History Headscratchers / CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs

** The sequel shows a throw-away scene of him adding another coat, which implies that the layers disappear over time; it might that while he can't remove the shoes, they will disappear eventually.

** The OuttaSighter? Plus the teeming masses of Ratbirds?

** He's friggen Mr.T, his metaphors don't have to make sense.

** It's not that improbable - most vision problems of today are exacerbated by remaining indoors, constantly staring at computer screens and whatnot. For most of history myopia would be minor and remain stable even throughout one's life

* So it is said his machine can turn water into "any kind of food". Does that include food that are not often consumed by humans? Or even things that are inedible to humans but are food for certain animals?

* What was up with Chicken [[spoiler: Brent]]? There should be bones in the way, aside from the lower legs which seem to have been used either as stilts or some sort of thigh-high boot, but he apparently plans (and succeeds) in living that way? Was the chicken [[AndIMustScream still alive]]? It would almost definitely rot if it was dead, whether it was hollowed-out or not.

** All of Flint's inventions are actually functional and would be quite useful...if he had applied them differently. The permenant shoes, the hair regrowth, the monkey translator, all of them would have useful applications in RealLife. The takeaway here is that he more-or-less gives up and gets down on himself when the testing/presenting of them doesn't go smoothly, so he is never takes the time to fully develop them.

* How in the world could the Mayor move around on the scooter when his limbs had gotten more plump and wouldn't be able to reach anything to control it? Unless it was one of Flint's abandoned inventions as a scooter that can be controlled by one's mind?

* How in the world could the Mayor move around on the scooter when his limbs had gotten more plump and wouldn't be able to reach anything to control it? Unless it was one of Flint's abandoned inventions as a scooter that can be controlled by one's mind?

* The original's credits had Flint and his Dad use the Spray on Shoes as a Roof Repair/Replacement. But since Spray on Shoes can't be removed or destroyed, wouldn't it be very dangerous and impractical? Ignoring the one-and-done-forever need for the spray, the roof could collapse an entire building if something goes wrong, and it can't be altered or removed because of whatever chemicals Flint used (as we saw, he couldn't use any tool to get it off).
----

** Also, as smart as Flint is, he's not exactly the most responsible person and his inventions aren't really getting him anywhere, or, in some cases, presenting an active danger to himself or others (at least, before the events of the movie). That, paired with how poorly adjusted and strange he acts, it's no wonder Tim is a bit concerned. If anything, Flint could work at the store part-time to make a wage and do inventions on the side with the money he earns, and if he hits jackpot, he'll be better prepared for it, rather than just rely on his inventions entirely. Tim isn't wrong for wanting Flint to have stability.

** Part of Flint's character arc is that he doesn't tend to think through his actions, and he has to learn to do this in order to save the day.
** He tested the FLDSMDFR. He's learning (or was, prior to [[spoiler: Flying Car 2: [[ElectricBoogaloo With Wings]]]], but [[NoTimeToExplain No Time To]] [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup Do A Trial Run]]).

** He probably created some way to freshen the feet in case that happened. Either way, it's a cartoon- don't take everything too seriously.
** '''SCIENCE''', that's how. Also, maybe they're like those Geox shoes that breathe?
*** The spray shoes were intended as, well, shoes. He probably had something build-in that would "control" the condition of his feet.
*** Skin doesn't need to breathe. It does exfoliate, which is precisely the reason a permanent skin adhesive is impossible.
*** Skin doesn't need to breathe, true. However, spraying on an impermeable coating would presumably trap ambient anaroebic bacterial spores next to the skin, and give them the most perfect environment imaginable to grow and thrive--moisture from sweat, high-protein dead skin cells as a culture medium, and body temperature to incubate them. Very Bad Things would begin happening pretty soon, I think.
** I think the spray-on shoes did eventually come off... Flint just had to spend hours scraping the stuff off.
*** The movie makes a big point of the fact that his feet are ''still'' encased in the spray-on shoes through adulthood, and several scenes in the movie depend on this.
** And how the hell did his feet grow? Was it like [[BodyHorror Chinese footbinding]] and his feet are just wrecked, or what?
*** I always figured the spary-on shoes could stretch.
*** They're stated to be elastic in the first movie, so presumably they can grow with the feet.
** I had figured that he had come up with a way to get them off, but wears them out of habit (or because he doesn't like shoelaces). He can just spray on a new pair every day or two.
** He does tell Sam right after he meets her though, that they don't come off. The fact it is so strong, after all, is the way he [[spoiler:destroys the machine by plugging it up.]]
*** In the sequel, the spray-coating DOES come off....but only after it suffers from a massive explosion as a result of millions of tons of pressure from food. Besides Flint Lockwood is a person who invented a freakin PORTAL for groceries! He can probably invent a special disintegrator to take off shoes.
*** The sequel also shows a throw-away scene of him adding another coat, which implies that the layers disappear over time; it might that he meant he can't remove the shoes, he has to wait (possibly a long time) for them to disappear. The point of him putting it on the machine was to plug it up so it exploded, he didn't necessarily think the coating would need to be there forever.

** OffscreenVillainDarkMatter -- The [[WeirdTradeUnion Guild]] of [[WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers Calamitous Intent]] has an outreach program for budding {{Mad Scientist}}s in the hope they go bad, or net them a neat patent. He wasn't very well funded though, the secret base of his was still mostly scrap material.
** Monkeys are a fairly common research animal due to their biological similarities between humans, and because they're pretty intelligent. It's really not that unusual for him to have a lab monkey of sorts. Likewise, while the ethics of keeping a monkey as a pet are debated, the concept is not unheard of even today. Not to mention that there are monkeys that are specifically trained to help people with performing certain tasks (Though, it's usually people with disabilities who have these specially trained monkeys, not scientists). Most likely he got said monkey from either an exotic animal salesperson (Let's not get into the legal issues regarding this, ok?) or from another laboratory that was willing to donate one of their test animals.

* How in the ''hell'' did the mayor get into Flint's lab?! The tube/tunnel thing was obviously not made for people who have been gorging themselves 24/7. His own dad barely made it in there without getting stuck. Plus, if it's password protected, the mayor shouldn't have been able to get in, skinny or not.
** One door is a rusty sliding door that has a lightup game that just blinked to look like a keypad, the other is a sheet with a pattern dyed/stitched onto it. he typed codes because it made him feel cooler not because they did anything.
** Chalk this one up to RuleOfFunny. Flint even lampshades it by asking this question himself.
** Could also cross into FridgeHorror.
*** How? I just assumed he had gotten in through the roof or something, if he hadn't been there the whole time and gotten stuck up there (was that your FridgeHorror?) He's the mayor, they ''have'' helicopters.
*** [[spoiler:Proposing FridgeHorror is the funniest thing this troper has read all day.]]

* World hunger.
** What about it?
** ...Averted?
** Some descriptions of the movie found online say that Flint was trying to create a machine to solve world hunger, when in the actual movie he was working on the FLDSMDFR for the sake of his hometown, not the world. I'm guessing this is left over from earlier versions of the film, where he was actually a government scientist trying to solve world hunger.
** Given what happened at the end, making the machine produce enough food to avert world hunger would probably be a bad idea. Plus, as stated elsewhere, eventually all the water would be used up and you'd be looking and world thirst instead. Replacing one problem for another doesn't solve much.

* World drought. That thing sucked up and used enough fresh water to throw off the balance of life on the planet.

** Food turned back into water when the machine imploded. For some reason.
*** It's also possible that the food turns back into water instead of feces upon being digested, and that in the second movie dead food animals turn to water too. It doesn't make that much sense scientifically, but neither does turning water into food.
* How the HELL does the FLDSMDFR just hang there? Flint didn't intend the thing to become what it did... it only took off like a rocket because of how much power it was attached to suddenly, and it doesn't look to be outside the Earth's atmosphere, so it should just fall back to Chewandswallow, right?

* Why doesn't Flint ''ever'' test his inventions? The montage near the beginning implies that all those inventions were applied for the very first time in the presentations! What kind of pathetic scientist is he?

* When the [[spoiler:satellite communication link with the FLDSMDFR]] is destroyed, why does Flint build [[spoiler:Flying Car 2]], and, not, say, another [[spoiler:satellite communication linking device]]? It'd probably take about the same amount of time, and he doesn't need to draw up any new blueprints or designs for the latter.
** Yeah I thought this, we have it established that it would take Flint three hours to build another one as well which seems reasonable to the ammount of time it took to do things the hard way.

** Perhaps he [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup didn't write down]] the frequency and/or protocol he was using.
*** It was very likely he didn't have one when he started work on it in the first place, remember it was not meant to work that way.

* Meta one, here: Creator/NeilPatrickHarris. In a show about a MadScientist. [[WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog Neil freakin' Patrick Harris]]. And he plays a ''monkey''.
** I actually thought Neil ''was'' Flint, and was internally squeeing because it seemed like a ''Dr. Horrible'' [[AlternateUniverse AU]] with a happy ending, and then...yeah. [[FanonDiscontinuity In my head he IS Flint.]]
** Hey, there's [[WTHCastingAgency a trope for this!]] Something of an inversion, but still...
** I loved him as the monkey. He would have been great as Flint, but the monkey was perfect. It would have been perfect ''and'' great if they'd used him for Flint and Steve (and possibly [[spoiler: Flint's Dad's translated voice]]), with a nice helping of "oh, that's so cool" because the translator voice should have been expected to have been based on recordings or synthesized imitations of Flint's phonemes, but oh well. Although I'd really enjoy if Podcast/RiffTrax happened to do this movie with NPH as the guest, and as a side thing dubbed his voice for the scientist into a bonus track.

** During the "Bigger is Better" scene, the mayor watches as Flint types in the menu for the next day (light apps, spaghetti and meatballs). So he picked up enough then, probably.
*** Yep. He may be a jerk, but he's ''not'' an idiot.

* Flint's indestructible shoe gel should have enough practical applications to win him a Nobel prize, yet somehow everyone fails to see the larger picture.
** Although in the credits, it's revealed that he uses it to repair roofs, and he and his dad start a new business. Not only that, [[spoiler:the shoe gel is what earns his happy ending for the whole film!]]
** The fact that Flint's spray-on shoes are ''not'' being appreciated the way they should be is lampshaded in their very first appearance. Elementary School Brent's mockery of them is made deliberately as nonsensical as possible. The RuleOfFunny and all that.
*** It's nonsensical to wonder how to take something off?
*** No, and arguably it's was quite a smart question. Beyond that, the most bugging thing is Tim. His boy has a degree or did go to university or whatever, has invented stuff that would make an Heterodyne cry with envy, and he can't think of a better fate for his son than helping him at the store? Even if Flint ''is'' weird and not very well adjusted, anybody with a particle of common sense would realize the guy is destined to do great things.
*** Not necessarily. Many cultures in the world have the attitude "Don't try/pretend to be better than your elders" aka "If it was good enough for me, and my father, and his father, it's good enough for you".

* If Sam didn't want to wear glasses, and is BlindWithoutEm, then why didn't she get contacts? Granted [[{{Meganekko}} she looks a lot better with them on]], but still. And they're obviously made in this world, as Mr. T puts one on an eye in his introduction scene.
** [[BloodNightmaster This troper]] is aware of ''several'' friends who need their glasses (to Sam's effect, even) but never wear them, and never opt for contacts. It baffles her IRL just as much as it does here, but it's a pretty common thing.
** TruthInTelevision. Some people just don't like to poke themselves in the eye.
** Some of us glasses wearers are also aware that we don't keep our glasses clean. As in, with glasses, it's an minor annoyance. With contacts it's possible that it'd blind you.
** Forget that. Answer me this: according to my memory, Sam stopped wearing glasses when she was little. Now she's an early adult. Yet the glasses still work. If you're confused, let me tell you that a person's eyes change constantly, requiring people who wear glasses to get new prescriptions every one or two years, mainly as a teen. But Sam's old glasses still do the trick, despite having the prescription that she had as a little kid. Clearly, the writers don't wear glasses or know anybody who does.
*** After some serious thought, Flint completing Sam's makeover by dragging her to a store to buy new glasses would have been hilarious, but badly paced.
*** Maybe Sam just didn't wear her glasses in public. (sure, there was that scene when Flint was on the phone, but she was probably just getting ready for a weather report.) She probably DID get her glasses upgraded. I know that if I didn't wear glasses in public, i would at least wear them at home to do things like watch TV or read a book.
** Some people either can't have there vision problem corrected by contacts, only eyeglasses: severe near-sightedness, or may have hypersensitivity to the lens solution, plastics in them or have irregular shaped eyes which are difficult to fit.
* Another Nobel Prize missed. Nobody even seems to realize that Flint's invention could effectively solve world hunger. Kids don't need to worry about things like that during a movie, but still....
** Screw World Hunger! If Flint's Machine can turn water into organic and semi-organic matter as diverse as the food presented, it could probably transform any material into a different one, like I don't know [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall dog poop into gold]]
** And thus, through simple economics, devaluing every piece of gold avialable!

* What was up with Chicken [[spoiler: Brent]]? There should be bones in the way, aside from the lower legs which seem to have been used either as stilts or some sort of thigh-high boot, but he apparently plans (and succeeds) in living that way? Was the chicken [[AndIMustScream still alive]]?
** [[spoiler:This troper reckoned that Brent had hollowed out the chicken.]]
*** I was asking because it would almost definitely rot if it was dead, whether it was hollowed-out or not. Although it's possible that they had somehow [[{{Squick}} grafted the internal life support systems together]]...
*** Perhaps all the microbes that cause things to rot died of [[strike:heart]] organelle disease after gorging on the mountain of leftovers.
*** So many reasons why that fails biology forever.
*** This is the troper who posted the original JBM, and if you're talking about the decay-causing microbes dying of gluttony, [[RuleOfFunny I wholeheartedly approve of that explanation]]!
*** Oddly enough, I've read of something like that actually happening in RealLife. Wish I could link to the {{Website/Cracked}} article, but some obese lady survived a flesh eating bacteria because she was [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth too fat to eat through]]. [[TruthInTelevision Who knew?]]

* How on earth can the FLDSMDFR "rearrange molecules" into food when there's no carbon (which all food has, BTW) to be reconfigured?
** Science.
** Because it's not rearranging the water molecules into the molecules of which food is composed, [[VoodooShark it's]] arranging the water molecules into molecules ''called'' food molecules, which are either shaped like hot dogs and can simulate any range of flavors, or have a varying flavor depending on the shape. Did you pay no attention during [[RefugeInAudacity the slide show]]?
** This troper stopped [[MST3KMantra caring about reality]] at the point where it is explained that Swallow Falls is under the 'A' in the Atlantic Ocean.
** The whole thing makes kinda sense if they changed "genetic" into "nuclear" however that was too edgy for a children's movie.
*** That makes no sense. How can "nuclear" be too edgy when there's already all kinds of other big word {{Technobabble}} in the film?
** It could always get carbon from carbon dioxide in the air.
*** Exactly what I was thinking. Ditto nitrogen. That's why it needs so much energy, because turning nitrogen, water, and carbon dioxide into food requires a massive energy input. The better question is where is it getting the minerals (calcium, iron, phosphorus, sulfur, sodium, chloride, iodide, etc.) from? Also, where's it getting the energy from after getting cut off from the power grid?

* The machine can turn water into any kind of food. Last time I checked, metal pie tins aren't food...
** While it was explicitly designed for food, Flint's description of it appears to indicate that all the machine does is turn the hydrogen and oxygen molecules into different molecules, thus producing the food. If we accept that Flint's machine works the way he explained ([[MST3KMantra which we should]]), then it would seem reasonable that the machine could also rearrange molecules into a pie tin as well. In fact, it seems feasible that, given his description, the machine could produce whatever Flint wanted.
*** So it is said his machine can turn water into "any kind of food". Does that include food that are not often consumed by humans? Or even things that are inedible to humans but are food for certain animals?
** Maybe they were edible pie tins for decorative purposes only, and nobody in Chewandswallow likes silver fondant? (What? Fondant's made of food molecules!)

* The thing I laughed over the whole time: How did he EVER figure making ratbirds was a good Idea.
** but...but...they're so adorable!
** He was probably hoping that it would solve the rat population problem by making them fly away to another place. Thinking things through is not really Flint's strongest suit.
** TruthInTelevision. Scientists today genetically engineer animals that serve no apparent purpose other than ForScience, such as glow-in-the-dark mice. Maybe Flint thought they'd make neat pets?
*** Glow in the dark mice do serve a purpose, the glow gene was linked to the gene of interest meaning you can see which mice carry the gene and which don't. [[ScienceMarchesOn These days system wide changes aren't as useful]], but we can and do make mice whose individual cells types glow different colours, to see in vivo cellular interactions.
*** You can track proteins by making a glow in the dark animal to see where a protein is expressed. The end result is a glowing mouse, but work like this makes understanding gene expression so much easier. That's why scientists got a Nobel Prize for the glowing organisms.
** Maybe he just wanted to see what would happen.

** All of Flint's inventions are actually functional and would be quite useful...if he had applied them differently. The permenant shoes, the hair regrowth, the monkey translator, all of them would have useful applications in RealLife. I think the moral of Flint's character, however, is that he more-or-less gives up and gets down on himself when the testing/presenting of them doesn't go smoothly, so he is never takes the time to fully develop them.

*** Again, right idea, wrong application. He seems to have invented the world's first functional AI and the mechnical legs and arms that allowed it to walk around and carry things were quite novel. The entire point is that Flint has the capability to invent wonderful things, but is a bit of a CloudCuckooLander when it comes to envisioning ''how'' to use them. Plus it's a kid's movie, so [[MST3KMantra don't read into it too much...]]
** Even the original flying car. Obviously it fails as a flying car, but based on his apparent budget of almost nothing, he managed to essentially build a car with a jet engine. Though jet powered cars are probably best not given to the general public.
*** The hair regrowth WAS a complete success, I mean, there is nothing that happened in the demonstration that couldn't be fixed with just a good shave and a haircut.
*** I wouldn't say a complete success. It's not permanent, since we see his dad is later bald again.
*** To be fair, that flashback was probably a good 10+ years before the events of the movie. He could've just lost all his hair again. Barring that, he might have shaved his head.
** Maybe he could go work for [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Aperture Science]].
*** [[WildMassGuessing So that's where Wheately came from...]]

** This troper assumed Flint gave it to her.
*** They actually do state (or at least, [[KingKaor this troper]] remembers it that way) that Flint did indeed buy it for her.
*** Near the climax of the movie, Sam pulls out the Weather Radar and blows some dust off. This implied she's had it for several months or years and hasn't used it.
** You might be onto something when you say she may not have been able to see it. We see earlier in the movie that Sam's vision is pretty warped without her glasses, so it's very possible that she mistook the Doppler Weather Radar 2000 Turbo, for, say, a silver briefcase. It was only after she put on her glasses that she realized there was something written on it.

* ratbirds - they live on an Atlantic island that definitely had rats and presumably had seagulls and maybe pigeons. How could even a nerdy child think that combining those could possibly be an improvement?
** You ever seen the TV Show yet?

* How can the Mayor be able to change clothes when he became morbidly obese? Surely if you wore the same clothes that stretched out for nearly an moth, they would be guaranteed to be stinky? I know this is some animation movie but still

* How the hell did the mayor become a werewolf in the TV series? There's no explaination or anything!

** Monkeys are a fairly common research animal due to their biological similarities between humans, and because they're pretty intelligent. It's really not that unusual for him to have a lab monkey of sorts. Likewise, while the ethics of keeping a monkey as a pet are debated, the concept is not unheard of even today. Not to mention that there are monkeys that are specifically trained to help people with performing certain tasks (Though, it's usually people with disabilities who have these specially trained monkeys, not scientists). Most likely he got said monkey from either an exotic animal salesperson ([[InternetBackdraft Let's not get into the legal issues regarding this, ok?]]) or from another laboratory that was willing to donate one of their test animals.

** I think the spray-on shoes did eventually come off...Flint just had to spend hours scraping the stuff off.
*** The movie makes a big point of the fact that his feet are still encased in the spray-on shoes through adulthood, and several scenes in the movie depend on this.
** And how the hell did his feet grow? Was it like Chinese footbinding and his feet are just wrecked, or what?

** Of course, it's entirely possible he had the [[spoiler:Flying Car 2]] before then, and just didn't have the time/motivation to test it earlier. Remember, one of his main motivations for inventing is to be accepted by the community, ever since his Spray-On Shoes earned him ridicule on Show and Tell Day.