There’s nothing we love more than a silly film packed to the gills with puns, and this week’s release, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, is crammed with enough food puns to effectively serve as the Thanksgiving dinner of animated films. It’s a smorgasbord of puns. A cornocupia of corny. A potpurri or portmanteaus. Basically, it looks silly as all get-out and we can’t wait to see it.
Our (fine – my) embarrassing obsession with the foodimals of Cloudy 2 has been well–documented in this space, but that doesn’t mean that my hunger for the creatures has waned. Oh, no, it has only increased, it has only grown – I am starving for these damn things. It doesn’t hurt that the family-friendly film drops just before the big beasts of awards season come out to play, and it should prove to be a nice palate cleanser before we have to bite into some more beefy productions. Though the film reunites much of the talent from the first film, including Bill Hader and Anna Faris, and continues to story of Flint Lockwood and his many invention-based misadventures, the foodmials are poised to be the main course. So who do we want to meat (ahem, meet) the most? All of them. Or these five. (Please forgive me for being so corny, I really do love puns this much.)
Barry the Berry
Cloudy 2 features at least two pretty basic foodimals – including Barry the Berry and Tom the Tomato (or, at least we think he’s named Tom, he could just be Tomato, and that’s depressingadorable) – but Barry seems to be a major character in the narrative.
He’s shy but a bit prone to the mischievous, which is basically the most charming combination of characteristics one could project onto an anthropomorphic berry. Listen, if you’re going to throw some spindly limbs on a goddamn berry, his personality has to overcome the potential creep factor. Barry looks perfect.
We’ll tote him around a foodimal-invested jungle.
Tacodile Supreme
Turns out, not every foodimal is as sweet as Barry, some are meaty and cheesy and oniony and mmmm – Tacodile (Supreme!) may look super-delicious, but he’s also apparently turned into a river-dwelling carnivore, which is horrifying on a number of levels. So, he’s soggy and prone to eating others? Terrifying, but nice to look at, nonetheless.
If you’re going to make a film about wildly morphed food items, you’re also going to have to make some of them be bad guys – tacos get plenty of love, they can stand to be demonized for just a dollop (of sour cream). We forgive you.
Be right back, need a taco.
Hippotatomus
There’s no better argument for the cleverness of the foodimals than the hippotatomus – not only does the species’ name work perfectly in terms of its look and feel, but the little details that make the clan up are unnervingly adorable.
Butter tongues. Chive teeth. Come on.
Hippotatomus has been my very favorite foodimal since the little guys were announced, and I have no shame about how hungry their delicious little faces make me.
Watermelophant
Elephants are already some of the best things around, and watermelon is delicious, so why not toss these two together?
Even better, the watermelophant clan also seems to be super into their tubby little spawn, so good luck not getting attached to, again, anthropomorphic food in an animated film.
Sasquash
I just want to see him captured on tape.
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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 opens this Friday. Forks at the ready.