#cloudywithachance

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As most of you who know me already could tell the world, one of my favorite things in the universe is the short lived animated TV show Clone High.  Yes, I and many others are sad that it didn't get more of a fair shake then it did, but what it did give us is 13 pretty much perfect episodes.  That is because when you face the comedic team of Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Bill Lawrence with a challenge, even if that challenge is cancellation they will take it and use it as yet another tool in their arsenal. They have since went separate ways, Lawrence making successful hits like Scrubs while Lord and Miller give us instant classics like the Lego Movie.  On a quest to catch up on their work since the masterpiece I found I overlooked one of their films...

And those of you who know me already know how I feel about this because I can't stop recommending it to everyone I speak to.  So I guess that also means that now all you who don't know me know how I feel about it via inference.  It is pretty amazing, packed full of the fast paced comedic fun that Lord and Miller (I'm being alphabetical by the way, in case they egotistically read every meager article about them ever) have now become famous for.  I couldn't help smile from ear to ear as this take on the classic children's tale came to life.  It even accomplished out of the gate something that is very difficult for curmudgeons like myself, establish a sense of fun and wonder that is so great you accept whatever pseudoscience and silly explanation comes your way.

Which leads me to paragraph two, which is usually where I expound upon the bad of a film in the predictable compliment sandwich that my reviews have now taken the permanent shape of.  The problem is, I can't really, not anything that doesn't seem really contrived at least.  Was it the perfect film?  Well I do remember laughing harder at other comedies, I even have several that I certainly wouldn't dream of ranking under this one.  But, at that point I feel like it isn't a direct competition, I think with the world we were presented in the film it was as good as one could imagine it could get.  I tended to just be generically happy for most of the film rather then uproariously laughing.  I'd say that the film didn't have much of a goal then to simply entertain, rather then say relating a moral or expressing an idea artistically, but that would downplay the more heartwarming segments within.

Speaking of, and this goes pretty generically for all of Lord and Miller's work, they have a way of crafting a character that is truly astounding.  Lawrence has it too, which is why when they teamed up they created something magical, and it is sort of hard to describe.  They provide the audience with what at its surface seems to be a caricature, they act completely outlandishly and react to any and all situations at the far end of whatever axis they are supposedly put on.  But why then do you really care that the caricature finds his father's approval at the end? Because with just a bit of thought you realize that he or she is a lot of these cartoon characters precisely bundled up into one that spits out something truly dynamic.  I've revised that paragraph a lot tonight trying to get what I wanted to say right, but really I urge you to really think about your favorite character from the next Lord/Miller production you see, whether it be the Lego Movie again, the upcoming 22 Jump Street, or hopefully I have convinced at least one person to see this.