The animated movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" appeared in theaters on September 18, 2009. Unfortunately, we were not able to watch it in the theater. Luckily, the Blu-Ray version came out on January 5, 2010. My 7-year old daughter had been bugging us to rent it as soon as she saw the Coming Soon sign on the local Redbox. We ended up renting it through Netflix instead.

I wasn't expecting a lot from the movie since I loved the book when I was a child and, as I recall, there isn't much of a plot to it. Surprisingly, the movie is quite good. The writers managed to take the thin book and turn it into an intriguing story with believable, yet funny, characters. Not only were the characters awesome, but the animation was also very good. Most people, nowadays, are looking for cutting edge "realistic" animation. While "Cloudy" isn't particularly cutting edge, the animation is clean and, to put it simply, pretty. The cherry on top is the crop of recognizable actors that were brought on board to give life to the characters. (My favorite is Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the monkey.)

"Cloudy" is definitely a must-see movie. The kids will enjoy it and I think the adults will love it as well. Good fun for everyone!