Fruits, vegetables and cheeseburgers get their film shelf-life extended in the animated comedy Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, as the franchise explores a new world of living, breathing "foodimals."

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, released in 2009 and inspired by a 1978 children's book of the same name, saw the fictional island of Swallow Falls devoured by giant but inanimate food that falls out of the sky, generated from a machine created by the island's eccentric inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader).

In Cloudy 2, out in theaters on Friday, Flint and his friends, including love interest Sam Sparks, played by Anna Faris, return to Swallow Falls only to find that the monster-sized food has become a living, breathing new world.

With sweeping shots of lush landscape inhabited by living "foodimals," Flint must battle with the decision whether to destroy the world that has evolved from his own creativity, as his new boss Chester V demands, or let it flourish.

"The idea that Flint's on this journey to destroy himself was cool and to manifest his creativity in the island was a great assignment," co-director Kris Pearn told Reuters.

The first Cloudy film became a surprise hit for Sony Pictures Animation, making $245.8 million at the global box office. Cloudy 2 is projected by Sony Pictures to open between $30 million and $35 million, the likely winner at the box office this weekend.

Unlike many animated films that feature super-villains defined by evil traits, Cloudy 2 baddie Chester V, played by comedian Will Forte, is a more complex villain masked under a forward-thinking innovator whose user-friendly products have become embedded in society.

Sound familiar? That's because Pearn and co-director Cody Cameron said they based Chester V on some of the world's most celebrated entrepreneurs - Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Walt Disney.

Reuters