Lord & Miller were inspired by Irwin Allen and Michael Bay disaster movies, the illustrations of Miroslav Sasek and Culver City. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Animation.

Inspired by the beloved children's book, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (from Sony Pictures Animation, opening Sept. 18 through Columbia Pictures) is the first big test for the new regime headed by Bob Osher and Hannah Minghella. It's a commercial CG family film that plays to Sony's strong character animation strength. But it's also fun and quirky and perfect for 3-D, with food falling from the sky like rain, only to turn into disaster.

Talk about fun and quirky, first-time directors Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (who exec-produced Clone High and co-exec produced How I Met Your Mother) recently gave me a private tour of SPA, showing off Cloudy clips, concept art and look development. The entertaining duo enthusiastically chatted up Cloudy with all of its stylistic and technical opportunities. They will be presenting Cloudy at Comic-Con 2009 next Thursday at the San Diego Convention Center (3-D footage in Hall H at 12:45 p.m. followed by an SPA panel at 2:00 p.m. in Room 6DEF).

Bill Desowitz: This project has been in development for several years. But the new regime clearly believed in it and made it the first priority to see it through. How did you get involved to make it happen?

Christopher Miller: This book was a favorite for both of us and when we found out that Sony had the rights, we were so excited that we forced them to let us be involved. So we tricked them into letting us write and direct the movie.

Phil Lord: Yeah, it was a childhood dream to realize the book as a movie and the coolest part was to make it an immersive 3-D movie.

BD: The timing couldn't be better.

PL: Yeah, when we came on 3-D was just starting, and we thought, "This is the perfect movie in 3-D, with food falling from the sky." It would be a very immersive experience and in three dimensions it would make it extra perfect. And at first they [groaned]. But then they realized it was the perfect movie for 3-D.

BD: Was the 3-D done earlier than past Sony movies?

PL: Yeah, it was actually done as it happens. As we finish a sequence in lighting, we're sending it off to the 3-D department, which is great because we can get feedback dynamically.

CM: This is the first one they're doing through the production, which is way better. So it's also good knowing from the beginning that it was going to be in 3-D so we could compose the shots properly for it.

Beowulf provided a good 3-D primer for action. Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Shangri-La Ent., LLC.

BD: What did you look at for 3-D reference?

PL: When we first started, we looked at what worked and didn't work on Beowulf because they had it all here and they were able to get some good action scenes that didn't hurt your eyes and didn't pop depth wise. So we looked at that a lot.

CM: And we did look at Open Season a lot and basically stuff that's been going on here. What I'm sure everyone is saying is that the experience is better when the screen is like a window to a very deep environment so that it's drawing you in. And believe me, we do plenty of coming at ya moments…

PL: There are gags, but it's far less effective than the more subtle stuff. The thing is: it's easier to get the stereoscopic effect if there's nothing touching the borders of the frame so you have to do some convoluted things. But with this, with food falling from the sky, it's all about things already floating in mid-air. When you see the trailer play in 3-D, you see the kids jump up and try and grab the hamburgers, which is super fun.

BD: So what was your take on this?

PL: Our take was: How would you treat this if it was an Irwin Allen [disaster] film?

CM: Or a Michael Bay movie?

PL: We let this event of food falling from the sky very seriously and let the comedy come from the fact that that's a donut smashing into that car and not a big, scary meteor.