STORY: Part bonkers, part brilliant Flint Lockwood (Hader) now works for The Live Corp Company, after accepting an invite from his idol, Chester (Forte). While Chester wants to save Swallow Falls from being swamped by mutant creatures and critters, Flint, who is enlisted to help save the town, soon finds himself having to take some important decisions. REVIEW: While its predecessor had more emotional impact, this second helping of Cloudy… is more adventurous and fun, while losing precious little of the overall charm of the characters and location.

Flint’s earlier invention of a machine that turned water to food was of great benefit to the people of Swallow Falls as it created a smorgasbord of free grub for the townsfolk to chow down on. While Flint, his father Tim (Caan) and his buddies Sam (Faris), Brent (Samberg) and Steve (Harris) had been living elsewhere, they have to now return to their old town. This is because Flint’s old machine has become self-aware and started creating a glut of hilariously-titled ‘foodimals’ – living creatures made out of various food items with portmanteau names like ‘shrimpanzees’, ‘watermelephants’, ‘double bacon cheespider’ and ‘tacodiles’.

Flint now gets recruited by Chester, who apparently wants to save Swallow Falls. And as frantic Flint finds himself both inspired and driven by Chester, his newfound success makes him more socially acceptable and he drifts further away from the grounding effect of his old buddies. There are a few smaller subplots too, but apart from creatively-titled names and a hallucinogenic landscape, Cameron and Pearn keep the narrative tight and in focus without rambling all over the place.

While kids will enjoy the jokes, there are sight gags galore to give adults a good guffaw or three. Generously laden with a buffet of food puns and savoury set locations, this is a film filled with gorgeous, vivid animation and no-holds-barred creativity. With plenty of ‘tasty’ surprises, the umpteen food references make it as much a gustatory delight as it is uplifting.