“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” is a delightfully executed 3-D animated adaptation of the popular children’s book by Judi and Ron Barrett.

In the book, a grandfather tells the tale of a town in which food fell from the sky.

In the movie, writers and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller brought the character of Flint Lockwood, voiced by Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader, to the forefront of the story.

Flint is an ambitious inventor, desirous of the fame the inventors who plaster his wall have achieved, but also yearning for the approval of his father Tim (James Caan.)

Unfortunately, Flint has only achieved the status of town weirdo. He is reminded of his shortcomings every time he looks at his feet, which bear the permanent adhered humiliation of his first invention, spray-on shoes.

After many failed attempts at creating something that works properly, Flint appeases his father’s requests to live normally and goes to work at the family store, Tim (and Son’s) Sardine Bait & Tackle, leaving less time for Flint to exercise his creativity.

The father-son relationship between Flint and his father is realistic yet comical — Tim’s deepest form of self-expression comes out in fishing metaphors — and offers for an especially moving scene at the end.

In the process of jolting his latest invention — a machine that can turn water into food — to life, Flint sends it into the sky where it’s lodged among the clouds that hover above the island, providing Flint’s hometown island of Swallow Falls with a forecast of food.

Small-time weather girl Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) happens to be on the island when it rains food for the first time. Her interaction with Flint quickly reveals Sam to be a meteorology-obsessed brainiac disguising herself as a dumb blonde who news audiences love.

The 3-D in the film provides delicious eye candy, adding an element of whimsicality every time house-sized scoops of ice cream and steaks large enough to crush dining room tables fall from the sky.

In the midst of everything, Flint and Sam strike up a romance. They bond over all things nerd, Jell-O and the ability to make the most sincere moments of enamor cute and awkward.

In true disaster-movie form, a tornado of al dente spaghetti threatens to destroy the town and gummy bears develop a penchant for violence.

Supporting roles by Andy Samberg, Mr. T and Neil Patrick Harris make
this kid’s movie entertaining for all ages.

The filmmakers were clever enough to take some jabs at the media’s agenda of ensuring “pretty” remains a staple of its broadcast, the backward stereotype of how to aesthetically turn a beautiful girl into a nerd and our culture’s absorption in overindulgence.

The movie does go for some cheap laughs geared toward the demographic for which the movie is intended, but it never loosens its grasp on the fact that Pixar isn’t the only production company that can make a kid’s movie with heart.

Reach the reporter at brian.bahe@asu.edu.