Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (TV series)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (TV series)
Ladies and gentlemen, the show that not only nearly killed the series of having any chance of a sequel, but started Sony Pictures Animation's television series career in the poor way.
Genre: Comic science fiction Running Time: 11 minutes Country: Canada United States Release Date: February 20, 2017 – June 30, 2018 Network(s): YTV (Canada) Cartoon Network (United States) Boomerang SVOD (Season 1) Paramount+ (Formerly called CBS All Access, Season 2) Netflix Created by: Mark Evastaff Alex Galatis Distributed by: Sony Pictures Television (United States) WildBrain (International) Starring: Mark Edwards Katie Griffin David Berni Seán Cullen Patrick McKenna Clé Bennett Seasons: 2 Episodes: 104

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (also known as Cloudy: The Series) is a Canadian-American Flash-animated show made by DHX, it first aired on Cartoon Network on February 20, 2017. Based on the children's book and the film series of the same name. This was Sony Pictures Animation's first-ever television series, which was followed by Disney Channel's Hotel Transylvania: The Series, Netflix's Agent Elvis, and the upcoming Ghostbusters: Ecto Force.

In 2019, CBS All Access, now renamed to Paramount+ as of March 4, 2021, acquired the US broadcast rights to the series. It's also currently available on Netflix.

For over five-to-six years, this was the final installment of the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs series, until an announcement in September 2023, were Phil Lord stated that a script was completed for a third installment of the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs before the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, titled "Planet of the Grapes".

Plot

In a prequel set before the events of the movies, Flint Lockwood and Sam Sparks go to a school run by the sadistic mayor of Swallow Falls. Hilarity ensues.

Why It's Cloudy With a Chance of Failure

1. Just like Alvin and the Chipmunks (2015), this show has a very poor grasp of the source material.
2. The character redesigns in this show are cheap, ugly, and unfaithful compared to the movies it was based on, especially Flint, whose head shape mostly looks like that of the pigs from Peppa Pig. Special mention goes to Hector Evilman and Earl as well, who look more like rejected background characters from Teen Titans Go! instead.
3. Misleading Title: Despite the title "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", it barely has anything to do with rain, meatballs or even food in general.
4. While the animation is passable, it can be a bit hideous and stiff in the first few episodes, especially in that one scene in “The Pandas Are Coming.”
   • Speaking of "The Pandas Are Coming," it contains a huge jump scare scene, something that is considered unacceptable in a kid's show.
5. None of the original voice actors from the movies such as Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Mr. T (or Terry Crews in 2), Bruce Campbell and Andy Samberg, all of which did good jobs, returned for the show, as the recording moved from Los Angeles, California, United States to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The voice acting in this show is very poor and ear-inducing, especially from actors like Mark Edwards (Wally from Rocket Monkeys), Sean Cullen (Lucius from Jimmy Two-Shoes), Patrick McKenna, David Berni (Dracula from fellow SPA animated series Hotel Transylvania: The Series, Bernie from Ollie's Pack, and Bob from Norman Picklestripes) and Katie Griffin (Big Human from Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe). Flint's voice is much higher-pitched and Steve sounds like a Peter Griffin-Hitler fusion.
6. The humor and jokes has been downgraded from being funny and creative from the first two films to outright mean-spirited, toilet and gross-out humor.
   • The episode "Bacon Girl" has Sam have bacon as her head, so that the other students can eat her.
   • The episode "Baby Brent Sitter" has Brent get babysat. Yes, that's actually what happens. For example, has disturbing shots of him shirtless, with chest hair and his dirty teeth. There is also a part where Brent pops a flatulence bubble.
   • The episode "Science of the Toot" is entirely dedicated to Flint trying to make a fart-inducing bean, so his classmates will find him cool.
7. Numerous continuity errors between this show and the films. For example:
   • Flint, Baby Brent, and Sam aren’t high-school teenagers, they’re young adults, around in their 20's, as shown in the movies. Sam also didn't wear glasses until late in the first film.
   • In the episode "Tim and Jim" it was revealed that Tim, Flint’s Dad, has a twin brother named Jim, when in the films, there was no implication of Tim having a twin brother.
   • When did Earl become a high school teacher, and Mayor Shelbourne a principal?
   • In one episode, Flint pulls out Barry from the second movie out, but how could he have been there, if the food machine hadn’t been invented yet?
   • There was no implication in both the first and second film that Mayor Shelbourne had a son in the movies, nor was he seen, or mentioned.
   • Perhaps the biggest continuity error is that Sam never grew up in Swallow Falls, nor went to school with Flint, as she first met him during a weather report, during the events of the first film. In fact, this left a massive plot hole in the franchise. They try to lampshade this by saying Flint would later invent a memory-wiping device, but that explanation just raises more questions than answers.
8. Below-average and obnoxious writing, that is just as awful as the writing in The Adventures of Kid Danger.
9. The only reason it was made was to stretch out the story and capitalize on the success of the film series, which died out, way before this show was even made. Adding to the fact that for nearly six years, Sony Pictures Animation hasn't announced the third movie to the franchise, because the second film came out seven years ago, and took four years to make just makes this show even more pointless.
10. False advertising: This show is said to be a prequel to the movies but in reality, it's more of a spin-off, than a prequel, even though there is a quote in the first episode regarding the plot-hole of Flint and Sam knowing each other as kids.
11. Lots of weird, boring, dumb, idiotic, catastrophic, disgusting, and downright mean-spirited episodes, that makes no sense like:
    • And The Winner Is... (which started the show and season 1, on a bad note)
    • Princess KittyMittens
    • Invent This!
    • Bacon Girl
    • Who You' Callin', Garbage?
    • The Ballad of Johnny Sardine
    • Baby Brent Sitter
    • The Pandas are Coming
    • Clock-a-Doodle-Doom
    • The Sardemon
    • Earl or Pearl?
    • Monkey Me, Monkey You
    • Cloudy with a Chance of Clouds
    • The Science of the Toot
    • Mr. Stressup
    • Virtu-Earl Reality
    • Hair We Go Again
    • It's About Time
    • Self-Helpie
    • Clone Alone
    • Tim and Jim
    • Baby-Baby Brent
    • The Talented Mr. Buttons
    • The Shelbourne Identity
    • Einstein's Moustache (which started season 2 on a sour note)
    • Power Struggle
    • Dance Fish Move Dance
    • Sam's Imaginary Friends
    • Hands Up
    • Brent Hog Day
    • The Kid's Got Moxy
    • Sardine: The Movie
    • The Boy Who Cried Robot
    • Fizzy Fish
    • Brent Bro
    • Sardinee Babies
    • Party Tron
    • Less Ordinary People
    • Fisherman Sam
    • Trees Company
    • Tim, Jim and Kim
    • Live and Let Diary
    • Mrs Tinklebottom
    • Embarrass Brent
    • Your Dad is My Dad
12. Most of the characters, with the exception of Sam, Flint and Tim (Flint’s dad), Old Rick and Steve, are downright unlikable, even more so than, in the first film.
    • The mayor has been dumbed down to becoming even more unlikable than in the first film, as he abuses everyone around him, most notably Flint and Sam, and cares about no one in the world, except money, which makes him even more greedier than Mr. Krabs, he's also very mean-spirited, towards his son Gil.
      • His son Gil ain't any better, as he's always mean-spirited towards Sam and Flint.
    • Earl was also dumbed down into being a cruel bully towards Flint, while in the movie he used to discourage him, but later on, they got along well.
    • Brent has been dumbed down into becoming more idiotic, and annoying as he can't say a dialogue, without constantly saying, "uh-oh".
    • The entire town of Swallow Falls is incredibly mean-spirited towards Flint, although there were also moments, like these in the first film, they did, after all, get along with it, in the late movie.
13. The intro is completely rushed and it's nothing but noise.
14. Overuse of stock images and clips.
15. Flint’s line, "aaaaaaaaaand...activate!", in, "Invent This!" will get old pretty quickly and will get on your last nerves.
16. Overall, it's a forgettable show, that killed off the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs franchise, and any chance of a third movie being made, as nowadays Sony Pictures Animation outright gave up on the franchise. It is also a bad way to revive the series, after 4 years of having no movie sequel.
17. Despite this show being a prequel, it has little-to-impact to the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs film series as plots of this show were never mention in the films, so there-for, you can easily watch the first two Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films, skipping the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs TV show, and the impact would be the same.
18. This show further damaged Sony Pictures Animation as it premiered on its dark year, that is 2017 as Sony Pictures Animation also did bad films such as: Surfs Up 2: WaveMania, The Star and The Emoji Movie.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Flint, Tim (Flint's dad), Sam, Steve and Old Rick are likable.
2. A few good character designs here and there, such as Sam Sparks, the Mayor, and Steve.
3. Some funny moments here and there.
4. While the voice acting is poor and laughably awful, at least Earl's new voice actor (Clé Bennett, known as Chef Hatchet in Total Drama Island) sounds very close to Mr. T and Terry Crews, especially since he does a great job voicing him.
5. Passable animation and background designs.
   • The animation stabilized after the first few episodes.
6. Some episodes have interesting inventions.
7. Some good episodes like "Best Invention Ever", "Poppa Piglet!", and the two-part series finale, "Have Yourself a Sardiney Little Christmas", a decent way to end the series, but that's not good enough to be the Jimmy Neutron of Cartoon Network.
   • On top of that, the show improved a bit in season 2, though not by much to redeem the show entirely.
8. One of the new characters, Old Rick, is pretty funny.

Reception

While the first two movies received positive reviews, the show received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics, the audience, and the fans of the franchise alike. It currently has a 3/5 on Common Sense Media, a 56% on Google, and a 3.3/10 on IMDb, which made it worse then The Emoji Movie.

Trivia

• Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the directors of the first film and the writers for the sequel, were credited as executive consultants for the show.
• This show was the first television series to be produced by Sony Pictures Animation and was animated using Flash Animation.

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