'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'

An inventor with a dream, a creation that changes everything, and the chaos that ensues after the invention spirals out of control: We've seen the story elements in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" before, but this is an animated family movie that's fun, imaginative and a great joy to watch, especially if you're seeing it in spectacular 3-D.

Swallow Falls cannot be a pleasant place to live. A small island in the Atlantic Ocean, it exists solely on the basis of its sardine industry, which is struggling. Young inventor Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader) wants to change the world with his creations, even if his churlish father (voice of James Caan) doesn't understand his dreams the way his late mother (voice of Lauren Graham) once did.

After a number of ideas that lead to moderate success (spray-on shoes, a monkey translator, etc.), Flint concocts a machine that turns water into food. During the mayor's (voice of Bruce Campbell) dedication of a new theme park, Flint loses control of the machine, causing it to fly into the sky. And then it starts to rain — cheeseburgers.

Especially fascinated by the "weather" is aspiring network weathergirl Sam Sparks (voice of Anna Faris), who's shunned her naturally geeky personality for the flash and beauty needed to succeed on television. At first she and the townspeople are thrilled that it's raining steak and doughnuts, but as the food starts getting bigger, trouble abounds.

The film is showing in IMAX 3-D in some cities and those who see it in that format are in for a great show. The movie looks fabulous and you sort of haven't lived until you've had a spaghetti tornado fly at your face. The sweetest sequence comes either when Flint tries to woo Sam inside a huge Jell-O mold, or when Flint covers the town with ice cream to make the local cop (voice of Mr. T) and his son (voice of Bobb'e J. Thompson) happy. You decide.

Writer/directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller based the film on a children's book by Ron and Judi Barrett. One reason "Meatballs" works is because it has the universal appeal of being about people with dreams and daring to go after those dreams regardless of adversity. It's inspiring to see Flint and Sam do what it takes to make their dreams a reality, even if they can't entirely control the outcome.

Let's be honest: It's cool to see gigantic bagels flatten Times Square and pizza fall from the sky and daring escapes to sea on giant pieces of toast. With all the food flying around on screen, you probably don't want to go to the movie hungry. But if you do, at least you'll be hungry and entertained.

Dan Hudak is the chairma n of the Florida Film Critics Circle and a nationally syndicated film critic. You can e-mail him at dan@hudakonhollywood. com and read more of his work at www. hudakonhollywood.com.

Did you know?

>>To get the raining cheeseburgers just right, the filmmakers dropped food in front of time-lapse cameras so animators could study how cheeseburgers react when dropped from great heights. Hint: there's a lot of splatting involved.