Anna Faris Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

Anna Faris Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

Cast: Bill Hader, Anna Faris , James Caan, Will Forte, Kristen Schaal, Terry Crews, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Benjamin Bratt
Directors: Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn
Genre: Animation, Family, Comedy

Synopsis: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 picks up where Sony Pictures Animation's hit comedy left off. Inventor Flint Lockwood's genius is finally being recognised as he's invited by his idol Chester V to join The Live Corp Company, where the best and brightest inventors in the world create technologies for the betterment of mankind. Chester's right-hand-gal - and one of his greatest inventions - is Barb (a highly evolved orangutan with a human brain, who is also devious, manipulative and likes to wear lipstick). It's always been Flint's dream to be recognised as a great inventor, but everything changes when he discovers that his most infamous machine (which turns water into food) is still operating and is now creating food-animal hybrids – 'foodimals"! With the fate of humanity in his hands, Chester sends Flint and his friends on a dangerously delicious mission, battling hungry tacodiles, shrimpanzees, apple pie-thons, double bacon cheespiders and other food creatures to save the world again!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
Release Date: December 5th, 2013

About The Film

In Sony Pictures Animation's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Flint Lockwood and his pals discover that something big was leftover on the island of Swallow Falls. The action picks up just sixty seconds after the first film ends: Flint Lockwood has destroyed his greatest invention, the Flint Lockwood Diatomic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator, or FLDSMDFR for short. That invention was a wild success, in that it could turn water into food, and an unmitigated disaster, in that it unleashed a torrent of deadly food weather that threatened to destroy the world. Flint blew it up – or, at least, that's what he thought.

'I love the world of Cloudy," says Cody Cameron, who directs the film with Kris Pearn. A story board artist on the first three Shrek films, as well as the Sony Pictures Animation films Surf's Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Open Season Open Season 3, and the short film The Chubbchubbs Save Xmas – the last two as director – Cameron says, 'Of all the films I've worked on, Cloudy is my favorite. So to get the chance to go back and revisit the characters in this new, crazy world that we were developing made this a really exciting project for me."

'When we started the brainstorming process, we found a very rich amount of elements to explore – not just a new adventure, but also the characters," says Kris Pearn, who headed up the story team on the first Cloudy film. 'On this adventure, all of the characters get to express themselves more fully. For example, Earl, the town cop, wants to protect the home he loves so much. Manny – who was so silent through most of the first film – reveals more and more hidden sides of himself. Sam, the one person who understands Flint better than anybody else, is the one to see the island for what it is – an expression of Flint's creativity."

'Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn were both passionately involved with the first film," says Pam Marsden, who produced both the original Cloudy and this new adventure. 'Kris Pearn was head of story and Cody Cameron was at the core of the story team. When it came time for the sequel, they came up with creative ways to continue the adventure."

In the new film, Flint finds out that the FLDSMDFR is still active and is now churning out food-animal hybrids – foodimals! – that have overrun the island. Soon, it's back to Swallow Falls, with all of his friends in tow, to try to stop the food creatures before they attack the world.

'At the end of the first film, the food started to come alive – there were walking chickens and threatening gummy bears," notes producer Kirk Bodyfelt. 'We're now running rampant with that idea in the sequel."

'But we've gone way beyond that," says Cody Cameron. 'When they arrive back at the island, they find a huge, overgrown jungle that has overtaken the town – and the food has evolved. It's more than gummy bears and pizza slices. It's giant wild scallions, it's watermelophants, strawberries, pickles. It's the Serengeti of food."

Adds producer Kirk Bodyfelt, 'Once we'd settled on the idea of the foodimals, Cody Cameron went to town with that idea; he even went to the grocery store and starting buying up fruits and vegetables and started to carve them into little critters. There's a lot of love for the film here at Sony Pictures Animation, and everyone was such a fan of the original that we're all in tune with trying to keep the same look, feel, and same level of energy, but also find creative ways to expand the characters into new territory. It's a familiar universe, but also something completely new and different as well."

Once it was decided that the movie would be about the foodimals, it was clear that the sequel would be bringing all of the favorite characters from the first film back together. 'Flint's trip back to the island is supposed to be a secret, but we know Flint can't keep a secret. He blurts it out right away to Sam, and she says, -You can't do this alone.' And before you know it, they're getting the gang back together," says Kris Pearn.

Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn were hand-picked to direct Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the writers and directors of the first film. 'I worked on the movie for 4½ years – the last 3½ with Phil Lord and Chris Miller," says Kris Pearn. 'In the story department, you tend to have a small crew and you spend a lot of time with the directors. We got to know each other well and there was a lot of trust there. Cody Cameron and I were on the movie pretty much until the end, which is unusual, because it's common as a film winds down to let board artists move on to other projects. So, once Phil Lord and Chris Miller decided they weren't going to direct the sequel, it was an organic choice to allow us to take the reins – and not only that, but I think they saw how important it was to us to maintain the unique humor and quirkiness that made the first film so special as we embarked on the sequel." Lord and Miller remain actively involved with the project as executive producers.

For the look of the film, Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn were able to draw not only on the work done on the first film, but in many cases, the same people who did that work. 'Justin K. Thompson, the production designer on the first film, is back. Pete Nash is back as the senior animation supervisor, bringing a lot of knowledge of the way characters act. A lot of the leads came back – it's very collaborative. On the first film, it says, -A film by a lot of people' – we're doing the same thing, only it says, -Another film by a lot of people.' It really is about team effort and collaboration," says Cody Cameron.

'On the first film, Phil Lord and Chris Miller were the first directors I'd ever worked with who treated the film like a writer's room," says Kris Pearn. 'Anybody with a thought that could help the film – even assistants and PAs – could pipe up. After all, a good idea can come from anywhere. We found that very helpful, and we're keeping that going on this film. It's very helpful when you can trust the crew and there's a give-and-take in how the show is run."

Phil Lord and Chris Miller say, 'Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn were great collaborators on the first film and we loved working with them to bring these fun, unique characters back to life. The final result is a beautiful, stylised, funny film and we are thrilled that the Cloudy franchise has continued on in the hands of so many great people."

About the Characters

Flint Lockwood, you just saved Swallow Falls from giant food storm oblivion! What are you going to do next? How about – save the world… again? Seems that Flint's most famous invention (the one that turns water into food – the one that caused that trouble last time) is still active and is now spewing out living food creatures – foodimals! Soon, it's back to the island of Swallow Falls, with all of his friends in tow. Flint still feels responsible for the havoc that's resulted from his invention – can he and his friends stop the foodimals before they take over the world?

The role is voiced by Bill Hader. 'Bill Hader can take these lines and find things in them that we never imagined," says Cody Cameron. 'Crazy shrieks and yells – he's very cartoony in his performance."

But it's not just a cartoon, adds Cody Cameron. 'Also, there's a very earnest heart to the character, both in the first film and this one. That's what Bill Hader brings. He's silly and energetic, of course, but he also gives a sincere performance that brings heart and purity when Flint is down and desperate. He brings the full range."

'It's great to be back in the spray-on shoes of Flint Lockwood," says Bill Hader. 'In fact, it seems like I never left him behind – every month or so, I get to come into the booth and do Flint's voice for a bit. I love it." 'Flint is that guy who has good intentions – great intentions – but everything always goes wrong," Bill Hader continues. 'On the other hand, he's very driven and very confident, even when everybody else thinks he's crazy. Actually, I feel a kinship with him – we're both nerdy, nervous, and not great with girls."

Flint Lockwood's edible worldwide meteorological occurrences have catapulted Sam Sparks to TV stardom as weather watchers turned to her for updates during the 'greatest weather phenomenon in history." She is finally being accepted as a serious meteorologist who remains perky in the face of danger. Once Sam declared she 'likelikes" Flint and wants him to be happy, there is no keeping her from joining him on the expedition back to Swallow Falls to save civilisation from the invasion of gigantic living food creatures. But why doesn't working together have that ol' 'thunder and lightning" that it once had?

'Sam is still very much the observational scientist," says Kris Pearn. 'On this journey back to the island, Sam is the one who's emotional and also really smart, so she's the one who starts to crack the mystery of this island. The interesting thing about the relationship between Sam and Flint is that Flint brings Sam out of her shell in the first movie, and in this movie he doesn't appreciate her in the way he should. As a result, he almost loses her – and the island appreciates her."

Anna Faris reprises her role. 'I was so proud of the way the first film turned out," she says. 'When you're voicing a role in an animated movie, you're working on it for a year but you don't really know what it's going to be until the end. It was amazing to see it all come together, the artistry involved was incredible, and it was so much fun."

'Sam is one of the smarter characters I've played," she laughs. 'She's bright and optimistic, she's a leader but also supportive. She's an adventurer, and she has a lot of compassion. I think she's just a great gal."
'Anna Faris's comedy timing is amazing," says Kris Pearn. 'She's often playing the straight man against Flint, but she finds the comedy angle in the simplest lines." 'She makes Sam feel smart and warm at the same time," says Cody Cameron

Flint's proud father, Tim, is happiest when he is on his boat, floating around in search of his water-dwelling dinner. Tim still doesn't get all of the fancy technology stuff that is such a big part of his son's life. And Flint doesn't ever need to hear another fishing metaphor ever again. So when the gang heads back to Swallow Falls to help save the world, Flint encourages his 49-year-old dad to stay home. Still, Tim insists on launching his fishing boat and coming along for the journey, even though Flint would prefer his old dad stayed home.

'The genie got out of the bottle in the first movie: we put the thought translator on his head and he finally was able to tell his son he loved him. So we're flipping the roles of Tim and Flint in this movie: now that Tim is emotionally able to express his feelings, he's constantly trying to hug his son and give him advice," says Kris Pearn. 'Flint still loves his dad, but now his dad is kinda getting on his nerves and he's pushing his dad away a bit. At the same time, Tim's got this emptiness, because he knows his son loves him, but he's losing that connection with his son."

'He's old-fashioned, slow-thinking, and opinionated – there's not much to life for him beyond fishing. Not the sharpest tool," says James Caan, who voices the role. 'But he's also a very caring and loving father, just never knew how to say that."

'James Caan loves having fun with Tim," says Pam Marsden. 'On the first film, he'd improvise with the character in ways that were bold and energetic, but the character at that time needed to be stoic, quiet, and by the end come out of his shell a bit. So this time around, he was very excited. We could now say, -Go with it' to some of the qualities he tried last time. Tim still has the same form of delivery – for example, the monobrow, you rarely see his eyes – but now we are having a bit more fun with an old fisherman making an attempt to talk to his high-tech-crazy son."

But all is not lost for Tim: he finds a special connection where he least expects it. 'When he gets to the island, he meets some pickles, and in a way, they're like a standin for the grandkids that he doesn't have yet," says Kris Pearn. 'He's got the weird son who he loves but doesn't understand, and on the other hand, the pickles, who love football and fishing and hockey and all of the things that he loves."

'It's true, I adopt a bunch of pickles, who are actually a family of pickles," says James Caan. Despite the fact that the pickles can't speak coherently, 'I kind of get to understand 'em. I teach 'em how to fish, and I teach 'em not to get themselves in a pickle."

Still a primate of few words, Steve the Monkey has everything any guy would wish for in a best friend"except maybe a bigger vocabulary. Steve is still both a trusted colleague and a shining example of Flint's best attempts at inventing"after all, Flint wouldn't even get those single words from his buddy were it not for the Monkey Thought Translator. One never knows when the monkey's particular point of view (or his size, or his climbing, or his lab skills) will come in handy.

Most characters in most stories have character arcs, where moviegoers get to see them grow and change. And then there's Steve. 'Steve is exactly the same," says Cody Cameron.

And once again, the award-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris provided the voice. 'He does so much with one word," Cody Cameron continues. 'He'll deliver it different ways – he thinks it's pretty humorous that he has to act with only one word."

'Usually, to get an entire movie from a main character, it takes seven or eight sessions, four or five hours per session," says Bodyfelt. 'With Neil Patrick Harris, we got all of his lines in the movie in one session, one hour. Later, whenever we came up with a few more Steve lines, we'd have him come in for ten minutes and he's done. Steve is a great foil for the animators – you have a scene with a lot of dialogue, and Steve is in the background doing something ridiculous or eating something he isn't supposed to eat."

'Normally you're in this recording room and your inflection has to be perfect and you have to hit all of your Ts and Ps. On this, you just come in and you say -Hungry' fifteen times. Or -Banana.' Or -Steve,'" says Neil Patrick Harris. 'And then they start giving direction. -Yes, do it again, but a little louder.' -Steve!' -Now you're scared. -Steve…' -Yeah, but now you're running.' -Steve! Steve! Steve!' The first time around, I kept thinking I was getting punked, but it turns out that I was actually in the movie."

You remember 'Baby" Brent on the label of Swallow Falls' canned sardines? He has continued his career in the culinary world promoting a chain of restaurants, Chick-N-Sushi, spinning a foam board arrow while wearing a rubber chicken suit. He'll put that promising career on hold when Flint and his friends ask him to help save the world by stopping the leftover takeover.

'Andy Samberg is great – super funny," says Cody Cameron. 'He's great at playing the doofus. We give him a dumb line, and he just makes it really funny."

'It's been a dream to revisit Brent," says Andy Samberg. 'I missed him. Now that I'm back in his spirit, his body, and his chicken suit, I think the world is a better place."

Andy Samberg shares his one weird trick to voice the role: 'What you have to do is scream as loud as you can and sound like you got hit in the head a lot as a child."
Former police officer Earl Devereaux is also pursuing an alternative job path in food services, as a barista serving up fancy-pants coffee drinks at an upscale coffee house. So, when Flint and Sam come around and ask him to come aboard their voyage to adventure, he quickly transforms from barista to a polista, complete with uniform and beard, and joins the group by performing a back flip out of the door.

Terry Crews takes over the role. 'Terry Crews did a great job taking over the role of Earl – he still feels like Earl, the town cop from the first film," says Cody Cameron. 'When we see shots animated, it still feels like Earl. It's the same character."

'Terry Crews came in and was on the ball – he's got great warmth, especially around children. When he's talking about Cal, he's got the same sensitivity, even though he's a big, tough guy," says Kris Pearn. 'As it turns out, he was a big fan of the first film. He went to the premiere and took his kids – so before he came to record, they lined up and said, -Don't screw it up, Dad.' That put a lot of pressure on him!"

'I'm the biggest fan of the first Cloudy film," says Terry Crews. 'I went to the premiere with my family and we ate bacon-flavored chocolates – we even still have our Cloudy lunch boxes. And when we left the movie, I said to my son, -I'm like Earl and you're like Cal' – Earl's son. So when I got the call that they were asking me to be a part of the sequel, well, they had me at -hello.'"

'Earl is the alpha male's alpha male," says Terry Crews, describing his character. 'There's no way to go beyond the man that Earl is. Earl defines a man doin' his job – he protects his city and he does it better than anybody."

It's little surprise that Sam's former cameraman (and master of many talents) Manny has landed on his feet in San Franjose, California"and, at the moment that Flint, Sam and a car full of their friends arrive, he is trying to deliver a baby calf. But hey, that will just have to wait – Manny grabs his camera, bids -adios!' to his vet techs, and heads for the food-infested island of Swallow Falls.

'Because in the first film we were able to show that he was not only a mechanic but also a doctor, we now have other occupations, other jobs, that Manny has – he's got a bag full of different occupations. He's a Manny of all trades," says Cody Cameron.

'The cork got popped on his speaking, which a lot of people are happy about, not least of which is Benjamin Bratt," says Kris Pearn. 'He's a real arbiter of the character. We have a moment in Cloudy 2 when Manny has to fall, so we had -Ahhhhh!' written on the page. He said, -I don't think Manny would scream.' He found a way to have Manny emote -I'm falling' without having him scream. We had another line with the direction for him to shout it, and he wouldn't shout it – he did it with passion. That's great – that's so much better than anything we imagined. That's what happens when actors come back to play their characters – they are protectors of their characters. It's always great when we get surprised by the actors – that's what we want."

'Manny is the kind of guy you want with you when something goes wrong," says Benjamin Bratt. 'He's a Jack of all trades and a master of all. If it's something that requires a license, Manny's likely got one for it. Whether it's piloting a plane or operating a crane or driving a race car, Manny can do it. He's a doctor. He's a veterinarian. He's a comedian. He's a self-professed professional masseur. He can do anything. So, when our gang finds themselves in deep, deep trouble, Manny is the guy who'll get them out of it."

If you could genetically splice Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and a circus ringmaster into one man, you would get Chester V, the eccentric genius behind the global company Live Corp and all of the cool stuff they created -for the betterment of mankind.' Part guru, part showman and part inventor, Chester is one super-smart dude"in fact, he may be the super-smartest. For instance, he's the only one he needs to invite to his own brainstorming sessions. So with all that brain matter, why does he need our heroic Flint Lockwood to clean up the leftover problems in Swallow Falls?

In Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, this new adventure sees Flint get recognised by one of the great men of his time. 'While Flint almost destroyed the world, the world also got to see what a great inventor he is. As a result, Flint is given an opportunity from one of his heroes, Chester V, the head of the Live Corp company. Imagine Apple meets Google meets FAO Schwarz – that's Live Corp. Their intent is to invent for the betterment of mankind, which is just what Flint wants to do," says Pam Marsden.

'In the first film, Flint had a wall of heroes – Einstein, Tesla – and we wondered, what if Flint got to meet one of his heroes? What happens when the nerdy kid becomes cool?" says Kris Pearn.

Will Forte voiced a different, small role in the first film, portraying Joe Towne, the Swallow Falls resident who rips off his beard when the cheeseburger is falling from the sky. In the sequel, Forte is back for seconds – and a much bigger portion – as Chester V in Cloudy 2. 'I loved the first movie so much – and even though I did a voice in the first one, it was a very small part. There was such a wonderful spirit to the story, it was so creative – a crazy world where all the characters were relatable. So I was really excited to come back, in a bigger role, for this movie – we start from the place the first one ends and build to a new, totally different situation."

'Chester is Flint Lockwood's hero," explains Will Forte. 'He's a blue-jeans billionaire whose company, Live Corp, does all sorts of wonderful things for the world – really very brilliant inventions – but things don't exactly go as planned when Flint comes to work for him."

The directors say that Will Forte's characterisation in the recording booth had a great influence on the character – adding dimension to a role that they had not anticipated. 'Because Chester was a collision of all these personas and archetypes, we really wanted a character actor and comedian to come in and invent the character with us," says Kris Pearn. 'It's amazing how Will pushed it around. When we first started, Chester was a much more refined, erudite, crisp person, and with Will, we ended up finding a much more kooky version of that and that helped us evolve the character to a very funny, weird place that we weren't expecting."

There's no one in the world that Chester trusts more than Chester, but that doesn't mean he couldn't use a second opinion sometimes. The solution: 'Chester has an affectation – he goes everywhere with holograms of himself," Kris Pearn explains. 'Whereas Flint begins the movie surrounded by friends and family, Chester is literally surrounded by himself – he's building an empire based upon himself."

'They're the ultimate yes-men," says Will Forte. 'It's hard to do those scenes in the recording booth, because I'm talking to myself and the voices all sound the same. It's hard to have a conversation with yourself. When you don't have the natural give-andtake of dialogue, you tend to rush it or pause too much. But we got there."

Apparently one can create a smart and verbally gifted assistant by implanting a human brain inside the brain of an orangutan"think turducken. And if the creator is as smart as Chester V, the resulting hybrid would be called Barb. Evolved, intelligent, sassy, and wearing lipstick, Barb wants nothing more than the everlasting approval of Chester V. To get it, she will do anything.

'When we first started developing the story, we thought that maybe there would be a parallel story – Chester would have a primate companion, just like Flint does with Steve," says Kris Pearn. 'So we came up with this idea of Barb. She's the better version of Steve – she doesn't have a thought translator, she just has thoughts. She's very insecure, because she is always wanting Chester's affections – she's trying to get this guy who's full of himself to love her, because he's sort of her father."

'In a way, as Steve is to Flint, Barb is to Chester," says Cody Cameron. 'But Steve is a monkey, and Barb is an ape. Throughout the film, Barb is referred to as a monkey, which is a term she does not appreciate. Barb is almost like a super-Steve – she's an orangutan with a human brain inside her ape brain. Sam gets into it a little bit with Barb, because Sam is the only one smart enough to see the cards Barb is holding."

'We originally conceived the part for Kristen Schaal and had the part written for her, so it's a real pleasure that she wanted to do the movie," continues Cody Cameron. 'She's great at improvisation, taking a line that we have and building on top of that and bringing something that maybe we didn't see in the role."

'After a three-hour session with Kristen Schaal, I get tired," says Kris Pearn. 'She has so much energy – she's amazing in her ability to stay up there and be funny." 'I like Barb," says Kristen Schaal. 'She's very vulnerable inside. She does some tough things, but she's been pushed to behave the way that she does."

'Barb is really intimidated by Sam," KristenSchaal explains. 'That's partly because Sam is beautiful, but even more so because Sam is human. Barb is very complicated, because she's an invention, and she's self-conscious about it – she tries to take Sam down at every turn. Her bedazzled claws are out."

About The Foodimals

In returning to Swallow Falls, Flint and his pals discover that the food machine is still active and is now churning out food-animal hybrids… foodimals! 'If you can find a good mix of an animal and a food that not only gives you a great design but also a cringeworthy pun, that's what we wanted," says Cameron. 'One of the first missions we gave to Craig Kellman, our lead character designer, was go forth with those directives and show us what you got – in a weekend, he came up with a library of ridiculousness, a lot of which is still in the film: a taco plus a crocodile equals a tacodile, a watermelon plus an elephant is a watermelophant. We had to make sure we covered all of the food groups – the fruits, the vegetables, the meats – and we had certain action pieces in the film… the tacodile is one of the larger threats in the movie, and the cheespider – half cheeseburger, half spider – became the main large threat of the island, the one where you realise that something is wrong on the island. As the story developed, we came up with more and more. They're going down the river, we found river creatures like the hippotatomus and the flamangos and the lemmins and the wild scallions."

Cameron says, 'The development of sentient food started with a conversation that Kris and I had about what type of food we wanted in the film. After talking about pickles and strawberries, I spent a Sunday sculpting some produce and posing them in scenes in my back yard. I wanted to show what real fruits and vegetables would look like photographed in a natural environment, under sunlight," he says. 'We used that as part of our pitch."

But that was just the beginning. 'Kris and Cody came to me with the idea of the food puns – inspired by Lewis Carroll's bread-and-butterflies – and they wanted me to see if I could come up with a bunch of those," says Kellman. 'I don't know how many they were expecting, but in that first weekend I came up with a list of over 100 of them – and the guys laughed a lot. Some of the foodimals were created by other artists – Cody invented the watermelophants and the bananostriches, and our head of story, Brandon Jeffords, came up with the shrimpanzees. I did a lot of the really punny ones – the fruit cockatiels, the flamangoes, the susheep, the kiwi birds, the tacodile. There was no pun too stupid for me."

'As much as they could, Cody and Craig kept the original identity of the food intact as much as possible," says the film's production designer, Justin K. Thompson. 'We didn't want to lose the texture and the detail that real food has – the watermelophant has the texture of a watermelon and the cantalope has the texture of a cantaloupe. As obvious as the puns are, that's the fun – kids can recognise their favorite foods in the foodimals and be able to name them."

'That comes from a mandate set in the first movie," says Kellman. 'Real world food can look unappealing sometimes, but all of the food in the world of Cloudy was idealized, like you see in commercials. So even though my original designs were kind of simplistic, children's book renderings of the foodimals, we knew that in the end, the animators would bring them through that filter and come out more realistic – tasty and appealing, but with legs and arms and mouths and eyes."

Since then, the foodimals have taken on a life of their own. 'It's been fun watching the animators get a hold of the foodimals," Cameron continues. 'Like the bananas – do they slip a lot? The pickles – they don't have legs, they have little tassels that come out of the bottom, like walking on two mops. When the hippotatomus opens its mouth, steam comes out, like a baked potato. Every character, we try to find a different way to locomote – lots of variety in motion."

'The foodimals are my favorite part of the movie," says Faris. 'The cheespiders, the hippotatomuses, the cantalopes. It's really inventive and fun, how they gave these food creatures personalities."

'I think Barry is the funniest character in the movie," says Hader. 'There's a scene in which Flint is trying to rally the troops, and Barry is behind Flint, translating what Flint's saying, and it's really, really funny." Of course, that's Cameron voicing the role of Barry in the recording booth.

There are 39 foodimals in the film, including:

Apple Piethon
The cold-blooded reptile with a delicate crust and fruit filling.

Bananostrich
Yellow banana with ostrich legs added.

Barry
The shy, young strawberry that befriends Flint and his friends upon their arrival on the transformed island of Swallow Falls. He's a sweet little guy!

Blueberry
Barry's smaller cousin. Blue and juicy!

Buffaloaf
A buffalo meatloaf with horns (onion rings) and a thick coat…of ketchup.

Buttoad
Burpy, buttery frog-like critter who lives on pancake lily pads in the Breakfast Bog.

Cantalope
An antelope made out of a cantaloupe.

Carrot
Organic, orange, observant. Doesn't have much to say.

Cheespider
A cheeseburger, turned into a French fry-legged spider – eek!

Crabcakes
A birthday cake with frosting turned crustacean.

Cucumbirdy
A flying cucumber

Eggplanatee
A sea-dwelling manatee turned eggplant.

Flamangos – mangoes turned into part bird from the everglades.

Fruit Cockatiel
An exotic bird with pear body, pineapple-cherry eyes, and banana peel feathers.

Hippotatomus
Potatoes with butter tongue and chive teeth that live in the river.

Hot Dog
Goofy, moonwalking resident of the abandoned Swallow Falls Drive-In theater. Likes to hide against billboards.

Jellybee
Colorful jelly beans with wings and stingers...watch out!

Jellyfish
The favorite sandwich of childhood with tentacles of peanut butter & jelly.

Kiwi Birds
The green fruit transformed into squat birds.

Leek
The living vegetable, rich in iron and grown from a bulb…harmful to boats.

Lemmins
Sour yellow citrus creatures that follow each other in packs.

Marshmallows
Friendly versions of the sweet white puffy treat.

Meatbalrus
Breadstick-tusked meatball with thin pasta whiskers and bow-tie pasta feet.

Mosquitoasts
Browned bread slices with raisin eyes and cinnamon stick beak.

Pickle
One of the various tribes of the friendly living brined cucumbers. With different sizes and individual personalities, including Dill, Sour and Sweet (and Sweet has a pet onion called Pearl).

Piece of Cake
Pink frosting, layers of chocolatey goodness, and a nonchalant attitude

Pizza Man
Giant pepperoni pizza, with arms, legs...and grouchy attitude.

Sasquash
The legendary mountain-dwelling creature created from…squash.

Shrimpanzees
Chimpanzees with shrimp arms and body.

Strawberries
Barry's loyal clan. A wide variety of shapes, sizes, and attitudes.

Susheep
Gentle sheep with shrimp, carrot, cucumber, crab, avocado & sticky rice.

Tacodile
The Latin American entrée turned river carnivore. Ole!

Tomato
Is just a tomato…

Watermelophant
A pachyderm of the living summer fruit…with babies.

Wild Knish
Non-domesticated versions of the Eastern European snack.

Wild Scallions
Gentle Jurassic herbivore giant made of long green onions.
Wildebeets
the red root vegetable version of the African antelope.

About the Production

In approaching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, the filmmakers began – appropriately enough – with the first film, both in look and personnel. To make the world of Cloudy 2 consistent with the first film, Cameron and Pearn called upon production designer Justin K. Thompson, Senior Animation Supervisor Peter Nash, and Visual Effects Supervisor Peter G. Travers to reprise their roles behind the scenes.

The production designer Justin K. Thompson was responsible for the overall vision and look of the film on behalf of the directors. 'The first film had a very whimsical design – a simplified style, relying heavily on texture and color instead of lots and lots of detail. The shapes and character designs were simplified. Everything was asymmetrical. It was very charming – like being inside of a children's book," says Thompson.

That was the starting point for Cloudy 2 – though of course, the new film required new locations. 'The first film was actually small in scope – medium shots and close ups and character acting. In this movie, there are a lot of wide shots. It's an incredible landscape, and every time they go to a new location, we built a new set."

First up was the city of San Franjose, where Flint is recruited by Chester V. 'It's a mixture of San Francisco and Silicon Valley," Justin K. Thompson continues. 'Live Corp satirizes the culture of Google or Apple – these large, campus-mentality tech firms. That building is larger than the entire town he grew up in. At the very beginning, Craig Kellman came up with the idea of giving Chester a light bulb-shaped head – so we started to wonder, what if we just made Live Corp one big light bulb?"

'The light bulb is the symbol of Live Corp because it's a company of ideas," says Kris Pearn. 'All of the greatest minds in the universe are gathered there – the best and brightest wanted to come there to work. Everything is provided – they have a dolphin pool and cookie bakeries and volleyball courts and caffeine stations every ten feet – it's our way of gently poking fun at Silicon Valley."

'We used a really bright palette and tried to make it a lot more vertical than the first film, in order to give it a feeling that there's a loftiness to the place – that it's aspirational," says Justin K. Thompson. 'This is the place where Flint can pursue the dream he's always had – to become a great inventor who can make the world a better place."

Later, the characters return to Swallow Falls – but for the production team, the changes to the island from the FLDSMDFR meant designing all-new locations. Thompson says that the directors, Cameron and Pearn, were very clear about what they were looking for: 'They didn't want a green jungle – they wanted it to feel like a place that no one had ever seen before."

'So, Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn asked us to use actual food as the inspiration for all of our locations," he explains. 'The art director Dave Bleich and I started cutting apart fruit and vegetables and looking at the shapes and patterns inside. That gave us all of our shape language and our vivid color palette. That gave us a lot of room to be fun and creative in our design."

That was only half the battle. 'They also wanted the jungle to be larger than life," Justin K. Thompson explains. 'So I went into a vegetable garden and put a little handheld camera down on the ground. And what I saw was that fruits and vegetables have really interesting shapes to them. Almost all of them are covered in some kind of fur – a texture that you don't see on larger plants. And we found that when we scaled that up, and especially when we started getting into 3D, it really worked well."

Not only that, but as production designers can do with all great sets, Justin K. Thompson and his team could help tell the story through their designs. 'We used the jungle as a backdrop for the characters' emotional states," he says. 'We worked with Sony Pictures
Imageworks' Peter G. Travers, the Visual Effects Supervisor, to build the sets so that we could change the color at will – if we wanted a scene to feel happy or sad, we could use the same plants and simply change the color."

The other benefit was to add variety to the look of the film. 'No two scenes look the same," he notes. 'As you go through the film, it feels like you're walking through the color spectrum the whole time. For us, the color really does tell a story." Of course, the production design team was also able to express their creativity by carefully placing food within the landscape. Each area of the island had its own theme. 'We had the Sunday morning breakfast section, with pancakes and eggs; we had the Mexican food section; the steak-and-potatoes dinner section; and, at the end, dessert – inside the big rock candy mountain."

And oh, that dessert. 'Back on the first movie, our 3D supervisor said that with the Jell- O mold, we had managed to create the most difficult set ever created in 3D. Well, on this one, we managed to make one even more complex – they go inside of a geode made of rock candy," says Justin K. Thompson. 'There are giant crystals with a waterfall going through it, and characters splashing in the water. There's so much going on – there are sparkles everywhere. And, of course, we art directed everything – even the sparkles."

The animators create a performance for the characters on the screen, so each character has a unique way of moving and emoting. The senior animation supervisor, Peter Nash, oversees the team that tackles that challenge. 'We do movement for a living," he says. 'That's the most fun for us. How do we make motion entertaining and expressive?"

Peter Nash says that the first challenge on Cloudy 2 was making it feel part and parcel of what came before. 'We were very determined to make everything feel true to the world of the first movie," he says. 'On that movie, we had to invent the style. This time around, we had some new concepts or tried things slightly differently, but we definitely wanted it all to fit within the language that was already established."

Having worked on the first film, Peter Nash played a key role in designing the way that most of the returning characters move through space – including Earl the cop. 'He's a supercop in a town where nothing happened," he says. 'He wants to use all of his abilities and has nothing to use them on. So, he's got a lot of pent-up energy – every movement is like a sprinter off the blocks, and every time he stops, it's like slamming on the brakes."

Of course, new characters meant new animation – and creating a new character requires great amounts of trial and error in seeking to get the performance just right.

That is perhaps never more true than the performance of Chester V. 'Whenever we're figuring out a new character, we'll do all kinds of performance tests with them to figure out which concepts work best. Chester's persona is this new-age, touchy-feely guru – he's bright, happy, and positive, but it's a means to an end, because he uses that to manipulate people."

To suggest that, Peter Nash says, the animators made Chester graceful and elegant. 'He has a dancer-like control over his body," Peter Nash says. 'Every time he's talking, he's giving a performance that he's orchestrated in his head ahead of time. He can isolate parts of his body to move in sometimes impossible ways. It's designed for maximum impact.

On the other hand, Barb – the orangutan with a human brain inside her ape brain – is going through a personality crisis. 'She's trying to completely disregard her apelike qualities and act as dainty and human as possible. She completely overcompensates by being prim and proper – but she'll forget. She has moments where she walks on her hands and gets embarrassed."

The other new characters, of course, were the foodimals. Once the foodimals had been designed – whether though Cody Cameron's early tests carving up real strawberries and pickles or through Craig Kellman's nutty brainstorms – it fell to Nash and his team to design all-new movement for each of the foodimals. 'The way the characters were designed was very funny – a spider that's a cheeseburger with French fry legs has a lot of presence, a lot of detail. It's very funny. So we decided, if the design is the joke, then we had to make the movement as real as possible. If we animated them light, like a cartoon, it wouldn't be as funny. So we did it visual effects style, very realistic, with lots of weight. It might be a cheeseburger with French fry legs, but we wanted it to be believable."

Not just believable – but tasty, too. 'One of our rules on the first film was that the food always had to look delicious," says Kris Pearn. 'We tried to keep that going. Whenever we lit a set or put new creatures into the world, it was always the most delicious version of that creature. The cheespider might be scary, or you might want to love Barry, but you also want to eat them because they're so tasty."

Not all of the animals prove a threat. Some of Nash's favorite foodimals are the family of pickles that get adopted by Tim Lockwood and Barry the strawberry, Flint and the gang's guide through the new Swallow Falls – and the animators had fun expressing these characters through movement.

'For the pickles, we tried to suggest the idea that they haven't been alive for very long – they don't really know how to move yet," he says. 'They're like feral cats – they can look erratic and unpredictable. At the same time, they're adorable. Their intentions are good."

'Barry, on the other hand, is very clever," Peter Nash continues. 'He can use the environment to his advantage. He can turn himself into a ball and bounce at will. He'll roll away, pop up somewhere else, then run, run, run across a log, then bounce somewhere else."

Peter G. Travers, the film's visual effects supervisor overseeing a team of 150 people at Sony Pictures Imageworks, notes that on an animated film, 'every shot in the movie is digital," he says. As such, serving as VFX supervisor on an animated film means much more responsibility than on a live-action film. 'It's the development of the characters, it's the development of the environments, the lighting of all the shots, the matte painting – and then the effects animation and compositing. More or less, we're responsible for all the pixels."

For Peter Travers and his team, the most difficult shot was the hero reveal of the foodimals. 'All of the foodimals are there, and they're all splashing in the water – and all of that water has to be simulated – so the magnitude of data was very challenging," he says. 'It's the kind of scene that has been made possible by advancements in CG – the kind of scene that was impossible ten years ago."

Another of Peter Travers' favorite effects comes as the heroes' boat lands in a giant coconut. 'Well, that's coconut milk," he notes. 'And that has different physical properties than water – it's goopy, more viscous."

And if coconut milk is more viscous, it's go nothing on the film's Breakfast Bog, which is made entirely of maple syrup. Which led to an interesting question – just how much more goopy than water is syrup? How would it behave? There was only one way to find out. 'We bought a ton of maple syrup, put it in a big pan, and sloshed it around to see how it behaved," says Travers.

Just as the production design team built new sets for each of the locations in the film, Peter Travers' team would also have to custom build their work for each set. 'We wanted to get a diversity of environments, like they're moving through a rainforest part of the island, or a swamp, or a desert – and all of those areas cater to a certain style of food, he says. 'They all have to have certain style effects, animation, lighting, and shading – even the rendering models were very different."

Building the environments required a lot of research for the render team. 'We wanted the jungle to have bioluminescence," PeterTravers notes, 'so we did a lot of R&D on getting the different styles of bioluminescence to read on the plants. From there, they open up to Sardine Circle; as they go down the river, the cheespider chase is on – the environment is all magenta and blues. They get into Salsa Land – reds and greens – and then the Breakfast Bog, and finally the big rock candy mountain. That's what was so fun – for each of these environments, everything was totally new. The look of it could be whatever we wanted."

Staying For Dessert

For the end credits, the filmmakers wanted to do something a little different – something that would express the spirit of the film and show off a little personality. So, how about a sequence that moved beyond a traditional 2D end-credits sequence – one that employs 2D flash animation, CG animation, stop-motion, puppets, and more in a wild, fun sequence that brings the foodimals to life in all kinds of new ways?

To plan the sequence, the directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn and the production designer Justin K. Thompson turned to Craig Kellman, who had served the film well as a character designer of the foodimals as well as Chester and Barb.

'At the beginning, Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn and Justin K. Thompson and I were batting around ideas about different mediums and styles we could try to differentiate our sequence from the original movie's end credits," says Craig Kellman. 'Should we try to do it with costume characters, or puppets, or stop motion – we love all of these ideas – which one should we do? And as my co-designer Pete Oswald and I started looking at everything we were storyboarding, we thought, -We should do all of them: start with the 2D Flash animation as our base, then make a couple of scenes stop-motion, some other scenes CG, and another scene with puppets.' And miraculously, everyone said yes – and Pete Oswald and I had complete control over where we used each of the different mediums and what we wanted each of the individual scenes to be."

Craig Kellman and Pete Oswald worked with Screen Novelties to bring the sequence to life. 'They're mainly a stop-motion company, but they can do it all," Craig Kellman says. 'They've worked on all sorts of stuff, from -Robot Chicken' to -Celebrity Death Match,' a million commercials, a SpongeBob Christmas special. I've known them for almost 20 years, but the last time we worked together was 12 or 13 years ago and we've been looking for a project to work on together since then."

The elaborate sequence shows the virtue of planning in advance – though it took 18 weeks to plan the storyboard and get the appropriate approvals, the sequence took only 12 weeks to design, animate and composite from beginning to end. Craig Kellman also got a chance to resurrect some of his favorite foodimals that didn't make the final cut of the film. 'The Matzo Bull is my favorite – maybe because I'm Jewish," he says. 'But I also like the Tyranno-s'more-us Mess: a T-Rex made out of s'mores."

The sequence is set to the tune of 'La Da Dee," a single performed by Cody Simpson. Lia Vollack Sony Pictures' President of Worldwide Music, says, '-La Da Dee' is a bright, fresh, fun song that strikes the perfect tone to end

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. Cody Simpson is a wonderful and talented recording artist who appeals to kids and their parents alike – he's a perfect fit with the world of the film."

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
Release Date: December 5th, 2013