Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a children's book written by Judi Barrett

Judi Barrett

Judi Barrett is an author of several picture books, including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing...

 and illustrated by Ron Barrett

Ron Barrett

Ron Barrett is a cartoonist and artist best known for illustrating Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. He is a graduate of the High School of Industrial Art, now the High School of Art and Design, in New York City. While still in high school he was an apprentice in the studio of Lucian Bernhard, the...

. It was first published in 1978 by the Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...

 imprint Atheneum Books

Atheneum Books

Atheneum Books was a publishing house and adult publisher created by Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. in 1959. He recruited editor Jean E. Karl personally, to come and establish a Children's Book Department in 1961....

, followed by a 1982 trade paperback edition from sister company Aladdin Paperbacks

Aladdin Paperbacks

Aladdin Paperbacks is one of several children's-book imprints owned by Simon & Schuster.It was established by Jean E. Karl at Atheneum Books where she was the founding director of the children's department . Atheneum merged with or was acquired by Scribner's in 1978, then MacMillan in 1984, before...

. A sequel, Pickles to Pittsburgh, was published in 2000 by Atheneum Books; a hardcover edition followed in 2009.

Plot

The book is about a story that an elderly grandfather tells to his grandchildren about the town of Chewandswallow, where the weather comes three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and is always food and beverages. The rain is juice and soup, the snow is ice cream, and the wind brings hamburgers. Because of this phenomenon, there are no grocery stores. However, when floods and storms of giant food come, the population is forced to leave Chewandswallow on boats made of bread, and adapt to their new lives in the world where the sky doesn't bring food. The follow up of the story, Pickles to Pittsburgh, tells of the kindly grandfather's journey back to Chewandswallow, to help rebuild and restore the town, plus give away all the food to the other cities of the world who need it most.

Film adaptation

On September 18, 2009, Sony Pictures Animation

Sony Pictures Animation

Sony Pictures Animation is an American computer-animated film production company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, founded in May 2002. It is working closely with Sony Pictures Imageworks, which takes care of the digital production...

 released an animated film adaptation

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (film)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a 2009 American computer-animated family comedy film, produced by Sony Pictures Animation, distributed by Columbia Pictures, and released on September 18, 2009. The film is loosely based on the children's book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett.The film...

 of the book, and the DVD was released on January 5, 2010. Bill Hader

Bill Hader

William "Bill" Hader is an American actor, comedian, producer and writer. He is best known for his work as a creative consultant on the hit show South Park and as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for his supporting roles in comedy films such as Superbad, Hot Rod, Tropic Thunder,...

 and Anna Faris

Anna Faris

Anna Kay Faris is an American actress, singer and comedienne. She is known for her starring role in the Scary Movie film series, as well as roles in The Hot Chick , Lost in Translation , Just Friends , My Super Ex-Girlfriend , Smiley Face , and The House Bunny...

 provided the voices of the two lead characters. Hader voices Flint Lockwood, "a young inventor who dreams of creating something that will improve everyone's life." Faris provides the voice for Sam Sparks, "a weathergirl covering the phenomenon who hides her intelligence behind a perky exterior." James Caan, Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell

Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American film and television actor. As a cult movie actor, Campbell starred as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series of films and he has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave, Maniac Cop, Bubba Ho-tep, Escape From L.A. and Sundown:...

, Mr. T

Mr. T

Mr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...

, Andy Samberg

Andy Samberg

David Andrew "Andy" Samberg is an American actor, comedian, rapper and writer best known as a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island and as a cast member on Saturday Night Live...

, Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...

, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Benjamin Bratt

Benjamin Bratt

Benjamin Bratt is an American actor. He is most famous for his role as Rey Curtis on the TV series Law & Order; and his appearances in the movies Blood in Blood Out, Miss Congeniality, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Traffic, and Piñero.-Early life:Bratt was born in San Francisco, California,...

, Al Roker

Al Roker

Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. is an American television meteorologist as well as an actor and book author. He is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today. On Monday, July 20, 2009, he began co-hosting his new morning show, Wake Up with Al, on The Weather Channel, which airs weekdays...

, Lauren Graham

Lauren Graham

Lauren Helen Graham is an American actress and producer. She is best known for playing Lorelai Gilmore on the WB Network dramedy series Gilmore Girls and Sarah Braverman on Parenthood.-Early life:...

, and Will Forte

Will Forte

Orville Willis Forte IV, better known as Will Forte , is an American actor, voice actor, comedian and writer best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2002–2010 and for starring in the SNL spin-off film MacGruber.-Early life:Forte was born in Alameda County, California, the son of...

 are also on the voice cast. Co-writers and co-directors Philip Lord and Chris Miller said that it would be a homage to, and a parody of, disaster movies such as Twister, Armageddon, The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science-fiction disaster film that depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extreme weather events that usher in global cooling which leads to a new ice age. The film did well at the box office, grossing $542,771,772 internationally...

and 2012

2012 (film)

2012 is a 2009 American disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich. It stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, and Woody Harrelson. It was produced by Emmerich's production company, Centropolis Entertainment and was distributed by Columbia Pictures...

.

Game

In conjunction with the September 18, 2009 film release, Ubisoft released a game for Wii, Nintendo DS, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and PSP, as well as a stereoscopic online mini game.