Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

For other uses, see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (disambiguation).

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Author	Judi Barrett
Illustrator	Ron Barrett
Cover artist	Ron Barrett
Country	United States
Genre	Fantasy, Children's picture book
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	August 1, 1978
ISBN	0-689-30647-4
Followed by	Pickles to Pittsburgh

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a children's book written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. It was first published in 1978 by Atheneum Books, followed by a 1982 trade paperback edition from sister company Aladdin Paperbacks. It is now published by Simon & Schuster. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". It was one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.

A sequel, Pickles to Pittsburgh, was published in 1997 by Atheneum Books; a hardcover edition followed in 2009. A second sequel, Planet of the Pies, was published on August 27, 2013.

Plot

Inspired by an incident while making pancakes at breakfast, a grandfather tells a bedtime story, chronicling the lives of the citizens of an imaginary town called Chewandswallow, which is characterized by good food conveniently raining from the sky. The grandson's name is Henry; the granddaughter, as narrator, is not named. (The same character does have a name in the sequel.)

Life was happy in the town of Chewandswallow until the weather took a sudden turn for the worse, with events such as a flood of spaghetti creating a tangle in traffic, Gorgonzola cheese raining down for a whole day, and literal pea-soup fog. The food also began to increase in size, creating natural disasters and even causing permanent closure of the school.

The townspeople had no choice but to abandon Chewandswallow. In their new town they got used to having ordinary rain and snow, as well as buying food at supermarkets instead of receiving it from the sky, and the children began school again. And they never returned to Chewandswallow, being too afraid.

The children fall asleep shortly after their grandfather finishes his story. The book ends with the grandchildren waking up again, to a snow day. While they sled down the hill, they imagine that the snow-covered hilltop with the sun rising over it is mashed potatoes with butter on the top.

Sequels

Pickles to Pittsburgh

The follow-up to the story, Pickles to Pittsburgh, released on October 1, 1997, tells of the kids receiving a postcard from their grandfather, who claims to be visiting the ruins of what was once the fabled town of Chewandswallow. The kids then go to sleep and dream that they are there with him, helping to rebuild the post-apocalyptic landscape and restore it to where it is livable again, as well as giving the massive amounts of food away to poverty-stricken developing nations and homeless shelters around the world. This proves to be difficult, as there could be more food storms on the way.

Planet of the Pies

A third book in the series, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3: Planet of the Pies, was released on August 27, 2013. It details a dream Grandpa had about the first crewed expedition to Mars, where the Martian society is being overrun by daily storms of pies.

Film adaptations

Main article: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (franchise)

On September 18, 2009, Sony Pictures Animation released an animated film adaptation of the book; it was released on DVD on January 5, 2010. A new cast of characters were created to assist plot development, and the synopsis was changed from food produced by the weather to food made by a machine. Bill Hader and Anna Faris provided the voices of the two lead characters, Flint Lockwood, "a young inventor who dreams of creating something that will improve everyone's life", and Samantha "Sam" Sparks, "a weathergirl covering the situation who hides her intelligence behind a perky exterior". James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Benjamin Bratt, Al Roker, Lauren Graham, and Will Forte are also on the voice cast. Co-writers and co-directors Philip Lord and Chris Miller said that it would be a homage to, and a parody of, disaster movies such as Twister, Armageddon, and The Day After Tomorrow, as well as Sony's then-upcoming 2012, released nearly two months later.

Unlike the book, in which a grandfather tells his two grandchildren a bedtime story about Chewandswallow, in the movie an inventor named Flint Lockwood creates a machine that turns water vapor in the atmosphere into food. Originally the machine's output was limited to Swallow Falls (said in the movie to be the original name of Chewandswallow), but overuse of the machine causes it to malfunction and the food weather to take a turn for the worse, as well as spreading it across the world.

A sequel to the first film, titled Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, was released on September 27, 2013; it features an original storyline and is unrelated to the book's sequel Pickles to Pittsburgh.

Game

Main article: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (video game)

In conjunction with the September 18, 2009 film release, Ubisoft released a game for Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, and Xbox 360, as well as a stereoscopic online mini game.