Thursday, January 14, 2010

Book v. Movie: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

In a slightly different format, here is a new Book versus Movie installment.



Title: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Format: Book, 2-D
Main Characters: Grandpa (storyteller), Mom, Henry (brother) and I (narrator)
Town of Chewandswallow: Fictional
Food Weather: Natural occurrence
Disaster Plan: Evacuate town and move to a place with supermarkets





Title: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Format: Movie, 3-D
Main Characters: Flint Lockwood (inventor), Sam Sparks (weather girl), Earl Devereaux (cop), Mayor Shelbourne (mayor), Steve (monkey)
Island of Chewandswallow: Real
Food Weather: Science experiment gone wrong
Disaster Plan: Take a flying car into the science experiment turned meatball in the sky, fight evil giant roasted chickens and spray liquid shoes onto out-of-control food machine

So, obviously we will call the movie "loosely based" on the book.  They share the same title and, well, a giant pancake on the school.

Verdict: These two are so different that it's impossible to compare them.  The book is a classic and should be in every home library.  The film is a fun and silly story that should be watched at least to enjoy the voice of Mr. T (the cop).

Z says mom wants ice cream to fall from the sky ... he's right!
K and Z


Support our site and buy Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (the book) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (the movie) on Amazon or find them at your local library.  We own a copy of the book and are borrowing the movie from Netflix.

8 comments:

  1. I didn't even know the movie was based on a book. I've heard that movie is hilarious. It's been on my TBW ("to be watched") list ever since it came out. I didn't even know it was on DVD now. To the Netflix!.... Lol


    www.whosabiblioaddict.com

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  2. There's a real island called Island of Chewandswallow? I wanna live there! ;D

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  3. Total classic and agree that it should be on all shelves around the world! Maybe we will finally watch the movie this weekend?!?!

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  4. JS - Yes, it was always one of those titles that caught the kids' attention. I hope you enjoy the movie!

    Mee - Well, real in the movie. ;) I would seriously go there too though if there was a guarantee of bacon!

    Tif - Let me know what you guys think of the movie. Z watched it twice in a row the first time he put it on.

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  5. When I saw the previews for the movie, I thought "this seems like NOTHING in the book." I'm sure the movie is cute but the book must be better!

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  6. Jenners - It's weird if you look at the book right after you watch the movie because you see that they incorporated almost every drawing somehow into the movie. But a group of twenty-ish illustrations just disappears into a 90 minute movie.

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  7. So, we just finally got our hands on a copy of this tonight and watched it! Very cute, but definitely different from the book. I had read what you wrote to Jenners, so we were keeping an eye out for all the illustrations. It was almost a contest!! After the movie was over, C says . . . Can we watch it again?!? NO!! You are going to bed!! :) I will probably end up letting him watch it in the morning because I'm a complete softy when it comes to him!

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  8. Tif - Fantastic! Now we know what the target demographic of the movie is, right? My husband and I got to talking tonight about missing that feeling of wanting to watch a movie immediately again. It's cool to be a kid.

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