Headscratchers / Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

• If Flint's spray-on shoes never came off, how come his feet haven't become all gangrenous and rotten from being unable to breathe all those years?
  • He probably created some way to freshen the feet in case that happened. The spray shoes were intended as, well, shoes. He probably had something built-in that would control the condition of his feet.
  • The sequel shows a throw-away scene of him adding another coat, which implies that the layers disappear over time; it might be that while he can't remove the shoes, they will disappear eventually.

• And how the hell did his feet grow? Was it like Chinese footbinding and his feet are just wrecked, or what?
  • They're stated to be elastic in the first movie, so presumably they can grow with the feet.

• Where did Flint get a pet monkey, anyway?
  • 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. 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 or from another laboratory that was willing to donate one of their test animals.

• How 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. There was actually little security; Flint fake-typed codes because it made him feel cooler not because they did anything.
  • Through the roof or something, if he hadn't been there the whole time and gotten stuck up there. He's the mayor, they have helicopters.

• That thing sucked up and used enough fresh water to throw off the balance of life on the planet. Hello, world drought?
  • It could do it eventually, but Flint would have plenty of time to make a version that turns dirt into water. Luckily, you don't need a machine to turn food to dirt.
  • Food also turned back into water when the machine imploded. For some reason.

• How 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, so gravity should bring it back down eventually, right?
  • Suction from pulling in all the clouds, and propulsion from shooting out all the food?

• Wouldn't dumping a lot of meat products (dead animals) over several square miles result in anything not caught right away rotting; resulting in vermin and plague?
  • The OuttaSighter? Plus the teeming masses of Ratbirds?

• "This contact represents you! And my eye represents my eye! I've got" you on my eye! Owww!
  • He's friggen Mr. T, his metaphors don't have to make sense.

• 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?
  • Those were the tests. That's why Flint was recording it

• When the satellite communication link with the FLDSMDFR is destroyed during the scuffle between Flint and the Mayor, why does Flint build Flying Car 2 and not, say, another 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.
  • Maybe he just didn't have the parts available?

• How did the mayor order all of the food? Earlier on in the movie it showed Flint actually having to code the food into the computer. I highly doubt the mayor knows how to code...
  • 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. He may be a jerk, but he's not an idiot.

• Flint's indestructible spray should have enough practical applications to win him a Nobel prize, yet somehow everyone fails to see the larger picture.
  • It does, but its first usage as a shoe replacement rather put a damper on the works. Flint probably just got annoyed with how he Didn't Think This Through regarding how to remove them and didn't bother trying to get recognition or come up with alternate use cases until the credits, where it's revealed that he uses it to repair roofs, and he and his dad start a new business.

• Tim Lockwood. 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.
  • Tim is actually concerned Flint's constant screw ups means he's not ever going to do great things. From his POV, working at the store is a more stable, less risky job.
  • 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 financial stability, but he is wrong for not being very supportive of his son's dreams.

• If Sam didn't want to wear glasses, and is Blind Without 'Em, then why didn't she get contacts?
  • Truth in Television. Some people just don't like to poke themselves in the eye. Then there's the risk of infection to consider.
  • Some people also can't have their 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.

• Sam stopped wearing glasses when she was little. Now she's an early adult. Yet the glasses are still of the correct prescription?
  • 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.

• Another Nobel Prize missed. Nobody even seems to realize that Flint's invention could effectively solve world hunger.

• How on earth can the FLDSMDFR "rearrange molecules" into food when there's no carbon (which all food contains) to be reconfigured?
  • It could always get carbon from carbon dioxide in the air. 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?
    • Some form of chemical transmutation must be involved.

• The machine can turn water into any kind of food. 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, 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.
  • Maybe they were edible pie tins for decorative purposes only, and nobody in Chewandswallow likes silver fondant?

• 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?
  • Chemically, what even is "food" other than a vague "whatever we humans decide is okay to eat"? Don't see why not.

• What was up with Chicken 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 still alive? It would almost definitely rot if it was dead, whether it was hollowed-out or not.
  • Refer to the above headscratchers, and consider that it might not be a chicken, just resemble and taste similar enough to a real chicken that the difference doesn't matter (except here, where it turns out they don't rot because it's just an imitation and nothing organic to rot).

• How did he EVER figure making ratbirds was a good idea?
  • He was probably hoping it would solve the issue of wasted food on the streets by having ratbirds serve as outdoor Roombas, essentially.

• Why did Flint give up on marketing his Monkey thought translator? The only thing that went wrong in the presentation was Steve flipping out, nothing related to the machine. And judging how it also works on his dad at the end, it's probably a universal device that can translate anything's thoughts. The machine worked perfectly fine and would be a giant breakthrough for animal/human relations.
  • 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 Real Life. 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.
    • What practical purpose does the remote control television have?
    • 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 Cloud Cuckoo Lander when it comes to envisioning how to use them.

• Where did the Doppler Weather Radar 2000 Turbo come from? Sam seems surprised by its presence, so its probably not hers. Could it have been in the Weather Van the whole time, but she just never saw it because she wasn't wearing her glasses?
  • 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.
  • 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 just a silver briefcase. It was only after she put on her glasses that she realized there was something written on it.

• At the end when they show England, there are people standing outside watching the sky. They just had a storm of tea hot enough to melt their umbrellas, why would they be standing outside with no protection?
  • British answer: Because their umbrellas were melted in the tea storm.

• How is the Mayor able to change clothes when he became morbidly obese? Surely if you wore the same clothes that stretched out for nearly an month, they would be guaranteed to be stinky?

• 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?

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