Film Review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (Wolkig mit Aussicht auf Fleischbällchen 2)

Well, it has been several months since I started this blog, so another entry is long overdue.

Just before Christmas, I decided I'd better make use of some cinema vouchers which I'd bought c/o Groupon. I have to say that there wasn't a great selection on offer, but I did get to see "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" - or, as it was the German version, "Wolkig mit Aussicht auf Fleischbällchen 2".

The sequel follows the further adventures of intrepid young inventor Flint Lockwood, who - as viewers of the first film will remember - designed a machine that converted water into food with terrifying results.  

(It's behind you!)

Part 2 picks up to find that Flint is working for super-inventor Chester V, whose task it was to clean up the island which had been wrecked by the food storm in the first film. Until it turns out that the machine which caused the chaos has survived and what it produces has mutated into food-animal hybrids. It's now up to Flint and his friends to stop it! Will they succeed?.....Drum roll.................

I wouldn't be giving away too much if I described that as a rhetorical question. Let's just say you won't be on the edge of your seat. Plot-wise, it's not the greatest nor the most original of stories. Sections of it are very predictable, and the manipulative villain isn't too different from the ones you find in a dozen other cartoons. Disney/Pixar still very much leads the way as regards top-quality animated films, and "Cloudy 2" is no classic. 

Where this movie does hit the mark, however, is with the Foodimals themselves. Whoever came up with them is a genius, and the main reason for me watching it in German was to see how they would manage to translate some of the "Wortspiele" (play on words).

A few of them were straightforward. For instance, I give you the "flamango" (!):

FlamangoFA

...which was pretty easy since "flamingo" and "mango" are the same in both English and German.

For "shrimpanzee" and "mosquitoast", they stuck to "Schrimpanse" and "Moskitoast"

Mosquitoast2

...which just about works, although in German, you would normally say "Krabben", rather than "Schrimp", while a mosquito is usually a "Mücke" as opposed to a "Moskito".

They had to be a bit more inventive when it came to lines like this one:


...and came up with "das Boot laucht". I'm not sure whether that works or not. A leek is certainly a "Lauch", but as far as I'm aware "lauchen" doesn't exist as a verb. "Tauchen", meaning "to dive" does, though - so perhaps it alludes to that. "To leak" in German is "lecken", which can also mean "to lick". Maybe they could have come up with another play on words there. Suggestions, anyone?

And, if you look at the whole trailer in German, I don't think they bothered translating "Peanut Butter and Jellyfish"* at all:


Still, I don't think that this would spoil the overall enjoyment for children, who will probably get more out of this than adults. Not that it's a bad film, per se. Just fairly formulaic, and it definitely relies more on visuals than on plot.

My rating: 6.5/10

* Peanut Butter and Jellyfish: 
    
  PBJellyfish

Cultural note: Peanut butter and "jelly" sandwiches belong more to American culture. "Jelly" has different meanings in American and British English. In British English, "jelly" is a gelatin dessert with various flavourings (usually referred to as "jello" in the United States). In American English, "jelly" is a kind of thin jam or puree which has had the seeds and larger fruit pieces removed. Very few people in the UK would put it together with peanut butter! ;-) 

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