Comic-Con 2013: ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2′ and ‘Mortal Instruments’ Panels

Although most fans came out to the Columbia Pictures/Sony panel to see footage from the 'RoboCop' remake and 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2,' the studio also debuted new clips from 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2' and 'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones' in Hall H on Friday, Jul. 19.

'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2'

Representing the animated sequel were co-directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, and stars Bill Hader, Anna Faris and Terry Crews, though Andy Samberg, Kristen Schaal and Will Forte were teased in an opening bit recorded exclusively for the Comic-Con audience.

"The film picks up literally 60 seconds after the [first] film ends," sad Pearn. Flint (Hader) takes a job at a company called LivCorp, run by Chester V, Flint's idol. Once there, however, Chester V tells him that his water-to-giant-food machine is still active and has transformed all the food on his home island into foodimals (food + animals).

The panel revealed three new clips from the film. The first featured Flint's first encounter with LivCorp, which looks like a futuristic city that's fully stocked with coffee for their employees. Schaal makes her debut in the clip as a monkey with the brain of a human inside the brain of a monkey. Did you get all that? She's like a turduken, as her character says. The team gets back together in the second clip, complete with all the shenanigans and gags we all expect will ensue, and the third piece of footage delves deeper into the deadly foodimals that threaten to expand past the island.

'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones'

Next on the docket came a new young-adult genre offering, the film adaptation for Cassandra Clare's first book in the 'Mortal Instruments' series. Starring Lily Collins in the title role, this film seems to want to capitalize on the 'Twilight' and 'Hunger Games' hype. And it already might be, as a sequel and a prequel are already in the works.

Collins was a fan of the books way before she signed on for the film. "She always finds her own voice," she said of Clary. Though, the one part she had the most difficulty with was running in high-heeled combat boots. "You try running in them?!"

Clare was very "interfere-y," as she said, when it came to production. Everything and anything she could be involved with, including getting a small cameo appearance, was hers to have. For those interested, she's one of the demons at Magnus Bane's party. But, ultimately, "it was very collaborative" between her and director Kevin Zegers.

"We didn't need to change anything really," said Zegers on adapting the original story for the big screen. Because there was so much content to pull from, it was more of, "What can we keep and how can we make shortcuts?"

The audience was also treated to an extended clip from the film, which featured 'Game of Thrones' star Lena Headey as Lily Collin's Shadow Hunter mother. As Clary is attempting to grapple with the fact that she is a warrior against darkness, her mom is busy handling some of her own drama: a couple of demonic thugs gave her a house call. While Headey is pretty badass, the footage in general was underwhelming with a poorly CG-ed version of a demonic rottweiler and Jamie Campbell Bower's annoyingly boyish hair flip.

'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2' opens Sep. 27, while 'Mortal Instruments' hits Aug. 21.