Paramount | 2010 | 96 mins. | PG
Megamind isn’t a great film, but it’s fun and pleasant. It’s a mix of The Incredibles and Despicable Me. Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell) is a smart but unlucky alien supervillain who is the longtime archenemy of Metro Man (Brad Pitt), the beloved, seemingly invincible protector of Metro City. As the film begins, a cooing, big headed baby named Megamind is placed into a capsule by his parents with nothing but a soother and his pet fish. Sent to earth (in a very Supermanesque fashion), the capsule lands in a prison yard instead of America’s heartland.
Adopted by the inmates, Megamind is raised to believe that right is wrong, and wrong is right. Using his intellect, young Megamind is able to stage several prison breaks as a toddler and causes all kinds of trouble for the hapless warden. Well on his way to a life of villainy, Megamind is sent off to school where he once again meets his nemesis who will grow up to be Metro Man. Already a schoolyard hero, Metro Man makes Megamind look bad whenever he tries to earn the approval of his peers. Eventually, Megamind gives up trying to make friends and decides to be the bad guy.
Years later as adults, Megamind and Metro Man are arch rivals. They regularly square off, with Metro Man coming out on top all the time. Megamind kidnaps Metro Man’s girlfriend, news reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) and holds her hostage in his secret lair in order to prevent celebrations of a monument opening in Metro Man’s name. It is from this event that Megamind is finally able to defeat his lifelong nemesis.
Megamind finds himself king of king of Metro City, but soon finds that his life lacks a sense of purpose without his do-gooder nemesis around to do barrel with. As it turns out, achieving his lifelong goal was the worst thing he could have done. Then it hits him: He’ll simply make a new opponent — the everyman-turned-superhero Titan (Jonah Hill) — to challenge him. However, that plan doesn’t work out when Titan takes a liking to being a villain. Megamind suddenly begins to wonder, could HE become the hero Metro City needs?
Megamind provides an interesting spin on the established superhero mythos and has offers some very funny moments. There’s some clever banter between Metro Man and Megamind as they try to outdo each other with good vs. evil clichés. Megamind has a tendency to put the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable and other verbal gaffes, such as pronouncing Metro City “Metrocity” (rhymes with atrocity) or revenge as “revahhnnge.” Ferrell is perfect in the role, imbuing the character with his signature nitwit schtick.
Brad Pitt’s role isn’t very big, but he does a good job with the material. Fey is fine as Roxanne, but she doesn’t have any particularly memorable lines. David Cross brings a nice personality to Megamind’s lifelong cohort, Minion, while Jonah Hill plays Titan as more of a insecure kid who is lashing out rather than as truly evil.
The 1080p transfer isn’t nearly as pristine as one might expect. The colors are lovely and vibrant, and black levels are consistent from start to finish, but there are elements of smear that appear regularly throughout the film, and noise appears far more often than it should. Thankfully, there are no compression artifacts.
The DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio sound mix is solid. Dialogue is crystal clear, surrounds get a workout in nearly every scene, and music comes through with majestic, punchy clarity and fidelity. High-and low-ends are handled perfectly, to boot (the .1 LFE channel is especially busy here).
We get a solid slate of special features:
The picture-in-picture commentary – entitled The Animators’ Corner – is informational. If you want things more simple, a standard screen-specific audio commentary with director Tom McGrath, producers Lara Breay and Denise Nolan Cascino and writers Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons is also available. Even the trivia track included here is a noble appendix to the picture. Also here is an interactive Comic Creator bonus, and a Behind the Mind interactive collection of concept art.
Then we get some featurettes – Meet the Cast of Megamind (10:00), Inside Megamind’s Lair (7:00), AnimatorMan (2:00), and You Can Draw Megamind (13:00) – as well as a deleted scenes, a Mega Rap music video of sorts, a Reign of Megamind video comic book, an all-new animated short (Megamind: The Button of Doom (15:00)), a Spot the Difference set-top game, and a bunch of promos and trailers for other upcoming Paramount/DreamWorks animated films.
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