relationships with friends and family
- accepting difference, rather than destroying or fearing those who are different.