Thomas Edison created the lightbulb, phonograph, film camera and 1090 other patents. Alexander Graham Bell devised the telephone before he'd turned 30. John Logie Baird created the TV.

And Flint Lockwood came up with spray-on shoes, a flying car and a monkey thought-translator. The only issues: they can't ever come off; it doesn't actually get airborne; and there's really not much going on in a chimp's head besides "bananas". Hardly inventions to rival the wheel, Velcro, or even anything by Verimark.

Unsurprisingly then Flint provides little more than comic relief (and occasional full-blown disaster) for the people of Swallow Falls, a small fishing island big on sardines, rat-birds (yes, another Lockwood creation), and not much else.

So, in one final attempt to win them over, he develops the FLDSMDFR which, catchy name and all, transforms water into food. Surprisingly it actually works. Unsurprisingly there's a problem: accidentally rocketed into the atmosphere, the machine seems lost forever. That is, until cheeseburgers start raining from the sky.

Reimagining a classic children's book as a giant Jerry Bruckheimer disaster movie ? picture a spaghetti tornado, or the Eiffel Tower as a 300m cocktail stick ? 'Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs' only amplifies the loopy insanity of the original 32-page story. Having cut their collective teeth on 'How I Met Your Mother', the writer-directors have stuffed their wacky film with that show's geeky devotion to absurd detail.

On maps, the island itself is hidden behind the "A" in "Atlantic Ocean"; newspaper headlines reveal "Sardines are gross"; and the eye-popping action is temporarily derailed by YouTube clips of strangely mesmerising dancing cats, or parents who don't know how to send email.

But it is the townsfolk themselves who provide most of the quirkiness. Local celeb 'Baby' Brent, now well into his 20s, still trades off the sardine commercial (and accompanying nappy) from his moment as an infant star. Flint's father (all bushy unibrow and matching moustache) speaks only in fishing metaphors. Mayor Shelbourne brings ludicrous PR plans and a rapidly expanding waistline to proceedings. Steve the monkey provides somewhat less than insightful commentary. And by-the-book local cop Earl is voiced by an amped up Mr T ? 'nuff said.

These characters provide the real humour ? and occasional emotion ? that, amid the frenzy of flying 3D food, provide the sweet after-taste.