By Chelsea Reil, News Staff

This seems to be the year of childhood stories. People are turning to Hollywood to remind them of better days ‘- the days when we read ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ (both of which have been adapted for film and are due out later this year) before bed.
‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ is also a throwback to our younger days. An animated adaptation of the popular children’s book of the same name by Judi Barrett, the film tells the story of Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader) and his quest to save his town by inventing a machine that will turn water into any food on Earth. His machine draws the attention of brainy weathergirl Sam Sparks (voice of Anna Faris) and the world. When the machine starts raining monster-sized hot dogs, gummy bears and pancakes, Sam and Flint try to save the town from too much food.
Some children’s movies can be dismissed as lowbrow and almost insulting to kids:’ Just because they’re young doesn’t mean they don’t deserve quality movies. ‘Cloudy’ does not fall in this category.
With clever dialogue and smart jokes, this is the epitome of the family movie. The film also portrays interesting relationships, particularly Flint and his luddite dad Tim Lockwood (voice of James Caan) foiled by a by-the-book cop (voice of Mr. T) and his son.
The fact that this film is shown in 3-D adds to the experience. With giant cheeseburgers coming straight toward the audience, it’s bound to be a good time.
Kids’ movies have been shied away from Disney-esque stereotypes lately, and ‘Cloudy’ definitely follows suit. The character of Sam Sparks is quite the role model for young girls:’ When in movie history has the girl ever shown her true self and become more beautiful to the hero by putting on her glasses and pulling back her hair into a ponytail? Sam starts off by hiding her true geek from Flint, pretending that she doesn’t know anything about science.
But when she realizes that the machine is mutating the food, she puts on her giant glasses, pulls back her hair in a scrunchie (which a TV news anchor tells her haven’t been seen in public since 1995), and pulls out her portable Doppler radar to save the world.
Instead of a princess or a helpless little girl, she is a smart, funny woman who gets the guy in the end without the help of high heels or mascara.
Similar to this summer’s ‘Up’ and 2004’s ‘The Incredibles,’ strong female leads are starting to become the norm.
But viewers have to remember this is a kids’ movie and along with that comes some unnecessary, cheesy cliches:’ a dead mother, unnecessary romantic plot and some half-baked message about junk food (a candy coma is cured with celery).
While ‘Cloudy’ won’t go down in history as a cinematic masterpiece, it definitely serves 90 minutes of laughs for everyone.