My 7-year-old and I were in the mood for a film last week. It was raining and he was getting over a week-long cold that had interrupted regular life to an alarming degree. I checked out the Direct TV listings and found the perfect movie for this damp, dreary situation: “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” I had seen the trailer, heard the grumblings from the Internet peanut gallery regarding classic children’s text and Hollywood’s treatment thereof, and I decided: this looks funny.

My gut instinct was correct. This is an animated spaz-fest of slapstick mishaps, mad-scientist catastrophes of grand proportions, and excellent voice work by Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, and (wait for it) Mr. T. With barely an educational platitude (other than: don’t mess with the environment by making giant food fall from the sky), Cloudy is concerned with backyard scientist, Flint Lockwood, who attempts to accomplish amazing feats in biology, but would really love a show of affection from his heavy-browed dad (played with epic emotional suppression by James Caan). Flint’s failure to succeed at anything through most of the movie makes it rather adult in scope, and also a tiny bit based in the real. Who among us has achieved worldwide fame and recognition?

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’, introduces us to an ensemble cast of townies, including a sociopathic mayor (Bruce Campbell) who constantly ruins everything, a smart news reporter playing dumb in order to have a successful TV career (Farris), and an overreaching cop who wants to impress his son (a well-cast Mt. T). In a nod to the famous children’s book by Judi and Ron Barrett from which it’s based, there are raining foodstuffs.

The last third of the movie is a bit too frantic and might cause some anxiety in younger viewers. My son, in his viral haze, had trouble following some of the plotline during the chase scenes involving giant roasted chickens and a machine resembling a digestive system in the sky, but he laughed at it all anyway. We both did. We’re hopeless slapstick-humor enthusiasts and this film had our number.