It’s nice to see animated movies stretching out to a wider audience and incorporating humor that everyone can enjoy. After reading that sentence, you probably immediately think of Disney Pixar, but Dreamworks has produced plenty of animated movies to successfully compete with them (Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek). From Dreamworks comes Megamind, which offers an original take on the superhero vs. villain movie with creative writing and dazzling graphics.
In the crisis of his home planet being destroyed, Megamind (Will Ferrell) gets sent down to Earth as an infant with his Minion (David Cross) to live a good life. A similar situation happened to Metro Man (Brad Pitt) who landed safely in a lavish household, unlike Megamind who landed in a prison. Being raised by inmates of a prison from the toddler days is a great way to learn how to become a villain. At school, Metro Man was the perfect student who everyone loved and worshiped while Megamind was strongly neglected. This eventually leads to Megamind realizing he should become a villain (because he thinks he’s so good at it) and try to take over Metro City.
As the years elapse Metro Man becomes the dashing superhero and Megamind evolves into the failure of a super villain. With his attempt to kidnap the ambitious reporter Roxanne Ritchie (Tina Fey), he hopes to lure Metro into a shady trap and permanently defeat Metro Man. Shocked at his success, Megamind now rules Metro City after getting rid of Metro Man. Having the whole city gets surprisingly boring after causing so much chaos and walking around town to AC/DC songs. Due to his boredom Megamind decides to create a new superhero so that he can once again have someone to battle against and keeps things fresh. Roxanne’s cameraman Hal (Jonah Hill) gets the lucky opportunity to reprise the superhero role. As Megamind disguises himself to help train Hal, he also starts working his charm on Roxanne under the disguise of a close friend. Hal becomes greedy with power and starts running the city his own way. Does Megamind have what it takes become the hero and save the city from the evil Hal?
The cast for this movie couldn’t have been better. Will Ferrell plays the perfect “wannabe” super villain and Brad Pitt has no difficulty playing the cocky superhero. Tiny Fey and Jonah Hill are just as good and execute the jokes well with all of their prior experience. The writing is clever and throws in humor for the kids and adults to both appreciate. From watching interviews in the special features, it’s mentioned that the cast had the opportunity to improvise a good amount of the lines. This gave the actors an advantage to making their character their own. With all sorts of flying sequences, it’s hard to complain about the animation. Sharp graphics and unique camera angles add to the visual delight of this movie; especially with Blu-ray to really make the colors pop. This is easily one of the better-animated movies to come out lately and is another landmark for Dreamworks. This movie could entertain a child as much as it could an adult, which I would strongly consider as an accomplishment.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
There is no shortage of special features to be found on the Blu-ray release of Megamind. Starting off right from the ending is a fifteen-minute short movie called “Button of Doom”. Along with that are other features such as Meet the Cast where you see the cast in the studio working on the voice-overs and interviews with the cast and crew. You can also visit Megamind’s lair and see his evil inventions. This also includes deleted scenes and even an Interactive Comic Creator where you can alter certain scenes and make them your own. Even after watching the movie, you can keep yourself occupied with the special features, and you will not disappointed.
"Megamind" is on sale February 25, 2011 and is rated PG. Animation. Directed by Tom McGrath. Written by Alan Schoolcraft, Brent Simons . Starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell.
