As I’m sure any of you with children already know, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 is coming out in theaters this Friday. In celebration, we’ve decided to compile a bit of info on the book and the movies. Whether you’re a fan of the book or a fan of the movie, you’ll almost certainly find something here of interest.

Similarities and Differences

Obviously a full-length movie couldn’t follow a short book like this one to a tee, so, there are some major differences. That being said, it seems like the writers did work to include as much as the original story as possible. Here are a few of the things that stayed the same:

• The town name. While the movie village is originally called “Swallow Falls,” the mayor eventually renames the town to the name used in the book, “Chewandswallow.”
• The Sanitation Department. Obviously any town that has food fall from the skies will have a serious problem if they just leave the mess all over the streets and sidewalk. Both the book and movie use specialized trucks to clean up the mess, though what they do with the leftovers differs. In the book, they feed the cats and dogs, then throw some in the ocean for the fishes and then put the rest in the ground so it will compost into good soil for flower gardens. In the movie, they make a mountain of food waste that eventually causes a dangerous landslide.
• Specific foods. In the book, the sunset is replaced with a Jell-o mold setting in the west that looks just like the one Flint makes for Sam. Both also feature a giant pancake that lands on the local school. Also, while it’s not a food exactly, both feature an open-air restaurant where patrons can catch their dinner as it falls.
• Danger. You can’t have a story without a climax, so in both tales, the food starts to become larger until it becomes truly problematic.

A few of the things that changed:

• Requests. Imagine having a food allergy in a town like Chewandswallow. If you can’t choose what rains down, you could easily die. Aside from that, you’d likely almost never get your favorite food, whereas in the movie, Flint’s invention allows the residents to call the shots –though that’s precisely what causes the food to start mutating.
• The people. In the book, the only people with actual identities are those in the family whose grandpa tells the tall tale of Chewandswallow. In the movie, the town is presented as a real location and the main characters are all residents of the town.
• Science. The idea of a town raining food naturally is just outlandish, but in the movie, it’s actually happens because a man’s invention that was made to turn water into food flies into a raincloud –turning all the local precipitation into food.
• The ending. In the book, the residents are forced to abandon Chewandswallow, but in the movie, the townspeople just rebuild their town using the giant food leftover on the street. There is one similarity though, the people in the book use a raft made from giant slices of bread and the movie shows the mayor ran away from the town on a boat made from bread –although the obese mayor eats most of his boat and sinks into the ocean.

Despite the differences, the original book's creators were pleased with the movie -though no word yet on how they feel about the sequel.

Cloudy Again?

Speaking of endings, it seems the movie ending ends up not being the whole story as the sequel is said to (I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t verify this myself) start out with Flint and the rest of the town having to leave their food-filled town. Unfortunately, it turns out that his food machine is still in operation, so while they’re gone, it starts to create dangerous, sentient food creatures. When Flint and his friends return to the island hoping to clean up their mess, they are confronted with creatures such as tacodiles, shrimpanzees and mosquitoasts.

The book also had a sequel, but the movie does not follow this tale at all. In this tale, Pickles to Pittsburgh, the townspeople return to Chewandswallow, not to resume their lives there, but to use forklifts, cargo planes and other tools to ship out the massive foods in the area to the starving people of the world. You have to admire them for recognizing the weather patterns that almost ruined their lives as a great way to solve world hunger. Still, it’s easy to see why this might not make such a great movie –though it’s worth noting that Sony helped market their new movie by providing over 200,000 pounds of food for Feeding America, so in real life, the tale has actually helped feed hungry families.

In fact, that’s not the only sequel to the book. In Planet of the Pies, the family that was originally featured in the first book learns that astronauts landed on Mars –only to find that pie is falling from the sky. As it turns out, Grandpa, the one who told the original tale of Chewandswallow, has had prior dealings with the Martians.

There’s even a Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Cookbook based on the original book with Grandpa offering up his favorite recipes based on the food that rained from the skies of Chewandswallow.

Sound Familiar?

If you watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and kept thinking “I recognize that voice,” you’re probably right. In fact, you might just be amazed how many names you recognize from their list of voice actors. Of course, Bill Hader and Anna Faris are Flint and Sam, and you probably recognized Mr. T’s voice when Officer Earl spoke, but did you recognize James Cann as the voice of Flint’s father, or Neil Patrick Harris as the voice of Steve the Monkey, Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne, Andy Samberg as “Baby” Brent McHale, Al Roker as the weather station’s anchorman or Will Forte as the redneck Joesph Towne?

While most of these characters will be the same in the sequel, Terry Crews will be replacing Mr. T as Officer Earl and Will Forte will now be voicing Chester V. Fans of Kristen Schaal will be happy to know that she’s also been added to the cast, performing the voice of orangutan Barb.

Image Via Neon Tommy [Flickr]

About the Authors

It’s a bit surprising that as well known as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is, there’s surprisingly little information out there about the book’s author, Judi Barrett, and its illustrator, Ron Barrett. It’s not like the book is their only work either. In fact, Judi has published over 20 books, including another popular title, Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing, which Ron also illustrated.

That being said, there is a little information out there about the Barretts. Judi obtained a Bachelor’s degree from Pratt Institute before working as a freelance designer for advertising agencies. In 1968, she started teaching art and woodworking to children.

Ron graduated from the High School of Industrial Art and while still in school, he apprenticed for graphic designer Lucian Bernhard while being mentored by Ervine Metzl, illustrator and President of the Society of Illustrators. He left such a mark on Metzl that the illustrator predicted he "...would either wind up in a mental institution or make a million dollars." Like Judy, Ron started his career in advertising, working as an art director at Young & Rubicam and Carl Ally. Eventually, he left advertising to work as an illustrator, author and puzzle maker. He wrote comic strips for National Lampoon and later worked on O.J.’s Legal Pad with Henry Beard and John Boswell.

At some point, the couple was married, after which they started working on books together, including Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Even after their divorce though, they continue to work together. These days, Judy continues to teach in Brooklyn and Ron is still illustrating. Most recently, they worked together to release Grandpa’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Cookbook.

Are you guys going to go see the sequel? Personally, I can’t wait, if only because I adore Steve the talking monkey.

Sources: High Beam, Slideshare, Boston Herald, Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

(College Humor link)

I had wondered what AMC was going to air in the weekend between the end of Breaking Bad and the beginning of the new season of The Walking Dead. They could do worse than connect one show to the other. It makes about as much sense as anything else in the two series!

(Photo: Sebastian Peleato)

(Photo: Andrew Fysh)

Near Çıralı, Turkey, on that nation's southwestern coast, you can find fires burning near the shore. They've burned for thousands of years, fueled by underground sources of methane and hydrogen. Kaushik of Amusing Planet writes about the impact they left on ancient observers:

For hundreds of years, sailors could see the flames from sea and used them as a landmark to navigate, but today they are more often used by hikers to brew tea. These flames, according to some ancient literature, gave birth to the myth of the Chimera, a fire breathing mythical beast with the body and head of a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that ended in a snake's head.

You can find more photos at the link.

Link

Can't decide on a theme for your internet-worthy engagement portraits? Then just do them all! Jeff Grubb and his fiancee Stephanie did their own set of engagement pictures, using whatever clothing and props they could come up with and filling in the rest with Photoshop. The results are a lot of fun, because they reference many of their favorite movies. In case you didn't see all these movies, they are (from the top) Back to the Future, Ghost, The Shining, E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Grubb posted 21 images in all, with a lot more films represented. Link -via The Daily Dot

(Images credit: Jeffrey Grubb)

Mr. Lovenstein understands: if you're an introvert, you can't win. You could create a friend just like yourself, but you'd never get along.

Link

You're Never Too Old ... To Try Something Stupid Socks

Are you worried that your best years are behind you? Well, they probably are. But, that's nothing to get depressed about. We encourage you to look on the bright side of life with the You're Never Too Old ... To Try Something Stupid socks from the NeatoShop. This vibrant pair of socks is a great way to remind yourself to seize each and every day. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Footwear. 

Link

The only thing that could make this great Next Generation Star Trek pillow by Etsy seller Morondanga any better would be a sweet Sherlock Holmes hat accessory so you could enjoy reliving some of Data's greatest moments.

Of course, any real fan would prefer to have the three pack with Data, Picard and Worf. If you prefer the original series though, the shop also carries Spock, Kirk and Uhura pillows as well.

(Photo: Mauricio Handler/National Geographic)

Mauricio Handler photographed this sponge off the coast of Curaçao in the Caribbean. Some people think that it looks like Cookie Monster, but I agree with Joe Hanson, a Ph.D.-holding biologist: it's one of the Martians from Sesame Street.

(Video Link)

Link -via It's Okay to Be Smart

Photos: Sebastian Bieniek

Two-faced lover never looked this artistic! Berlin-based artist Sebastian Bieniek tells the story of a day in the life of a real life Janus in his photography series "Doublefaced."

Using eye pencil and lipstick, Bieniek created a simple yet arresting caricature - reminiscent of Picasso's women - of a two-faced girl waking up, eating, riding the subway and so on. Take a look:

View the rest of the 22 image series over at Facebook page - via designboom

The 1958 Steve McQueen movie The Blob was about as ridiculous as a B-movie could get. The monster from outer space was a living piece of jelly that ate people and grew, eventually eating half a small town. The film is also notable as Steve McQueen's first feature film. But did you know it was based on a true story?

Believe it or not, The Blob is based on an incident in the 1950s when Philadelphia policemen stumbled upon a quivering purple lump that had crash landed in a nearby field, as if Grimace had suddenly been stricken with bubblegut in the middle of a hang gliding trip. According to the responding officers, the mass was like a giant glowing jelly ball, and it left a sticky residue when touched, because of course the first thing you would do when encountering a mysterious Plutonian blob is shove your hands into it.

So, it was a fictionalized account, as we thought. It's just one of 6 Movies You Won't Believe Are Based on Insane True Stories you can read about at Cracked. The others include A Few Good Men, The Hunt for Red October, and others that have an even better true story behind them. Link -via Unreality

Redditor Laki2 took an idle moment from the retail lifestyle to arrange these shirts beautifully. Now his task is to ensure that no one messes them up.

Link

Thai artist Nino Sarabutra laid down 100,000 hand-made miniature porcelain skulls on the floor and asked art gallery visitors to walk on them. With every step, visitors will be treading on skulls, which sets up the perfect background to dealing with their own mortality.

Sarabutra, trained in ceramic arts at a Bangkok university, asked her family, friends, neighbors, students - to help make the skulls. The craftmanship is quite striking: while each skull has the same general shape and size, it is also distinctly unique.

The exhibition, titled "What Will You Leave Behind?", also asked the gallery visitor to participiate by answering her question:

'I want people to ask themselves how they live, what are they doing - if today was your last on earth, what will you leave behind?'

Sarabutra captured the visitors' answers and projected them on the gallery's wall as well as on her website. The answers range from the sublime "nothingness" to the cheeky "my body - for medical research." Mine would've been "a pile of debt" whereas Sarabutra's own would probably be "100,000 ceramic skulls no one would probably know what to do with."

At a recent exhibition at the Ardel Gallery of Modern Art in Bangkok, Sarabutra said, "I don't see the skulls as images of fear or sadness. They are liberating: look at all the opportunities, all the lives you could live, how serious your life is. Then go out and make the most of it."

Take a look at more images over at Sarabutra's website.

(YouTube link)

My brother is a photographer by trade, and every time the family had a photo session, we would always include a "funny hat" picture to celebrate the end of it. Those are the best of the lot, if you ask me! Now that my daughter in following in her uncle's footsteps, she's doing the same. We always have enough funny hats around, but anything can be a hat -if you put it on your head. Or at least you can tell people that. In this video, Jeff Wysaski of Pleated-Jeans ventures into the world of music with a song about hats. Actually, it's more of a chant, but it is available to download. Contains NSFW lyrics. I may have missed it, but I don't think they included the regulation Pastafarian colander helmet, nor a tinfoil hat.

I can't help but wonder if this would actually help them stay alive -at least for a short while, and, assuming the gentleman ate food suitable for the little birds. Illustrator Josh Mecouch created this strip for his Formal Sweatpants webcomic. I highly recomend taking a long visit to the site, as the comics are all pretty enjoyable -in fact, we've featured a few of his other works in the past.

Via Geeks Are Sexy

(YouTube link)

For some reason, I always thought there was just coffee, and then there was coffee with other stuff in it. This mental_floss video features guest host Wheezywaiter from The Gaslight Coffee Roasters in Chicago, who knows a lot more about coffee than I do. Since this is not a Starbucks video, I still haven't found out whether there is any coffee in a Pumpkin Spice Latte. -via mental_floss

A man, walking with a crutch, falls down. Would you help? Of course, you say? Would the man's appearance matter?

Be honest now.

Diego Dolciami and Matteo Moroni of DM Pranks decided to stage a social experiment in Italy. They filmed two scenarios: the first was with a well-dressed "businessman" in a suit. The second was with a homeless man in ragged clothing, carrying what seems to be his whole worldly possessions. In both instances, the men walked with a cane and fell down in front of strangers (both men and women).

Then, Dolciami and Moroni watched whether passers-by would help. They repeated the experiment 10 times each, and came to this shocking - or, depending on your point of view, obvious - conclusion that our decision to help someone in need is absolutely colored by our judgment of that person.

In 10 out of 10 cases, the businessman was helped by passers-by. But only 2 out of 10 instances was the homeless man rescued. Some people saw the homeless man fell down but hesitated to help, some approached but backed away when they saw the ragged clothings, and some didn't even stop at all.

Before you tsk, tsk-ed the choice of the people in the video clip, ask yourself what you would do. Would you be afraid that the homeless man might be crazy and try to hurt you if you tried to help? Maybe he's dirty and smelled bad?

What would you do?

Big Bird Adult Kit

Is Big Bird a giant canary, lark, or golden condor? We don't know. All we know is that he is amazing. What other 8-foot, 2-inch tall bird do you know that can roller skate, ice skate, dance, and sing. We are guessing none. Big Bird is truly one of a kind.   

This Halloween celebrate your all-time favorite Sesame Street character with the Big Bird Adult Kit from the NeatoShop. This quick and easy Halloween costume includes a bright yellow fabric boa and a character headpiece featuring the fabulous Big Bird. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Halloween items and fantastic Sesame Street stuff. 

Link

Image: Ltshears/Wikipedia

You know the feeling that people are talking about you when they start whispering as soon as you enter the room? Well, don't walk into this cage of cotton-top tamarins at the Central Park Zoo in New York City!

Researchers Rachel Morrison and Diana Reiss of The City University in New York were doing a research project on the monkeys by recording their loud calls and "mobbing behavior" in response to seeing people they fear. But, when a supervisor whom the monkey disliked entered their enclosure, the researchers noticed that the monkeys went quiet.

It turns out that the tamarins weren't exactly silent. When Morrison and Reiss examined their recordings, they realized that the monkeys were still chirping, but in a volume too soft for humans to hear. In effect, the tamarins were whispering to each other, potentially about what to do about the intruder.

"Psst, could you believe what that guy's wearing?" Image: Postdlf/Wikipedia

In the study, published in the scientific journal Zoo Biology, Morrison and Reiss noted that the "low amplitude vocalizations" were previously unknown in the species and that if it were not for their serendipitous recording and subsequent analysis of the spectrogram, the monkey whispers would likely have remained a secret of the tamarins.

"Although it is unclear what the motivational state of the tamarins was when in presence of the supervisor, it appears that they were responding to him as an ambiguous threat and may have been investigating the situation by cautiously approaching him to determine the actual level of threat and communicating to each other the appropriate behavioral response to take," the researchers said, as quoted by PopSci.

The researchers speculated that other species may utilize similar methods of communications to avoid being overheard by predators.

So the next time you go to the zoo and the monkeys turn quiet, they're probably talking about you!

There's a hidden world beneath the surface, just waiting for us to explore it. Japanese street artist Jun Kitagawa installed zippers to show us the way. Johnny Strategy writes:

One of his most fascinating works are an ongoing series in which he installs 3-dimensional zippers in various public spaces around Japan, offering an intimate look – one that’s often left up to the imagination – into our world. “I like to surprise people with a light eroticism,”* explains Kitagawa in a statement.

Link | Artist's Website

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.

by Jeff Van Bueren
San Francisco, California

South American shower heads are sometimes of very unusual design (see photos). They often have an instant heating device that is attached by exposed wiring to a switch outside the shower stall. You get the (cold) water running and then flip on the heater device, which turns the water tepid or possibly warm, and then you cross yourself and step in.

Sometimes there are additional features, such as the light bulb shown in one of the fixtures here; the bulb may be there to indicate when the heater is on. (Presumably the heater element will burn out if it is on when water if not running).

The Experiment
The experiment consisted of taking showers using this equipment, and seeing if electrocution would occur.

The Results

As evidenced by the writing of this report, I am still alive. In 11 of 11 trials, my one-year, five-year, and ten-year survival was 100%. This is an astounding, considering the frayed wires, cracked tile, lack of power surge protection, and erratic water pressure involved.

Followup
Ten years after the experiment, this researcher was conducting a retrospective analysis of the concept of “acceptable risk.” The perception of acceptable risk may be linked to age banding. For example, had I encountered these showers at my current age, I might have chosen to wash in the sink or to not wash.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the May-June 2003 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

Cookies! by Winter Artwork

Forget gamma rays! Low blood sugar can make you super grumpy. The solution? What else? COOKIES!

We love this design by Winter Artwork, and you should too! Check out Winter Artwork at his official Facebook page, Twitter, Tumblr, Behance and deviantART, then visit his NeatoShop page for more super neat designs.

Dixon Bros. Extermination	Browncoats Forever	Soft Kitty	11th of Hearts

View more designs by Winter Artwork | More Funny T-shirts | New T-Shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

(YouTube link)

What theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has contributed to our body of knowledge fills many volumes. A good short course is his most popular book, A Brief History of Time. But if you never get around to even that much, here's the sound bite version of Hawking's biggest ideas in an animation from the Guardian's "made Simple" series. Who knows? This might inspire you to pick up the book! -via Brain Pickings

We've all seen our share of Ghostbuster costumes before, usually they're either the Ghostbusters themselves or the Stay Puft Marshmallow -I've never seen anyone going as the movie's logo before. If you want to be a more unusual Ghostbusters character, you can learn how with this Instructable by Greasetattoo.

This morning we read that George Harrison, then unknown in the U.S., was introduced in Illinois as "the Elvis Presley of England." Such metaphors can help us explain unknowns by relating them to what is known. However, modern Twitter users sometimes go overboard or completely out of bounds when making up metaphors.

The map called metropho.rs has a lot of those Twitter metaphors about places stored in its interactivity. Zoom in our out, and click on a place to read what Twitter users are comparing it to. A sampling:

I've heard worse -at least about Kentucky. You should read what they say about Florida! What are they saying about your home state/city/country? Link -via Metafilter

Do you believe in God, or do you believe that there is no God*? Just how sure are you? Depending on your answer, you may be an atheist or a theist along the spectrum of surety with agnosticism on one end and gnosticism on the other.

(*Now, someone explain to me whether Zen Buddhists believe in God.)

Confused? You're not alone, but thanks to Pablo Stanley (previously on Neatorama), we now have a handy dandy guide to know what the hell you are:

POLL: So, which quadrant do you belong to?

• Agnostic Atheist
• Gnostic Atheist
• Agnostic Theist
• Gnostic Theist

(Image: David Bachrach/Library of Congress)

For a long time, it was thought that there was only one existing photograph of President Lincoln at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19th, 1863. As you can see, it's a shot of the dignitaries on stage, taken by David Bachrach (interactive graphic #3 identifies many of the people in the picture).

But Bachrach wasn't the only photographer at the event. Alexander Gardner and his crew were there, and made an experimental "stereograph" photo of the crowd. A picture was taken from two slightly different vantage points, with the aim of showing them together through the left and right eye for a 3D effect. With the technology of the time, they could have been taken several minutes apart. In 2007, John Richter identified Lincoln in the background of the stereograph photos. Now there were three photographs of Lincoln at Gettysburg!

(Image: Alexander Gardner/Library of Congress)

Then enter UNC-Asheville media teacher and former Disney animator Chris Oakley. A longtime Civil War buff, Oakley took a new look at Gardner's crowd photographs. He and his students have spent the past two years analyzing the pictures and have found Lincoln, but in a different spot. To back his claim, the team used computer feature analysis of both the "new" Lincoln and the people around him to make identifications.   

Of course, to proclaim such a find, Oakley had to have the data to back it up. Oakley's quest to confirm one person in a large crowd shot is detailed at Smithsonian magazine, with an interactive look at the photographs. Link

There are worse things to get addicted to than cupcakes, but when they are coated in Blue Sky, it still might not be worth the risk. Either way, I'd be willing to take my chances on these sweet treats by Blakey Cakes, especially if I got my chance to eat them during Sunday night's finale.

Via Geeks Are Sexy

Minnie Mouse Kigurumi

Yoo Hoo! Why hello. Come closer and check out the Minnie Mouse Kigurumi costume from the NeatoShop. This delightful pajama style costume features buttons up the front, a tail on the back, and Minnie Mouse's face on the hood. Wear it as a Halloween costume or as comfy lounge wear. It is a great well to celebrate your favorite Disney character.    

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Halloween items. 

Link

Six actors, Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig, have portrayed James Bond in feature films (David Niven also played Bond in Casino Royale in 1967, but many consider that film "unofficial").

Redditor g_noodle combined Bond portraits of the six actors into two "transition" Bonds, with the three "early" Bonds (Connery, Moore, Lazenby) on the left and the three "recent" Bonds (Dalton, Brosnan, and Craig) on the right. Then those two images were combined to achieve a final combination, which looks like an actor who would be considered perfect for the role.

Who does it look like to you? Clive Owen? George Clooney? Mel Gibson? I still see Sean Connery and Roger Moore in this picture. The various steps in the process are shown in a series at imgur. Link -via reddit

(Photo of Upper Slaughter by bixento)

The shocking horror of World War I touched every corner of the United Kingdom. It brought death to every city, town and village..except for 52. In 52 villages, all of the men who marched off to war returned alive. After the war, these places were known as the "Thankful Villages."

Then yet another war engulfed Europe and the world. A the end of World War II, only 14 of those Thankful Villages remained free from wartime fatalities. These became known as the "Doubly Thankful Villages."

Among them is Upper Slaughter. Though its men left for war and the town itself was bombed by the Germans, all survived. You can read about it and other Doubly Thankful Villages at the link.

Link -via The Oddment Emporium