| “ | This hellhole is too small for me, Brent. I wanna be big. I want people to look at me and say, "That is one big mayor." And that's why it has to work. It HAS to work! Otherwise, I'm just a tiny mayor of a tiny town full of sardine-sucking knuckle-scrapers. | „ |
| ~ Mayor Shelbourne plotting to seize power over Swallow Falls. |
Mayor Susano Shelbourne is the main antagonist of Sony Pictures Animation's fourth feature film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and its video game adaption and a recurring character in its prequel series.
He was voiced by Bruce Campbell in the film, Seán Cullen in the series, and James M. Connor in the video game.
Personality
Mayor Shelbourne at first appears to be a kind, healthy and salubrious mayor, but later on in the film, he is revealed to be a greedy, voracious, acquisitive, materialistic, and gluttonous mayor who ends up weighing the size of a hot air balloon.
He is also shown to be cunning and manipulative towards Flint, using Flint's insecurities to have him continue the FLDSMDFR rain down food, despite the potential threat of bigger food. Eventually, when the raining food becomes too big, Shelbourne is quick to blame Flint for it despite the fact that it was mostly the former's fault, turning the townspeople against Flint until Earl stands up for him.
When the people are forced to flee out to sea to avoid the giant food threat, he holds the people back with an "important announcement" so that he can steal a food boat to evacuate the island, much to the citizens' anger, showing a callous and cowardly side to him. In the end, his gluttony would be his undoing, as when Shelbourne got on his food boat, he started eating it and when he was seen in the final scene, he had eaten it to the point that he was stranded at sea, only having a nearly-eaten mast to keep him afloat, and even then, he continued to consume what little part of the flotation device he still had left.
Powers and Abilities
Mayor Shelbourne has no special powers, but when Flint' invention, the FLDSMDFR, began producing food from the sky, he developed an endless appetite, even when he gained several pounds and became morbidly obese (and had to ride a scooter to get around), and his constant appetite for food didn’t even make him burst.
Despite his obesity, he shows a little fighting style, as seen when he tried to pull Flint away from deactivating the FLDSMDFR with a celery, and attacking him with a radish.
Biography
Mayor Shelbourne was originally very healthy and salubrious, weighing probably not much over one-hundred pounds. He eventually plots with his minion Brent McHale that he would be big enough to conquer Swallow Falls. After the "food weather" began (thanks to a certain machine created by Flint Lockwood, called Flint Lockwood's Diatomic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator, or FLDSMDFR for short), he became extremely acquisitive and gluttonous; eating three cheeseburgers in one bite, stuffing his mouth with bacon, and shoving an over-mutated hot dog (with scoops of ice cream) down his throat are just a few examples of his ravenous and acquisitive behavior.
Later in the film, Shelbourne gained hundreds of pounds in less than a month and became a very obese mayor after greedily consuming large helpings of food, and he had to move about on a scooter. He comes to Flint’s laboratory unexpectedly and orders Flint to order pasta and some light appetizers. But as Flint tries to explain the dangers of the food becoming larger, the Mayor dismisses this, and explains that everyone will love the big portions of food. He then manipulated Flint into keeping the machine going, or by turning it off, he will ruin everything and no one will like him at all.
Without any other choice, Flint starts the big food supply, much to the Mayor’s delight. Unbeknownst to them, the machine starts going into overdrive. He and the Mayor create a food park, an all around the world opening to people all across the world. Just as Flint is about to appear on stage, Sam Sparks tries to warn Flint of the upcoming food storm, but he dismisses her and appears on stage. As Flint begins to open up the food park for everyone and a spaghetti tornado starts to form, Shelbourne secretly sneaks into Flint’s laboratory and starts making more orders to the machine, putting everyone in danger.
Flint then realizes his mistake, and rushes to his laboratory to shut down the FLDSMDFR to stop the storm, only to find Shelbourne sabotaging his machine. Unfortunately, Shelbourne refuses to let him do so and attacks Flint with a giant radish, accidentally destroying the communication device to the FLDSMDFR after mindlessly ordering a "Vegas' style all-you-can-eat buffet", causing the machine to become self-aware and start up the major food storm.
When the town of Swallow Falls became showered by huge food, the Mayor (who was now responsible for causing the FLDSMDFR to be evil and creating the major food storm) puts the blame on Flint, causing the townspeople to turn against Flint, but police officer Earl arrived to the rescue, stating that the events would not have happened if the whole town (mostly the Mayor) had not pushed Flint into making so many food orders in the first place. Shelbourne then escapes on a sandwich boat, leaving the townspeople and the town to their fate, though they ultimately managed to survive by staying ahead of the food. At the very end, as Flint finally managed to apparently destroy the FLDSMDFR and end the food storm for good, Shelbourne was seen clutching on the sinking remains of his boat in the middle of the ocean after eating it.
During the ending credits, it is revealed that Shelbourne was found, deflated of all of his extra pounds and returned to his original weight, before being arrested by Earl for his greedy and materialistic actions. However, taking advantage that Earl and his son, Cal became distracted for a moment, he jumped into a hole, escaping from his imprisonment.
Quotes
| “ | So here’s the cheese; You can keep it going...get everything you’ve ever wanted...and be the great man I know you can be. Or you can turn it off...ruin everything...and no one will ever like you. It’s your choice. Choice...choice...choice...choice...choose. | „ |
| ~ Mayor Shelbourne manipulating Flint to keep the FLDSMDFR going to produce more dangerously food portions, thus foreshadowing the Mayor’s true colors and the eventual disaster. |
| “ | Hey, Flint. It’s been nice to ‘beet’ you! | „ |
| ~ Mayor Shelbourne while attacking Flint with a radish. |
Gallery
I'm Back As HE Grabs Flint
Trivia
- Shelbourne is not a villain in the series, because the film takes place after the series' events and he becomes less selfish and more cowardly than his movie counterpart.
- Despite being the film's main antagonist, he has less than 30 minutes of screen time.
- Shelbourne was originally going to be an elderly female and Annie Potts was selected for the role. But the producers made him into a male.
- Harry Shearer, Jim Carrey, Robert Downey Jr., Albert Brooks, Kelsey Grammer, Alec Baldwin, Paul Giamitti, Tom Kenny, Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Nathan Lane, Jesse Eisenberg, David Cross, Hank Azaria, Patrick Stewart, Christopher Lloyd, James Franco, and Will Arnett were all considered for the role of Shelbourne before Bruce Campbell was selected.
- Kevin Schon (who was famously Nathan Lane's voice double) was selected to voice Shelbourne in the video game adaption. But after Schon recorded all his lines, James M. Connor became selected and dubbed his lines over Schon's.
- Shelbourne is not a character from the original storybook, much like the rest of the cast.
- Shelbourne’s ravenous appetite represents one of the seven deadly sins, Gluttony.
- Shelbourne's actions are what caused the disasters that occurred throughout the film, meaning he's the one who drives the plot of the film.
- It's unclear how he managed to enter in Flint's Lab two times given that there were no stairs in addition that due his obesity, he would have been unable to fit in the elevator, thus making impossible his way to enter.
- It's unknown whether the ending credits' sequence should be considered canonical, as it could contradict the second film, as it appears that Shelbourne was imprisoned at Swallow Falls though it was uninhabitable due the presence of the leftovers. This article currently considers the sequence canon, but if it's canon, it's completely unknown if Shelbourne was transferred to another prison, perhaps at San Franjose, or if he was left at Swallow Falls to his fate (presumably at the will of the leftovers), though unlikely. On the other case, if it's not canonical, it's unknown if Shelbourne was found and then imprisoned or if he ended up devouring all his boat and drowned.
- Shelbourne appears in the TV series Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series. However, as the series is made in Canada, Campbell didn't reprise the role.
- In the sequence when Flint activates the FLDSMDFR before Chewandswallow reopened as a tourist destination, if one were to pause at the right moment, you could see Shelbourne make an evil face at Flint. This further foreshadows his true colors.
