Aspiring scientist Flint Lockwood lives with his widowed father, Tim, and his monkey assistant, Steve, in Swallow Falls, an island in the Atlantic Ocean with an economy based on sardines. As sardines are considered unsavory by the rest of the world, the island's economy declines, forcing its citizens to subsist on a mainly sardine-based diet. One day, Flint develops the Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator, a device that converts water into food, in an effort to expand the town's diet, much to the chagrin of Tim, who, annoyed by Flint's failed contraptions, wants him to run the family business instead. Flint's first attempt to plug in the device knocks out his house's power, so he connects the FLDSMDFR to a local substation, overloading it and sending it rocketing across town, demolishing Sardine Land, a sardine-themed amusement park meant to revitalize the town, and disappearing into the sky. The chaos earns Flint the fury of the town, of amateur field reporter Sam Sparks, and the disappointment of Tim.
