I saw Sony Pictures Animation's "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" last night.  It ain't going anywhere near the apex of great computer-animated works, but it's a pretty fun romp nonetheless.  A wild, parodic take on both apocalyptic disaster and sci-fi films, this one flies by the seat of its pants with quick moving, twitchy action. (Sometimes it can get TOO twitchy for its own good.)  Visual gags run fast and loose, and the overall aesthetic (especially in RealD Cinema) is neat to look at.  I can't claim to have ever read the children's book from which the movie was adapted from, but I am curious enough to give it a look now.

When stacked against my hopeless infatuation with Coraline, and my pre-hyped but slightly let down feelings toward Pixar's Up (haven't seen Monsters vs Aliens or Ponyo as of yet), Meatballs ranks a close third in terms of favorite 2009 animations.  We'll see how The Princess And The Frog fares, and the trailer to Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol has me mildly intrigued now too.

Speaking of new Animated flicks, have you seen "9" yet?
From a trailer, it seems to be like Coraline for boys instead of girls.

UGH.  When I took my wife and out to see the latest Harry Potter flick at the local IMAX, they had a preview for this one.  Maybe it's because I'm so over Jim Carrey, but it looked abysmal.  The entire trailer was one BIIIIIIG close up on his CGI-rendered ugly mug.  There are just some things that do not need to be viewed that closely (and in 3D!).  Blech. 

If you want a good re-telling of A Christmas Story, stick with the Muppet's version.  Classic.

I had plum forgotten about "9", actually - surprising, since I've been bludgeoned by its trailers for pretty much the entire year.  I dunno, barring the intended tone of the movie, it just looks unappealingly bleak.  I'm half-inclined to check it out, if just for the promised stylistic flourishes of Burton and Bekmambetov.  I admit, though: the trailer song/end theme "Welcome Home" makes for one massive guilty pleasure.

I'd argue that the photo-real rendering is the main allure.  Animators agree that rendering aged characters with wrinkles and creases make for a more realistic and natural look.  By that count, they should have a field day with ol' Mr. Scrooge.

Beyond that, I'm curious to see how far they've advanced with the whole performance-capture style of animation since The Polar Express.  Let's hope they've learned from their dead-eye syndrome error.

Got around to watching this again, and it's still a whole lot of fun.  In the long run, I think this will hold up to better repeat viewings than Pixar's Up.  I also listened to the director's commentary with Bill Hader, which was enjoyable as well.  (How could I not know that Steve the monkey was played by Neil Patrick Harris?)

Picked up Mark Mothersbaugh's soundtrack score, too.  Lots of terrific orchestrals overlaid on some sporadic but effectively used electronics.  This is actually a pretty good sampling of eleven choice tracks.  And I can't stop listening to Miranda Cosgrove's end theme "Raining Sunshine".  Out of context, the song is likely too saccharine-sweet to take seriously, but it's a wonderful accompaniment to one of the most satisfying resolution-filled end credits I've ever seen.  I could watch those credit sequences again and again.