Trivia
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Spoilers (1)
Earl Devereaux has the exact opposite hairstyle of his voice actor, Mr. T. Instead of a T-shaped mohawk, Earl sports a T-shaped bald patch.
Neil Patrick Harris was originally offered the role of Flint, but he felt that the role of Steve was much more interesting.
To make the sound of falling hamburgers, sound officials used wet rags and slapped them on wood. Snapping celery was used to make the sound of bones breaking.
(At around one hour and seven minutes) Flint's e-mail address is flockwood@flinternet.com. At the time of the movie's release, going to Flinternet.com would redirect you to the movie's official website.
(At around one hour and seven minutes) Near the end of the film, when Earl Devereaux jumps through a tortilla chip, a giant letter T is left behind, representing the voice actor Mr. T.
In Israel, the film's title is "It's Raining Falafel". In Turkey, the title is "It's Raining Kofta".
According to the director's commentary on the DVD, Earl was going to be a gym teacher and part-time cop. His profession was changed to a full-time cop only, but they kept the gym teacher's short shorts on him.
The external appearance of Flint's laboratory is modelled after Wardenclyffe Tower, which was Nikola Tesla's laboratory for wireless transmission experiments.
(At around four minutes) The island on which the town of Swallow Falls (later Chewandswallow) is located, corresponds to the real-life geographic location of Bermuda. This is implied at the beginning when the island is said to be under the first "A" in Atlantic, as Bermuda is the only island in the West Atlantic north of the tropics. It is later confirmed on a weather map towards the climax of the movie (at around fifty-four minutes), when the weather storm is clearly seen to originate several hundred miles off the coast of the Carolinas.
The plot of the film has almost nothing in common with that of the book, outside of the fact of food falling from the skies and the town being called Chewandswallow (Falls).
The directors originally wanted to get Electric Light Orchestra's title song from Xanadu (1980) to play under the end credits, but they couldn't find out who owned the rights. Miranda Cosgrove's "Raining Sunshine" was used instead.
Bill Hader (Flint) never met Bruce Campbell during filming. He first met him on September 12, 2009: the day of the movie's premiere.
Amy Poehler and Will Arnett planned to produce and star in the film during the early development stages.
WILHELM SCREAM: (At around fifteen minutes) Heard as the giant sardine fishbowl crashes through the amusement park.
This was the first Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation film to have an altered logo sequence. When the Columbia Pictures logo appears, a banana hits the Torch Lady and knocks her out of the image. During the Sony Pictures Animation logo sequence, dark clouds uncover the end of the logo.
(At around seven minutes) When Flint tests the Food Replicator and the power goes out, the musical score stops. However, the tune Flint is humming as he leaves the lab to fix the circuit breaker is the melody of the musical score.
In the Latin American Spanish version of the film, the name of the protagonist is "Flint Loco", which resembles the original "Lockwood", but also gives Flint a mad scientist (cientifico loco) aura.
(At around twenty-four minutes) When Flint is explaining how the machine can turn water into any kind of food, Sam asks if Jell-O is possible. Flint says yes, and then asks if she likes peanut butter. Sam says she is extremely allergic to peanuts, which prompts Flint to say, "Oh yeah, me too!" In real life, Bill Hader is highly allergic to peanuts.
(At around thirty-eight minutes) After "the reveal" Flint removes his hands and gets a good look at Sam. Then his eyes seem to get bigger because his pupils dilate. It has been proven by science that a person's eyes dilate by forty-five percent when they see something they love, just proving the fact that Flint loves the nerdy side of Sam.
(At around twenty-eight minutes) In one scene, a rainbow of little colored bite-sized candies ends in children's mouths. This is a reference to Skittles, a fruity bite-sized candy whose slogan is "Taste The Rainbow".
(At around five minutes) Just before Flint tests his invention for the first time, when he pulls the sketch off his wall of science heroes, there is a poster of Philo T. Farnsworth.
Bill Hader (Flint), Andy Samberg (Baby Brent), and Will Forte (Joe Towne) were all cast members of Saturday Night Live (1975) together for several seasons before this film.
(At around fifty-seven minutes) When Flint is in his lab "visualizing" with the 3-D holographic images, he's wearing glasses with red and blue lenses. The glasses are a nod to the original 3-D movies from the 1950s to the late 1990s which required glasses with red and blue lenses in order to make the 3-D effect. Nowadays, movies such as this film use a different form of 3-D technology that uses "polarized" rather than colored lenses.
Sam Sparks is also the name of one of the interns that worked on Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's television series, Clone High (2002).
(At around one hour and fifteen minutes) When Flint goes to plug his phone in the FLDSMFDR, the label above the comm port is "Welcome to Moose" (port).
This is the first Sony Pictures Animation film to be produced in a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio. All of their previous films were produced in 1.85:1.
Benjamin Bratt's first time voice acting in a theatrically released animated film. Later he'd go onto voice El Macho/Eduardo Perez in Despicable Me 2 (2013) and Ernesto de la Cruz in Coco (2017).
Bill Hader's second animated film of 2009, after Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) of which was Hader's first theatrically released animated film.
The hallway entrance to the lab is a nod to the hallway Frank Poole is blasted through in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). In addition, the curtain at the end of the hallway to the lab has a Red Circle in the center, reminiscent of the glowing red eye of the Computer HAL from that film.
Will Forte's first time voice acting in a theatrically released film. Later he'd go onto voice Chester V in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013), Abraham Lincoln in The LEGO Movie films, and Shaggy Rogers in Scoob! (2020).
When the Flying Car 2 starts to sputter, Manny says, "Was ist das?" Which is German for "What is that?"
The second theatrically released animated film for Andy Samberg, the first being Space Chimps (2008).
Sony Animation's last film of the 2000s and the last film of Sony Animation's before Columbia Pictures officially bought it in 2010.
The last of the three animated films of 2009 in which Jerome Ranft was involved in after Coraline (2009) and Up (2009).
Spoilers
(At around one hour and thirteen minutes) As Flint is flying in his "Flying Car 2", giant gummy bears attack the vehicle and begin tampering with the wings. This is a reference to Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) when buzz droids did the same to Obi-Wan and Anakin's ships.
