One of the Best Animated Movies of the 2000s Is Streaming Free (And It’s Not From Disney or Pixar)

Disney and Pixar continue to be the leading forces in animated movies, the two studios setting the gold standard for high-quality and ridiculously amusing films and charting one blockbuster after the next, which can make it hard for other movies to compete. Following the Disney Renaissance of the ‘90s, animation continued to dominate in the 2000s. As the studios released more hits with films like Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, a non-Disney and Pixar movie proved to be just as great, and it just hit free streaming.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs arrived on Tubi on October 1st and is now streaming completely free. The movie, produced by Sony Pictures Animation, is loosely based on Judi and Ron Barrett’s 1978 children’s book of the same name and centers around an aspiring inventor who attempts to solve his town’s food crisis, only to build a machine that causes food to fall from the sky. Amid spaghetti tornadoes and a foodalanche, he must stop the machine in order to save the world.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Rivals Even the Best of Disney and Pixar

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There’s no dispute that Disney and Pixar absolutely dominate the animated landscape, a trend that isn’t likely to change anytime soon. But during a decade that saw those studios release hit after hit with movies like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Monsters, Inc., and WALL-E, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs holds its own. The film, “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes with an 85% critic score and a great audience rating of 72%, is one of the best animated movies from the 2000s and remains an entertaining and highly rewatchable movie that audiences of all ages can love.

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The movie successfully manages to move beyond its source material and expand a 32-page book into a feature-length film, bringing audiences a truly original and goofy plot where ice cream snowstorms and hamburger rain are brought to life through a colorful, visually striking animation style and characters come to life in exaggerated, quirky character designs. The absurd storyline alone is enough to garner some laughs, but the strange weather events that take place throughout the film, paired with quirky humor and slapstick comedy, will keep viewers laughing from beginning to end and appeal to both younger and older viewers. We also can’t forget to mention the all-star voice cast featuring Bill Hader, Neil Patrick Harris, Anna Faris, and Mr. T.

Other Family-Friendly Movies Now on Tubi

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs joined Tubi this month alongside a handful of other movies that are perfect for family movie night. Fox’s free streaming service is now also streaming titles including Arthur and The Invisibles, Astro Boy, Ella Enchanted, Open Season: Scared Silly, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Spy-Kids 3-D: Game Over, and Spy Kids 4, all of which began streaming at the start of the month and joined Tubi’s existing library of family-friendly titles. The streamer adds to the catalog monthly, meaning more great kid-friendly films will join the lineup in a few weeks, but Tubi hasn’t yet released its November 2025 newsletter.

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