While Phil Lord and Chris Miller could not be there to contribute their directorial efforts for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, due to their obligations to direct 21 Jump Street, they handed the torch off to Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn. Along with Bill Hader, Anna Faris, and Terry Crewes, the team presented footage from the animated sequel. Hit the jump for more.
The panel opened up to a pre-recorded video of the cast, which also included the likes of Kristan Shaal, Will Forte, and Andy Samberg wearing a variety of cosplay outfits. Hader is having a difficult time remembering how to voice his character, Faris trying on a variety of wigs and glasses, Forte questioning why he is only wearing an orange suit, Crewes figuring out why he was given a police outfit that was designed for a toddler, and Samberg embracing a chicken suit.
The clips that were presented weren’t 100% complete, some scenes still needed to be rendered and enhanced. In the first clip we see that Flint arrives to Live Corp and being welcomed by a Baboon who has a human brain inside of a baboon brain, which she described as a turducken. The building is equipped with 15 coffee stations at every level, and employees are offered caffine patches should their high run low.
But Flint is called back to action when he discovers that his invention wasn’t destroyed and that the machine is starting to create food animals. These new monstrosities have grown out of control and are likely to attack lady liberty.
For Hader, it was a bit difficult to envision these food animals while recording the voices. But Faris didn’t find it as difficult.
Crewes though was a bit of a different story. The actor is replacing Mr. T, who originally voiced Earl. He explained that it was like when Val Kilmar or George Clooney replaced Michael Keaton in Burton’s Batman’s films. But there were high expectations as his kids said that he better not mess it up. For him though, the movie reminded him of the David Cronenberg movie: Dead Ringers.
The directors said that the film literally begins sixty seconds after the first film ended. The animation process took as long as three and half to four years. During that time the cast would record their voices.
Regarding the food animals, Pearn went to a store and about a variety of fruit and cut mouths and added eyes so that he can test out the light on them. Results would affect how the food animals were designed in the final film. But the most important rule about the food animals is that they have to look delicious.
Having never seen the first one, the humor in this film didn’t click with me at all cylinders. However there were moments in the film where I did chuckle a few times. Overall I’ll give this film a chance since it looks like I don’t need to be familiar with the first film.