While I have been known to enjoy films across a wind variety of genres, I am a sucker for quality animated films. Typically they are quite humorous, animation always impresses me, and normally they are pretty clean, so you can talk about them with just about anyone you encounter. One of my favorite animated films I have ever seen is Dreamworks’ 2010 comedy, Megamind. Megamind takes the idea of ‘what if a villain was forced to become a hero?’ and adds to it an all-star cast, witty humor, and a well-written arc with character development for every character in the movie. Every time I rewatch the movie I find moments that make me laugh and I still find myself as blown away now as I was when I first saw it in theaters by the way the movie ties itself together in the end.
The movie starts at the climax, though not a lot of context is given as to what is happening and how our main character found himself falling to his death. The background is a beautifully animated sunset, which marks one of my favorite things about this movie; the landscape animation is beautiful and detailed throughout, especially for 2010 computer animation. The narrative then shifts to the actual beginning of the story – the very beginning – when Megamind was an infant being sent away from his home planet as it gets sucked into a wormhole to doom his race. Any comic book fan immediately knows this is a parody of Superman’s origin story, though the plot twists when it is revealed that Megamind was not the only baby sent away from his planet. Another child – Metroman – is sent away from his home planet, knocking Megamind from his course and allowing Metroman to reside in a cushy mansion whereas Megamind lands in prison, where he is raised from infancy. While this is a little out-there and done mostly for humor, it actually shows a lot about both characters later on in life, as Megamind was raised by inmates that are tough and mean and believe in evil to get their way, while Metroman is spoiled and constantly praised as being good, even when he is doing normal things.
The movie continues along this path, showing our ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ growing up, as Metroman is constantly praised at school by teachers and peers alike, whereas Megamind is picked on no matter what he does. If someone were to look deeply into this story, I’m sure an argument could be made about Megamind looking different than everyone else and being subject to constant ridicule from his peers driving him to become a villain could be considered a metaphor for what some groups of people go through in America, but the story does make sure to pull away from this real-world narrative by constantly noting that Megamind is a full-blown alien with blue skin and a large head, not just that he looks slightly different than the kids ridiculing him. (In fact, outside of Megamind the kids seem pretty inclusive, inviting a young girl on crutches to join their dodgeball team before proceeding to pelt poor Megamind with dodgeballs.)
I think one of the important things about this movie is that it shows Megamind truly trying to do good, though things tend to literally blow up in his face, which causes him to grow frustrated and get angry. This, mixed with being raised with the wrong idea of right and wrong, plus his constant belittlement by peers, could easily cause someone to turn into a villain. While the story is not meant to be taken too seriously, it is hard to not feel bad for Megamind at the beginning of the story, whereas the ‘hero’ Metroman is portrayed as an arrogant jerk that gets raised for every step he takes. This is where the movie really kicks off, with Megamind declaring “It hit me: If I was to be the bad boy, then I was going to be the baddest boy of them all.”
As I said earlier, the cast is incredible; Will Ferrell as Megamind, Brad Pitt as Metroman, Tina Fey as our damsel in distress Roxanne, Jonah Hill as hero-turned-villain Titan, David Cross as Minion, and even JK Simmons as the prison guard. These six carry basically all the dialogue in the entire movie, outside of a stray line or two. Each of these characters gets to show a huge range of emotions since they are on the screen almost the entire movie, and their voice actors all do a top-notch job at making the performances believable, even in an animated comedy. Even Bernard, a character only on screen for a couple of short scenes, is played by Ben Stiller, and his performance is great as well. On top of this, I’m a sucker for a good score and soundtrack, and while Megamind’s score has some standout moments, the soundtrack is absolutely fabulous. The movie makes use of classic rock hits like ‘Crazy Train,’ ‘Back in Black,’ and ‘Highway to Hell’ to create a hardcore dark atmosphere for Megamind, while Elvis songs are used to show Metroman as a less-edgy character.
The movie pulls from a lot of different superhero movie and comic book tropes, including the damsel in distress being kidnapped repeatedly by the villain, almost to the point of it becoming routine and the butt of many jokes. Additionally, Megamind uses an invisible car to get around, which pokes fun at the complications an invisible mode of transportation would have, like debris bouncing off of it in the wind, the sun reflecting off the metal, and the wake of destruction it would leave behind after driving through a crowded area.
As the movie progresses, a new character, Titan, is introduced to fill the void left by Metroman after he leaves the city. Megamind actually grows bored with having no hero to fight, so he gives Titan his abilities so that the constant conflict of good and bad can persist. This backfires, however, when Titan is shown to be childish and selfish with his powers, using them to steal things for himself and to try and force his crush to like him. This speaks a lot to the idea of what being a hero means, as anyone in this fictional universe could have wound up with super abilities, but the person behind them can make the difference between being a force for good or evil. Titan, while shown at the beginning to be an ‘okay’ guy, had some obvious stalker tendencies, that, when coupled with impressive abilities, made him feel like he was owed affection, not just from his crush, but also from the citizens of the city.
As Titan transitions from hero to villain, Megamind finds himself falling for our damsel in distress, Roxanne, who also happens to be Titan’s crush. Roxanne is a strong female character that turns down Titan’s advances, even when he starts getting violent and threatens her. She also is the one that first shows initiative in formulating a plan to take down Titan, which forces her to work with Megamind, though she is shown to be very upset about this. One thing I noticed while rewatching this movie again is that Roxanne starts off the movie in bright red, always having some on her if her whole outfit is not red. As she is forced to work with Megamind, she begins wearing purple in place of her red, showing her softening to him. When the movie ends, she is shown in all blue, signifying her character’s development from swooning over Metroman to falling for Megamind.
The last act of the film ends with a full-blown battle between Megamind and Titan, wherein Megamind is knocked out early, and Metroman shows up to rescue the city and scare off Titan, though this is quickly revealed to be the real Megamind in disguise. It’s a bit confusing on paper, so go watch the movie if you haven’t already, but the final battle brilliantly ties in tons of loose ends from throughout the movie’s narrative, even things that are easily forgotten about or that are thought not to be very important. In the end, Megamind uses ingenuity to defeat Titan, and though it ends on a very happy note for him and Roxanne, it avoids the cliché by not explicitly putting them together at the end. They could easily be seen as crime-fitting partners, best friends, or a couple, though the movie does hint at the latter.
Many people didn’t like this movie nearly as much as its biggest competitor, Despicable Me. The movies came out within a few months of each other with Despicable Me coming first, and the plotlines are slightly similar – a bad guy becoming a good guy. The difference to me is that Despicable Me seems to be trying to be a children’s movie exclusively, with three young children as main characters, outlandish character animation, silly sidekicks that make parents cringe, and a bright color scheme. Megamind, on the other hand, seems to be more of a superhero parody than a children’s movie. While I appreciated it as a kid, I appreciate it much more now as an adult comic book fan.
For me, the most exciting part of this movie is the climax and seeing how all the little details play back into the story. From Megamind’s first invention as a child being the thing that winds up saving his life, the invisible car being slightly visible and parked in the same spot throughout most of the movie, the way Megamind mispronounces English words according to what they look like they should sound like instead of their correct way (i.e. ‘Shool’ instead of ‘School’,) and even his prison breakout at the beginning of the movie being used again at the end, but for good instead of evil. This movie is full of Easter eggs and little bits to the point where it is easy as the audience to forget about some of the more ‘important’ details that come into play again later.
As for the most boring part of the movie, I found it really difficult to nail down a part. The movie moves forward with a good steady pace and never really takes a chance to slow down. Even the parts that seem slow tie in later. For me, personally, if I had to pick a part of the movie to cut, it would likely be the romantic subplot between Megamind and Roxanne, although even this has to come into play in the climax of the film as Titan sees the two together and grows jealous, which causes him to go on a rampage. It’s the only part of the movie that is not completely packed with humor and pop culture references and seems like the pace slows slightly, but again, I feel it is necessary to tell the full story the film desires to tell.
I recommend this movie to anyone that is a fan of superhero movies, comic books, expectation subversion, and Will Ferrell, all of which attract me to a movie immediately. The movie does an excellent job of taking the same old superhero-supervillain conflict and flipping it on its head in a way that asks ‘what if the hero is actually a villain and vice versa?’ The movie speaks a lot to your personality playing into who you are, even if the situation life has given you doesn’t match – Megamind has to be a ‘villain’ due to the way he was raised and despite his good heart. Titan becomes a ‘hero’ because of his powers, but it is quickly revealed that he is selfish and wants to help no one but himself.
All in all, I would encourage anyone to give this movie a chance. While many people that saw Despicable Me first will always prefer it, I think Megamind has a lot of depth to it that Despicable Me lacks, and it can be a movie that children and adults alike can enjoy. Megamind is a comedy film that has a lot of real-world dark themes in it, yet all are presented in a way that you can look at it on a surface level and see it as a silly superhero film. This film has been one of my favorites since it came out almost ten years ago, and I think my liking of this film has influenced a lot of my film preferences to this day.
Amanda Roach 