Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 appears in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Computer animated films tend to look good on Blu-ray, and Cloudy 2 followed that rule.
Sharpness was fine across the board. The movie delivered satisfying definition, with no obvious softness on display.
No signs of jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and edge haloes were absent. Of course, print flaws never manifested themselves.
Colors tended to be broad and bold, though the film opted more toward orange/teal than expected for an animated tale. Even with those choices, the hues still boasted nice range and impact.
Blacks were dark and deep, while low-light shots offered nice clarity and smoothness. This became an appealing visual presentation.
With Cloudy 2, we got a DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack that offered a lively soundscape, especially during the action sequences. Those fleshed out the spectrum in an involving way and gave us many chances for movement.
This allowed the surrounds to play an active role. The track worked well enough in the early stages but it picked up more as it went, especially as the film neared its climax. The various channels got a good workout in this engrossing soundscape.
Audio quality seemed pleasing. Speech always sounded distinctive and concise, while music was peppy and rich.
Effects offered solid reproduction, with clean highs and deep lows. I liked this mix and thought it gave the movie life.
The disc includes many extras, and we begin with an audio commentary from directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn. Both sit together for a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, cast and performances, animation and technical areas.
Much of the commentary comes across as “annotated narration”. Much of the time, Pearn and Cameron describe the story and add production thoughts, though they often simply just name animators who worked on various scenes.
They also laugh a lot and make this a genial track. Despite these traits, we still get a decent look at the production, one that improves as it goes, but it remains a frustrating and inconsistent chat.
Four mini-movies arrive: “Steve’s First Bath” (5:02), “Super Manny” (4:22), “Attack of the 50 Foot Gummi Bear” (5:58), and “Earl Scouts” (6:39). All four offer amusement and become fun additions to the set.
Four Deleted Scenes follow, with a total running time of two minutes, 20 seconds. Given their brief lengths, none of these provide narrative substance, but they’re entertaining.
Featurettes follow, and Back in the Kitchen goes for six minutes, 50 seconds. It involves Cameron, Pearn, producer Pam Marsden, art director Dave Bleich and production designer Justin K. Thompson.
“Kitchen” looks at production and visual design. It becomes a taut overview of the subject matter.
With Cloudy Café, we get a six-minute, 53-second reel with Cameron, Pearn, and actors Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Neil Patrick Harris, Benjamin Bratt, Andy Samberg, Terry Crews, James Caan, Will Forte, and Kristen Schaal.
“Café” discusses cast, characters and performances. It’s not a deep program but it comes with a few good notes.
Anatomy of a Foodimal spans six minutes, four seconds with remarks from Faris, Hader, Crews, Marsden, Cameron, Pearn, Bleich, Schaal, Samberg, producer Kirk Bodyfelt and visual development Andre Medina.
In this show, we get notes about the design and creation of the movie’s living food. It becomes another semi-superficial but still fairly informative piece.
Under Awesome End Credits, we see a six-minute, nine-second clip that features Cameron, Pearn, Bodyfelt, end credits designers Pete Oswald and Craig Kellman, end credits animation producer/director Mark Cabellero, and end credits lead puppeteer Robin Walsh.
As expected, this one examines the film’s end credits sequence. It becomes an insightful take on the topic.
With Building the Foodimals, we get a three-minute, 50-second animation reel that features commentary from senior animation supervisor Peter Nash. This doesn’t turn into a great reel, but Nash offers a few useful thoughts.
Delicious Production Design operates the same way, as we see animation accompanied by commentary from Thompson. It goes for five minutes, 11 seconds and delivers Thompson’s remarks about various visual design choices. Thompson gives us a mix of strong notes.
Next comes The Mysterious Sasquash, another mix of animation and commentary. It goes for three minutes, eight seconds as VFX supervisor Pete Travers discusses this “Easter egg” character. It’s mostly comedic, but we do get to see all the hidden appearances of the character in the film.
We get a music video for “La Da Dee” by Cody Simpson. It’s a mix of movie footage, lip-synch and a minor plot in which Simpson woos a diner waitress. It’s pretty mediocre.
We also see a Making of program for the video. It lasts a whopping 59 seconds and features notes from Simpson and video director Paul Brown. It tells us little of use.
The disc opens with ads for Hotel Transylvania, Smurfs 2 and Angry Birds Toons: Season One. Previews adds promos for The Swan Princess: A Royal Family Tale and One Direction: This Is Us. No trailer for Cloudy 2 appears here.
A second disc provides a DVD copy of Cloudy 2. It includes everything but the deleted scenes.
When compared to the original film, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 disappoints, but on its own, it brings fairly good entertainment value. The movie delivers just enough amusement and cleverness to keep us with it. The Blu-ray boasts excellent picture as well as strong audio and a pretty strong roster of bonus features. Cloudy 2 becomes an acceptable sequel.
