Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2

Picking up directly from the end of the first film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (Nuageux avec une chance de boulettes de viande deux) continues its predecessor's frenetic pace, while creating some disturbing questions around the ethics of eating. Bill Hader returns to voice a young inventor who must go back to his hometown to stop his errant food machine from birthing a dangerous world of portmanteau'd food beasts. Indeed, much of the plot seems to exist to allow for punny names like “flamangos,” “watermelophants” and “mosquitoasts.” The barest of themes on how friends are nice dusts around the story. Everyone from Anna Faris to James Caan and Neil Patrick Harris lend their voices, but it's Will Forte who earns the MVP voicing a creepy Deepak Chopra meets Steve Jobs science kingpin. Still, sentient food munching on other sentient food borders right on the disturbing for a kid's flick. —Jacob Boon