Book v. Movie 1 - Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs was written by Judi Barrett in 1978 and illustrated by Ron Barrett. This book has been a favorite of mine for several years so I was excited and anxious to hear about the release of the movie in 2009. As we all know, sometimes the books turned in to movies are wonderful and sometimes we are better off never having seen them.

The book begins with a family having breakfast and the grandfather begins to tell the story of the town of Chewandswallow. The movie goes directly into the story of the town and develops how the towns fate came about. Considering the book is a 28 page children’s book, the creators of the movie have taken several liberties in developing the storyline. The movie did reflect many of the food items the townspeople had to encounter in the book. Also, the movie and book flow in the same direction in regards to the storyline. The similarities really end there.

The development of the characters and relationships, such as Flint Lockwood and Sam Sparks, are the key to the movie’s success. The movie was even nominated for a 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature. The creators took a children’s book and pushed it in the direction the book was already going so the end result isn’t a far reach from the book. If the reader had any questions as to why the “weather events” happened in the story they way they did, they were rewarded with the answers in the movie. My family and students thoroughly enjoyed the movie and was not left disappointed. From a teacher point of view, this combo gave way to some great compare and contrast activities with my class!