Watch: New Cloudy 2 Clip Introduces Barry the Berry

Sony's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ended up being one of the best surprises of 2009, and the sequel looks set to be just as fun! The animation looks fun, the visuals look gorgeous and the film just generally - as seen in this new clip - looks very fun.

Fun New Cloudy 2 Clip Gets the Gang Back Together

SPA's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is certainly looking set to be one of the most fun films of the year. The first film was a great film - frenetic, energetic and funny - and the second, now directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, going off the trailers and this latest clip, looks to continue that.

Six New Cloudy 2 Character Posters Show-Off Foodimals and Puns

Sony's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 hits cinemas next month (27th in the US; 25th October in the UK though), so the studio has just rolled out six new character posters to help get you hyped for the succulent sequel.

As we've come to expect from the advertising for Cloudy 2, the posters are heavy on two things: the food-animal hybrids, called Foodimals, and cheesy puns. The first poster features Bill Hader's inventor extraordinaire, Flint Lockwood, and his pet monkey (who's actually voiced by Neil Patrick Harris). Check out the other five below.

New Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 Trailer is Filled to the Brim with Puns

It's been a heck of a day for animation fans: we've already got new trailers for Turbo, The BoxTrolls and even a Japanese one for Frozen; now Yahoo! Movie Trailers is here to provide us with yet another, for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2!

New Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 Featurette Introduces Foodimals

A new featurette (via USA Today) for Sony Pictures Animation's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 introduces us to some of the many punnily-named food-animals - or, foodimals - that populate the succulent sequel.

Terry Crews Brings Us An Excited Peek at Cloudy 2

The always entertaining Terry Crews will have the unenviable task of filling Mr. T's shoes when he replaces him in voicing Officer Earl in Sony Pictures Animation's September release, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. So, the White Chicks and Expendables star today brings us a nature documentary-meets-Jurassic Park style clip, as he narrates a sighting of the elusive 'sasquash'. The clip features gorgeous animation, a healthy dose of quirky humour and a whole lot of food puns - check it out above.

Directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, and executive produced by the directors of the original (who are currently directing The Lego Movie for Warner Bros.), Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 hits cinemas on 27th September (US)/25th October (UK).

Watch: New Trailers for Cloudy 2 and Planes

Yesterday was a big poster day, today is a big trailer day. Sony have just rolled out the first trailer for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 on Yahoo! Movies, and it's good. Cloudy 2 clearly retains the visual inventiveness and quirky humour of the first film, and if you like food-related puns, you're in for a treat.

Appetising New Poster for Cloudy 2

Ahead of the big trailer reveal tomorrow, Sony Pictures Animation have rolled out a vibrant, packed poster for their upcoming sequel, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. The film's previous subtitle was Revenge of the Leftovers and you can get a sense of exactly what that's going to entail from this cool poster - which isn't entirely dissimilar in its approach to Pixar's new Monsters University one.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 hits US cinemas on 27th September, and UK ones on 25th October.

Via Yahoo! Movies.

Cloudy 2 Trailer Arrives on 27th

Sony Pictures Animation had commercial success last year with the Genndy Tartakovsky-directed Hotel Transylvania, they're surely hoping to replicate that this year, which will see them release two new films: The Smurfs 2 on 31st July and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 later (27th September, US/25th October, UK). The less said about the former the better, but Cloudy 2 has the potential to be a lot of fun, and we'll get our first practical glimpse at it on the 27th of this month!

SPA tweeted the above picture yesterday, promising a the first trailer for the sequel in five days - that has now ticked down to four. I wasn't a huge fan of Hotel Transylvania last year - the animation was magnificent though - but I am a huge fan of the first Cloudy film and am eagerly anticipating the second! We got our first look at concept art from the film last month.

Cloudy 2 sees the return of much of its original voice cast, including Bill Hader, Anna Faris and Neil Patrick Harris; Kristen Schaal and Terry Crews have joined the cast, with the latter replacing Mr. T as Officer Earl. Directing is being done by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn.

We'll post the trailer as soon as it's up.

First Look: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

Last year, Sony Pictures Animation had a hit with monster mash-up film Hotel Transylvania, starring the voices of Adam Sandler and Selena Gomez and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Lab), which made over $300 million worldwide. The critics didn't all love it though (check out our review here) and indeed SPA's best film to date still remains 2009's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. As such, I'm very excited to check out the sequel when it hits cinemas in September!

Cloudy 2 Gets a New Release Date

A few days ago, Disney dated their upcoming slate, announcing several new projects, and new dates for existing ones - including Saving Mr. Banks - and, yesterday, Sony dated one of their highly anticipated projects too.

Cloudy 2: Revenger of the Leftovers, Sony Pictures Animation's sequel to 2009's successful Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, is now due on 27th September, 2013, says Box Office Mojo. This is up several months from its previously planned 7th February, 2014 release date - and this new date puts it at almost exactly the same date that Hotel Transylvania opened at so successfully this year. UPDATE: 22:33 (GMT) - Kyle (Ostrumation92) commented that the subtitle has been dropped, and that the film is now just called Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, which does fit with the Box Office Mojo listing.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a hell of a let of fun, and its quirky comedy and lively charm made it one of 2009's best animated films, so Cloudy 2 is hotly anticipated here at A113Animation! Check out some plot details for the film over at Entertainment Weekly.

In the meantime, SPA's latest, Hotel Transylvania, is in cinemas; check out our interview with production designer Marcelo Vignali here!

Interview: Marcelo Vignali, Production Designer on Hotel Transylvania

Marcelo with Hotel Transylvania's vocal lead, Adam Sandler.

Last Friday, I had the chance to speak to Marcelo Vignali, the production designer on Hotel Transylvania, the latest film from Sony Pictures Animation. The Genndy Tartakovsky directed film is getting a lukewarm critical response, but is going down a treat with audiences everywhere, who are very receptive to its fun, cartoony style. Hotel T is playing now in the US and Canada, and opened here in the UK today!

I'd like to thank Lauren Woosey at Titan Books for putting me in contact with Sony in the first place and her constant kindness; I'd also like to extend huge thanks to Olivier Mouroux and Kyle Rapone at the Sony Pictures Animation PR team for setting the whole thing up and being so accommodating and friendly.

Of course, I also want to thank Marcelo. One thing I've been astounded at when doing these interviews is how kind and down-to-earth everyone is. Marcelo made a point of asking me about my own life, and acted very modestly, while displaying huge enthusiasm for the film and his work. Not to mention he's a really talented guy! Topics covered in our exclusive interview include his role on Hotel T and thoughts on the film, working around the many directorial changes, working with Genndy Tartakovsky, the film's visual and animation styles, animation at Sony and the future.

Turbo, Rio 2, Cloudy 2 and More At the Licensing Expo

Yesterday we posted the first look at Blue Sky Studios' upcoming animated feature, Epic, out of this year's Licensing Expo, however it seems we overlooked lots of others. /Film and comingsoon.net bring us some other great first looks, posters and promotional material for upcoming animated films.

Firstly, (top) we have our first look at DreamWorks' Turbo, which follows "an ordinary garden snail who dreams of becoming the fastest snail in the world". While I was greatly looking forward to this film, I'm somewhat more cautious now. The animation is very bright and vibrant, and it looks like a lot of fun; but it also looks very goofy, and the main character is dangerously close to pulling the "DreamWorks face" (see above). I also found a recently released poster for the film (top), which does nothing to allay my fears.

We also get posters for a lot of sequels. Including Blue Sky's Rio 2 (above), Sony's Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers (above) and The Smurfs 2 (below) and Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me 2 (below - we actually got a large display for this one). All of what we see for these films, though, gives us nothing new; it merely displays a '2' and the characters from the original - I suppose Cloudy 2 gives us a subtitle...

I loved Rio and Despicable Me - they were both phenomenal - but, at this point, I'm not really that excited to see sequels. I'm sure they'll be handled well, but I'm going to need some more details before I invest in the projects. I haven't seen, and don't particularly want to see, The Smurfs and have zero interest in a sequel. However, the one I'm particularly excited for is Cloudy 2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a surprise hit, it was a lot, lot better than the advertising led us to think it would be - and Sony Pictures Animation will presumably handle a sequel well.

And finally, we get another poster (above) for Sony's impending release, Hotel Transylvania.

Turbo is released on 19th July, 2013 (US) and 18th October, 2013 (UK); Rio 2 will premiere in Brazil on 28th March and on 4th April, 2014 worldwide; Cloudy 2 is due for release on 14th February, 2014; Despicable Me 2 is due on 28th June, 2013 (UK) and 3rd July (US); The Smurfs 2 will be in cinemas on 31st July 2013; finally, Hotel Transylvania is out much sooner, on 28th September (US) and 12th October (UK), of this year.

All release dates are via IMDb and are correct at the time of publishing.

First Hotel Transylvania Trailer - In English This Time

On Sunday, we posted our first footage from Sony Pictures Animation's Genndy Tartakovsky directed feature film, Hotel Transylvania... in Russian. Whilst I wasn't blown away by it (largely due to the fact that... it was in Russian), the animation was impressive and the artistic style of the film looked hopeful.

Now the trailer has been released in English, and I'm still not overly impressed. Admittedly, it's a bit funnier and it still looks like it has potential, but I shan't be too optimistic until we see something of more substance. However, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs didn't look too great in trailers either, and that was brilliant, and a huge winner for Sony - fingers crossed for a repeat performance.

Christmas Thoughts - 2011

I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas and that you all had a wonderful day yesterday. I thought I'd, as I did last year, share my thoughts on some animation related gifts I received.

At the top you can see the vast majority of them, I was incredibly overjoyed to receive these presents, as you can see, and as you can probably tell from reading my blog, I quite like animation, so these presents were fantastic for me.

To go through the presents one by one, I got, which is probably my favourite present, 'The Art of Pixar: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art From 25 Years of Animation'. The book which touts colour scripts from all of Pixar's 12 feature films, as well as from some of their shorts and includes several pieces of art made for each film, is fantastic. Authored by Cartoon Brew co-founder, Amid Amidi, the book is rather scarce on text, but what there is is rich in detail and history. However, as it should be, the main focus of the book is the fantastic, jaw-dropping, beautiful artwork from the artists of Pixar; and if they included the level of detail in the text we see in the individual 'Art of' books, this one would be substantially larger than the 300-odd pages it is at the moment. The book is a brilliant read and I would definitely recommend it. I will likely publish a full review of the book in the coming week.

In terms of DVDs, I got a decent amount of animated films this year, including Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (a fun and quirky animated film that was one of my favourites from 2009), Rio (which isn't pictured, as the box is somewhat trashed, as the security stopper wasn't removed for some reason, so we had to pry the box open) and Kung Fu Panda 2 (which seems even more awesome than it did when I first saw it). While I loved these films and would have been more than content with these, two of the best presents I got were in the form of the Disney classics, Peter Pan and 101 Dalmatians, two of the films that helped form my childhood; utter classics in every form, it meant even more as a present, given that they had to be, not cheaply, purchased second hand as they're in the Disney Vault at the moment.

In terms of other knick-knacks and whatnots, I also received official Wallace and Gromit slippers and an alarm clock, and Muppets socks and a T-shirt (not pictured), all of which were just brilliantly fun and quirky presents to receive.

As I'm sure you can tell, I loved these presents and this is just the animated portion of them, it was a great horde of gifts to receive this Christmas and one that I fully appreciated.

Feel free to share your own lists of presents and what you're thankful for this Christmas, I hope the season treated you all well.

The Corner - Week 1 - Luke Reviews Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Right, let's kick off Week 1 of the newly revamped Corner with a review from the originator of The Corner, Luke - also, today will feature a triple bill of reviews, so keep your eyes peeled for Heather and Sean's respective reviews in the next few minutes.

I have recently watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs for the first time and have to say that the movie is quite inspirational. It's a story about a young inventor, Flint Lockwood, who always wanted his inventions to be big and, one day, that dream comes true. But he soon finds that it isn't all as he imagined it, as, one day the invention starts to take a turn for the worse when the machine overloads. Leading to a bizarre, brilliant and utterly random food-disaster movie.

One thought that came to mind while watching this film was "I wish you could get pizza that big" but, seriously, the film was brilliantly animated, had a tremendous plot and features some well know actors voicing the characters, including Bill Hader, Mr.T, Neil Patrick Harris, Bobb'e J. Thompson and Anna Faris.

Although the film is hardly the most original or groundbreaking film in the world, being largely a rehash and imitator of so many DreamWorks and Pixar films; it has a surprising amount of heart, a love story that we are genuinely invested in, some great characters and is a very fun film.

My favourite part of the film had to be the moment where they're on the side of the canal and Flint kicks Sam Sparks in the eye, this being one of many examples of what made this film so great to watch, the utter randomness!

Overall I give it 8/10

Ups: Story, animation and very funny and random

Downs: Hardly very original

Thanks for reading,
Luke

Sweetland to Sony

Doug Sweetland, director of brilliant Pixar short, Presto, has officially been hired by Sony Pictures Animation (of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) and is set to direct a 2012 feature animation, The Familiars, check out the description at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Familiars
Whilst it's sad that Pixar lose this great director, the film sounds pretty sweet.
Keep your eyes peeled.