Armageddon… for Kids!
I realize we’re a couple weeks late to the party on this one, but Olive and I saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs yesterday and loved it. I laughed through the whole thing (when I wasn’t crying at some of the heartfelt scenes), and Olive had a good time, too. I was a little surprised that we had to leave before the end of Up, but made it through this without a blink.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs basically follows the story arc of [insert favorite disaster movie here]. Destruction of major monuments around the globe? Check. Uploaded viruses in space? Check. Landing on an object in space to save the world? Check. Combine Final Impact, Independence Day, and Armageddon, then make it funny and appropriate for kids, and you have this movie. I don’t know about you, but I’m a total sucker for those movies, so it makes sense for me to like this one. There was something especially nice about taking my girl to see it in Times Square on a rainy day a block away from where it was raining bagels in the movie. Mmmm… bagel rain.
Olive didn’t blink at the severe food weather or explosions, and I think most kids will enjoy the absurdity of it. What might be a little scary for kids, though, as my niece rightly pointed out, is all of the bad things that food can do to you, from the effects of too much junk food to severe food allergies.
The voice cast of the movie is amazing, with some of my favorite comedians: Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, and Neil Patrick Harris. Mr. T is as awesome as he ever was and gives one of the best performances in the movie. I’m also quite fond of our lady lead, Sam Sparks (voiced by Anna Faris) and the reverse makeover she gets in the movie.
Here’s a movie that took the premise of the classic book by Judi and Ron Barrett and made it into something its own, something special. It made me less nervous to see Where the Wild Things Are. Well, that and the latest Wild Things trailer before the movie.
