“Sam’s afraid to be who she really is,” says Cloudy star Anna Faris. “But she’s passionate about weather and science. When she meets Flint, her job becomes her dream job. That brings her out of her shell.”

In the animated adventure Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, awkward inventor Flint Lockwood has made some pretty strange stuff, from spray-on shoes to a monkey thought translator. Determined to invent something that will make people happy and appreciate him, he invents a machine that will turn water in to food. Sam Sparks is an aspiring weathergirl who’s secretly a geek like Flint. When something goes horribly wrong, can they fix Flint’s machine before the town suffocates under a deluge of food weather?

“Flint just wants to be liked,” says Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs star Bill Hader, the voice of Flint. “He’s a bit socially awkward, so he thinks he needs to do something big, invent something that will make everybody happy. He thinks that he has to prove himself. But, what he doesn’t realize is that people like him just for who he is.”

“I wanted to make Tim a monotone guy,” says Cloudy star James Caan, who voices the role of Flint’s father. “We all fall into patterns and habits. You do them long enough and they’re hard to break. I can see how Tim and Flint fell into their relationship.”

“This isn’t like on The A-Team, when I was really throwing a guy,” says Cloudy star Mr. T. “I didn’t throw anybody in the booth. I look tough and I act tough, but I’m nothing but a big teddy bear.

“I’m a method actor,” says Cloudy star Neil Patrick Harris, who’s the voice of Flint’s monkey assistant Steve. “I wanted to know, how does a mentally deficient monkey say, hungry? Dumb? Straight? Empty? Loud? Nobody had any real answers to my questions. He doesn’t have a lot to say. He says the same eight things over and over.”

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are the writing-and-directing team behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. They’d co-produced How I Met Your Mother and created the animated series Clone High for MTV.

“The major difference between television and film is that television is primarily about character, jokes, and pacing, while film is about story,” says Cloudy co-director Christopher Miller. “We knew from the beginning that we would have to nail down the story in a way that an episode of a television show just doesn’t require.”

“We thought, wow, that would be a great action movie,” says Cloudy co-director Phil Lord. “All of the events in the film would be very, very silly, but the characters would take them all very, very seriously.”

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is based on the book written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. “I always had the feeling that this would make a great animated movie, and it turns out, Sony Pictures Animation did, too,” says Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs author Judi Barrett, “Though it needed stretching and development in length, characters, and plot, they saw all its wonderful possibilities. If you’re a fan of the book you’ll certainly recognize some of your very favorite and memorable iconic images in the movie.”

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the ultimate food fight, with food fallingfrom the sky. It has undertones of being green, to not to waste food. The immaturity of the characters and dumb humor makes it more fun for kids than adults. One word of warning, the digital copy works only on PS3 to download to PSP. This is not standard practice to lock a digital copy to a proprietary machine and will disappoint if you expect to download it to your computer.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a move the kids will enjoy.

Blu-ray special features

• Making of Commentary
• “Raining Sunshine” Music Video by iCarly’s Miranda Cosgrove
• Interactive “Raining Sunshine” Sing-A-Long
• Behind the Scenes of Miranda Cosgrove’s “Raining Sunshine” Music Video
• Key Ingredients: The Voices of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
• Extended Scenes
• Progression Reels with Introductions by Visual Effects Supervisor Rob Bredow
• Early Development Scenes
• Directors’ Commentary with Bill Hader
• Interactive “Splat” Button (Throw Food at the Screen While You Watch the Movie!)
• A Recipe for Success: The Making of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
• Flint’s Food Fight Game – Enhanced for Blu-ray
• Make It Rain Food
• A PSP Digital copy of the movie that can be transferred via your PS3

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

• Studio: Sony Columbia Pictures
• Directors: Chris Miller, Phil Lord
• Screenwriter: Chris Miller, Phil Lord
• Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Tracy Morgan
• Genre: Animation, Comedy
• MPAA Rating: PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for brief mild language

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Video of Anna Faris and Bill Hader on Moviefone’s Unscripted to answer fans questions. Visit Moviefone.com to view more bonus clips from the show.

• Read full story…

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Video of Anna Faris visits the The Ellen DeGeneres Show on September 19, 2009, she is promoting ‘Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs‘.

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Anna Faris made her mark playing sexy blondes who aren’t always the brightest bulb in the bin. And she’s pushed the envelope of raunchy comedy in films like The House Bunnyand the outrageous Observe and Report.

Now, she is strictly G-rated in the animated version of the popular children’s book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Parade.com’s Jeanne Wolf found out why Faris has a special connection to the story.

The good and the bad of reliving childhood memories.
“It was a book that I loved as a kid, so I couldn’t wait to be a part of it. I thought it was going to be easy, but it’s so much harder than I thought. You’re on your feet for hours in front of a microphone and you’re giving a full performance. The producers sort of sell you on it going, ‘This is going to be fun. No hair. No makeup. You just pop in. You record your voice. You act out a funny animated character.’ Believe me, it’s still a challenge.”

Getting to reveal her ditzy side.
“I provide the voice of Sam Sparks, who’s smart and feisty. Normally, a girl in a movie goes from being shy and geeky to super cool and hot, but Sam takes the reverse journey and I loved that. I think there are some great messages in the movie about being true to yourself and following your passions and your interests–even though they may not be the coolest thing in the world.”

Real food among the animation.
“Bill Hader’s character and I voice this big scene where cheeseburgers are raining down and we’re chomping them. So they brought in real cheeseburgers to the studio and we’d eat them while we recorded the lines. OK, the truth is they had a spit bucket so we’d eat part of one and then just dump the rest in the bucket. But, we still went through a lot of cheeseburgers.”

Burger nostalgia.
“I did a training video for a burger chain, which I won’t mention, in which I played the perfect hostess. And one of my lines was, ‘Here, we always give good phone.’ The whole crew was like, ‘I don’t understand what giving good phone means. Is it like a double entendre?’  The hardest part was saying it without breaking up.”

What she whips up in the kitchen.
“One of my hobbies is cooking. I love it, and so I love food of all kinds, but I’m going to go with Indian food for right now–naan and some daal are really great.”

Adjusting to G-rated jokes.
“I love offensive humor, and I’m really proud to be a part of that stuff, especially as a woman. In comedy you’re always trying to walk the line between being funny and also pleasing your audience. I’m very comfortable being raunchy and outrageous, but Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is great as well even if it’s kinder and gentler. It’s nice that my parents can finally see one of my movies without blushing.”

The one where they did.
“I told my parents that I was going to make Smiley Face, about a girl who’s stoned the entire movie. I didn’t tell them that I spent some of my youth doing quite a bit of research. But, you know, it was college–what are you gonna do? Anyway, my mom was like, ‘Oh no.’ I was like, ‘Mom, I’m doing it. I don’t want to have to choose roles because I’m worried about what you’re going to think.’ Now, it’s their favorite movie that I’ve done. They love it. They watch it all the time, so I guess I’m breaking them in.”

Always ready for another Scary movie.
“I really do enjoy making them, and in a sense it’s a little like putting on an old pair of jeans. It is kind of the only film that I can approach with such a degree of comfort because I know everybody and I’ve done it before. Every other film that I go to and do I’m still learning, still figuring out. I’m still climbing the ladder.”

If you saw her Playboy pictorial, you may not believe this.
“Growing up I was a late bloomer. I had no boobs and didn’t really look my age. The opposite sex sort of ignored me. I had two gorgeous girlfriends, and I felt guys were always trying to be my friends so they could pursue them.”

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Anna Faris’ latest movie, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, has held onto its place at the top of the US box office.

The 3D animated family comedy, featuring the voices of stars including Faris, Bill Hader and James Caan, took in 24.6 million dollars to remain No 1 for a second straight weekend.

The film raised its domestic haul to 60 million dollars after 10 days in theatres, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

Bruce Willis’ new action thriller, Surrogates, debuted at No 2 with 15 million dollars.

Opening in third place with 10 million was Fame, a new take on the 1980s music and dance hit about students at a school for performing arts.

The film reached the No 1 slot at the UK box office with a gross of over £2.4 million in 460 cinemas on its opening weekend.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday to Sunday at US and Canadian theatres are according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released on Monday September 28.

Source: The Press Association

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