Random Thoughts about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Just a couple of things that have been floating around my head about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. There are spoilers here, but as it's been out in theaters for over a month and will be on DVD in just about two months (January 5th! Yes!), I feel that it's safe enough to post. If you don't want to be spoiled, feel free to skip this.

Toward the end of the movie, as Flint heads off to stop the FLDSMDFR, he ends up putting together a Five Man Band of himself, Sam, Manny, Steve, and Brent, and this is how I see it breaking down:

Flint is The Hero, obviously.

Manny is The Lancer, with his cool and collected manner acting in contrast to, well, everyone else, really.

Sam is both The Smart Guy (she's the one with the Doppler Weather Radar 2000 Turbo, after all) and The Chick.

Steve is the Team Pet, also obviously.

Brent starts off as the Tagalong Kid, seeing as he basically invites himself along (and this is made especially clear when, after asking about his part in the plan, Flint tells him he can be "President of the Back Seat"), but he becomes The Big Guy with his rebirth as Chicken Brent.

Kind of makes me want to see a TV series of them going around, solving weird problems. In that case, Flint and Sam would share Smart Guy responsibilities.

I remember reading somewhere that in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the character of Gaston was made to specifically be the Beast's opposite, not just physically but also in the sense that Gaston at first seems charming but has a hidden dark side while the Beast seems frightening at first but has a hidden softer side. I mention this because I think that this same sort of thing holds true for Flint and Brent.

First off, there's their roles in the town. At the start of the movie, Brent is effortlessly adored by the whole town, and has been since infanthood, while Flint, despite his best efforts, is not very well-liked by anyone. With the success of the FLDSMDFR, their roles begin to reverse, until the world is cheering Flint's name and the same people who once delighted in Brent now have no respect for him.

Secondly, there's the matter of their appearances. The most obvious is that Flint is a basically stick thin while Brent is...not. At all. The next obvious contrast is their hair colors, brown for Flint and blonde for Brent. Not to mention Flint has these huge hands, whereas Brent's hands are much smaller, especially in comparison to the rest of him. However, there are also a number of things that they have in common lookswise. According to The Art and Making of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Brent and Flint are the only characters built all the way down to their toes (as Flint's spray-on shoes are slightly translucent and Brent always wears sandals). They both have that crazy hair thing going on, and they both have blue eyes (granted, so do most of the characters).

I find it kind of interesting that in the first scenes of the movie, where we see both Flint and Brent as children (I'm guessing seven or so), Flint looks basically the same as he will as an adult, head-shape and hair-wise, but Brent has neater hair and a rounder head as a child. Yet, they both already have the outfits they will wear throughout their lives: Brent is wearing a monogrammed blue tracksuit, and Flint is given a professional grade labcoat, although he still has to grow into it.