Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (TV series)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (also known as Cloudy: The Series) is a Canadian-American Flash-animated show made by DHX, it first aired on Cartoon Network on February 20, 2017. Based on the children's book and the film series of the same name. This was Sony Pictures Animation's first-ever television series, which was followed by Disney Channel's Hotel Transylvania: The Series and the upcoming Ghostbusters: Ecto Force.

In 2019, CBS All Access (now renamed to Paramount+ as of March 4, 2021) acquired the US broadcast rights to the series. It's also currently available on Netflix.

Plot
In a prequel set before the events of the movies, Flint Lockwood and Sam Sparks go to a school run by the sadistic mayor of Swallow Falls. Hilarity ensues.

Why It's Cloudy with No Chance of Meatballs

 * 1) Poor grasp of the source material.
 * 2) The character redesigns in this show are cheap, ugly, and ungrateful compared to the movies it was based on, especially Flint, whose head shape mostly looks like that of the pigs from Peppa Pig. Special mention to Hector Evilman as well.
 * 3) While the animation is passable, it can be a bit hideous and stiff in the first few episodes, especially in that one scene in “The Pandas Are Coming.”
 * 4) * Speaking of "The Pandas Are Coming," it has a huge jump scare scene, which is considered unacceptable in a kid's show.
 * 5) None of the original voice actors from the movies (such as Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Mr. T (or Terry Crews in 2), and Andy Samberg, all of which who did good jobs) returned for the show, as the recording moved from Los Angeles, California to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The voice acting for this show is very poor and hilariously awkward, especially from actors like Mark Edwards (Wally from Rocket Monkeys), Sean Cullen (Lucius from Jimmy Two-Shoes), Patrick McKenna (Prof. Pamplemoose from Sidekick), David Berni (Dracula from fellow SPA animated series Hotel Transylvania: The Series, Bernie from Ollie's Pack, and Bob from Norman Picklestripes) and Katie Griffin (Big Human from Agent Binky: Pets of the Universe). Flint's voice is much higher-pitched and Steve sounds like a Peter Griffin-Hitler fusion.
 * 6) Dumb jokes and humor. Some episodes also rely on the toilet and gross-out humor.
 * 7) * The episode "Bacon Girl" has Sam have bacon as her head, so that the other students can eat her.
 * 8) * The episode "Baby Brent Sitter" has Brent get babysat (yes, that's actually what happens), for example, has disturbing shots of him shirtless with chest hair and his dirty teeth. There is also a part where Brent pops a flatulence bubble.
 * 9) *The episode "Science of the Toot" is entirely dedicated to Flint trying to make a fart-inducing bean so his classmates will find him cool.
 * 10) Numerous continuity errors between this show and the films. For example:
 * 11) * Flint, Baby Brent, and Sam aren’t high-school teenagers; they’re young adults as shown in the movies. Sam also didn't wear glasses until late in the first film.
 * 12) * Perhaps the biggest continuity error is that Sam never grew up in Swallow Falls nor went to school with Flint as she first met him during a weather report during the events of the first film. In fact, this left a massive plot hole in the franchise. They try to lampshade this by saying Flint would later invent a memory-wiping device, but that explanation just raises more questions than answers.
 * 13) * In one episode, Flint pulls out Barry (yes, Barry from the second movie) out, but how could he have been there if the FLDSMDFR hadn’t been invented yet?
 * 14) Below-average writing that would make The Adventures of Kid Danger look successful in comparison.
 * 15) The only reason it was made was to capitalize on the success of the film series, which died out way before this show was even made. Adding to the fact that Sony Pictures Animation hasn't even announced a third movie to the franchise makes this show even more pointless.
 * 16) False advertising: This show is said to be a prequel to the movies but in reality, it's more of a spin-off than a prequel (even though there is a quote in the first episode regarding the plot-hole of Flint and Sam knowing each other as kids).
 * 17) The episodes become boring and sometimes unnecessary to watch.
 * 18) * Speaking of episodes, they have some truckloads of weird, boring (as stated above), dumb, idiotic, and downright episodes that make no sense like:
 * 19) ** The Pandas are Coming
 * 20) ** Who You' Callin', Garbage?
 * 21) ** Invent This!
 * 22) ** Bacon Girl
 * 23) ** And The Winner Is... (which started the show on a bad note)
 * 24) ** Cloudy with a Chance of Clouds
 * 25) ** Earl or Pearl?
 * 26) ** Monkey Me, Monkey You
 * 27) ** Clone Alone
 * 28) ** Clock-a-Doodle-Doom
 * 29) ** The Ballad of Johnny Sardine
 * 30) ** The Sardemon
 * 31) ** Mr. Stressup
 * 32) ** Self-Helpie
 * 33) ** Virtu-Earl Reality
 * 34) ** It's About Time
 * 35) ** Hair We Go Again
 * 36) The Mayor is portrayed as even more unlikable from the first film as he abuses everyone around him.
 * 37) * Earl was also Flanderized into being a cruel bully towards Flint while in the movie he used to discourage him but later on they got along well.
 * 38) The intro is nothing but noise.
 * 39) Overuse of stock images and clips.
 * 40) Flint’s line; "Aaaaaaaaaand...activate!" in "Invent This!" is really annoying and will quickly get both on your last nerves and old.
 * 41) Overall, it's a forgettable show that killed any chance the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs franchise had.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) No one is out of character in this show, except for The Mayor and Earl.
 * 2) A few good character designs here and there, such as Sam Sparks, the Mayor, and Steve.
 * 3) The music is okay to listen to.
 * 4) Some funny moments here and there.
 * 5) While the voice acting is poor and laughably awful, at least Earl's new voice actor (Clé Bennett, known as Chef Hatchet in Total Drama Island) sounds very close to Mr. T and Terry Crews.
 * 6) Passable animation and background designs.
 * 7) * The animation stabilized after the first few episodes.
 * 8) Some episodes have interesting inventions.
 * 9) Some good episodes like "Best Invention Ever", "Poppa Piglet!", and the two-part series finale, "Have Yourself a Sardiney Little Christmas" (a decent way to end the series), but that's not good enough to be the Jimmy Neutron of Cartoon Network.
 * 10) * On top of that, the show improved a bit in season 2, though not by much to redeem the show entirely.
 * 11) The Barry cameos are superb.
 * 12) One of the new characters, Old Rick, is pretty funny.

Reception
While the first two movies received positive reviews, the show received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics, the audience, and the fans of the franchise alike. It currently has a 3/5 on Common Sense Media, a 56% on Google, and a 3.2/10 on IMDb.

Trivia

 * Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the directors of the first film and the writers for the sequel, were credited as executive consultants for the show.
 * This show was the first television series to be produced by Sony Pictures Animation and was animated using Toon Boom Harmony.