We had really looked forward to this movie. The book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is an old family favorite, which we’ve read - repeatedly - with both of our children. From the previews, we know that the movie of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was going to be very different from the book, but we were still looking forward to it, with the knowledge that it would be different but seemed like it would stand on its own.

Unfortunately, there were many scenes that not only weren’t in the book (not unexpected) but which were rude, disgusting, or even violent (which was unexpected).

For example, in one scene, a sardine which had been trapped inside a large exhibit is freed, and flying through the air, so happy to be free, with a cute smile in its face, it’s suddenly snatched by a bird.

After an ice cream blizzard, kids devour a snowman, with only the nose and eyes left on the ground, which may be disturbing for some younger children, and we are informed that those things that the monkey is throwing are not actually chocolate snowballs (eeww).

In a few other scenes, you see one of the characters dropping whole dead fish into a meat grinder, with them coming out as fish paste on the other end.

There is a scene of Mount Rushmore being inundated with food, and Lincoln’s eyes, nose and mouth suddenly have goo spewing out of them - the image is pretty disturbing.

There are also a few instances of rear end humor (and I use the term loosely), such as an adult character, who has just had a scare, stating “I’m glad that I’m wearing a diaper”, and at one point the police officer (a very buff character who continually show off feats of impossible strength and agility) features in a closeup shot of his - how can I say this delicately - strongly clenching his buttocks.

There is also a scene where the monkey sticks his hand inside a large living gummy bear, and pulls out its heart (ala Indiana Jones) and eats it.

But perhaps the most disturbing scene of all is when the main characters are surrounded by human-sized headless chicken carcasses, walking on their drumsticks. One of them swallows one of the characters whole, and later the character takes over the body of the chicken, so he has become a walking chicken carcass with the character’s head.

We were extremely disappointed by this scenes, especially as they were - none of them - in any way necessary to the scenes, the plot, or, indeed, the entertainment factor.

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