Megamind is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated superhero action comedy film directed by Tom McGrath. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Red Hour Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was released in the United States in Digital 3D, IMAX 3D and 2D on November 5, 2010. It features the voices of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, David Cross, and Jonah Hill.^[2]

Megamind received generally positive reviews from critics,^[3] and grossed over $321 million worldwide.^[1]

Plot [link]

Megamind (Will Ferrell) is a super-intelligent alien, a (self-proclaimed) incredibly handsome criminal genius and master of all villainy. As a supervillain of the fictional Metro City, he constantly battles and is defeated by his nemesis, the superhero protector of the city known as Metro Man (Brad Pitt). The rivalry between Megamind and Metro Man has extended from their arrival on Earth as infants; sent by their parents from their dying homeworlds, Metro Man's arrival accidentally resulted in Megamind growing up as an orphaned misfit genius while the former as a handsome superhero with a perfect upbringing.

On the day that Metro City dedicates a museum to their protector, Megamind and his only friend and sidekick Minion (David Cross) kidnap reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) and lure Metro Man into a copper-lined room. To everyone's surprise, Metro Man is unable to escape, claiming copper to be his only weakness, and appears to be killed when Megamind's death ray strikes him. Megamind revels in his victory against Metro Man, but shortly after becomes depressed, his villainy having no meaning without anyone to stop him.

Shortly before destroying the Metro Man museum, Megamind disguises himself as its curator Bernard (Ben Stiller) to avoid being found by Roxanne. While in this disguise, Megamind is inspired by a comment from Roxanne to create a superhero by injecting a worthy target with a serum fashioned from Metro Man's DNA, granting them Metro Man's super-abilities. As Megamind is selecting his target, Roxanne sneaks into his lair; in the resulting chaos, Megamind accidentally fires the serum into Hal, Roxanne's cameraman (Jonah Hill). Taking advantage of the gullible Hal, Megamind appears to the transformed human as his "space dad", grooming Hal into a new superhero, "Tighten" and preparing him to fight Megamind.

Meanwhile, Megamind has become attracted to Roxanne, and continues to date her using his Bernard disguise. This brings trouble from Hal/Titan, who is infatuated with Roxanne and jealous of Bernard, as well as Minion, who sees Megamind losing interest in villainy and angrily leaves him. On a dinner date, Megamind and Roxanne share a kiss, during which Megamind's disguise falters, leading Roxanne to angrily dump him and Megamind to misplace his "invisible car" and, inside it, the superhero serum device used to create Titan. Megamind, heartbroken, returns to his lair and vows to resume villainy and fight Titan the next day as planned.

Megamind becomes impatient waiting for Titan and seeks him out, only to find that Titan (misspelling his own superhero name as "Tighten") has been casually misusing his powers for crime. Outraged, Megamind taunts Titan/Tighten into fighting him by revealing his "space dad" and "Bernard" disguises; this backfires when Megamind realizes that Tighten, who is growing more and more mentally unstable, intends not to capture Megamind but to kill him. Unable to neutralize Tighten's powers (as the superhero serum device is still missing), Megamind resorts to a failsafe by capturing Tighten in the same copper-lined trap that thwarted Metro Man; to his horror, Tighten is revealed to have no weakness to copper and it fails to contain him. Fleeing to safety, Megamind can only watch as Tighten takes over the city and goes on a destructive rampage as the new villain.

Megamind returns to Roxanne, apologizing and convincing her to lead him to Metro Man's secret headquarters where they might find another way to stop Tighten. They are surprised to find Metro Man himself there, alive and well and secluded in his headquarters. Metro Man reveals he had become tired of being a superhero, feeling forced into the responsibility, and after faking his own death (under a ruse that copper was his "weakness"), went into hiding to pursue his real dream as a musician. With Metro Man refusing to be involved, Roxanne tries to convince Megamind to fight Tighten as the city's hero instead, but Megamind feels he is destined to always be the failing villain, and turns himself in at the local prison.

Later, Tighten captures Roxanne, threatening to kill her if Megamind does not come to fight him. Minion returns to Megamind's side and breaks his old master out of prison. Following a plan crafted by Megamind, Minion disguises himself as Megamind himself to lure Tighten safely away from Roxanne, while Megamind disguises himself as Metro Man to scare Tighten away from Metro City. The plan works until Tighten sees through Megamind's trick by his mispronunciation of "Metro City" as "Metrocity" Again, Megamind is forced to run from Tighten's wrath, until Roxanne discovers where Megamind left his invisible car and the superhero serum device. Megamind successfully retrieves the device and uses it on Tighten, reverting him back to Hal. As Hal is taken away to jail, the city cheers for its new hero, a role that Megamind realizes he is capable of choosing himself. In the aftermath, the former Metro Man museum is rededicated to Megamind, who is slowly coming around to being the hero. He and Roxanne have developed a relationship, and hidden in the crowds, a disguised Metro Man gives Megamind his congratulations.

Cast [link]

• Will Ferrell as Megamind, an extraterrestrial mastermind who turns from supervillain to superhero. He is a parody of Lex Luthor and Brainiac.^[4] The DVD commentary notes that his costume and showmanship are purposely evocative of Alice Cooper.
• Brad Pitt as Metro Man, Megamind's former arch-nemesis. He is a parody of Superman.^[5] The DVD commentary notes that his costume and showmanship are purposely evocative of Elvis.
• Tina Fey as Roxanne "Roxie" Ritchi, a TV news reporter who becomes Megamind's love interest. She is a parody of Lois Lane.^[5]
• Jonah Hill as Hal Stewart/Tighten ,^[6] Roxanne Ritchi's hapless, dimwitted cameraman who has unrequited feelings for her. He later becomes a villain named Tighten (he misspells "Titan"). The name Hal Stewart refers to Hal Jordan and John Stewart of the Green Lantern Corps.^[7]
• David Cross as Minion, a sapient talking fish who has been Megamind's sidekick and best friend since childhood. His costume is evocative of Ro-Man from Robot Monster.
• J. K. Simmons as the Warden, the no-nonsense head of Metro City Prison.
• Ben Stiller as Bernard, a museum curator whom Megamind impersonates to win Roxanne's affections.
• Justin Theroux as Megamind's father, a parody of Jor-El, Superman's father, as played by Marlon Brando in Superman.^[5]
• Christopher Knights as a Prison Guard.
• Tom McGrath as Prison Guard.
• Jack Blessing as Newscaster.
• Jessica Schulte as Megamind's mother.
• Joey Dinitere as Baby Megamind.
• Noah Dinitere as Baby Metro Man.

Production [link]

The film was written by Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons.^[8] It was first titled Master Mind, and then Oobermind.^[9] Ben Stiller was originally cast as Megamind, and later Robert Downey, Jr.,^[10] but Will Ferrell was ultimately given the role, due to "scheduling conflicts" for Downey.^[2] Lara Breay and Denise Nolan Cascino were the film's producers, and Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld were the executive producers.^[9] Justin Theroux and Guillermo del Toro worked as creative consultants on the film. Del Toro only came onboard three weeks before the end of production,^[11] but went on to have a more substantial role in subsequent Dreamworks Animation films. The opening of the film, where Megamind is falling to his apparent death, was del Toro's idea.^[12]

Soundtrack [link]

Megamind: Music from the Motion Picture was released on November 2, 2010 by Lakeshore Records.^[13][14]

All music composed by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe, except as noted.

Other songs used in the film include:

• "Back in Black" by AC/DC
• "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC
• "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne
• "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra
• "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses
• "Bad" by Michael Jackson

Release [link]

Marketing [link]

Will Ferrell dressed as his character, Megamind, at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International.

Megamind was presented at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, with Tom McGrath, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, and Will Ferell, who was dressed as Megamind.^[15]

Home media [link]

Megamind was released on both Blu-ray Disc and DVD on February 25, 2011, accompanied with an all new short titled Megamind: The Button of Doom.^[16] The Button of Doom also had its television premiere on Nick, which was aired on February 26, 2011.

The film was released on Blu-ray 3D in March 2011 exclusively as a part of Samsung 3D Starter Kits,^[17] and on September 11, 2011, exclusively at Best Buy stores.^[18]

Reception [link]

Critical response [link]

Megamind received positive reviews from most critics, with the film garnering a 73% "fresh" rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes based on 171 reviews with an average rating of 6.7.^[3] Its consensus states the film "regurgitates plot points from earlier animated efforts, and isn't quite as funny as it should be, but a top-shelf voice cast and strong visuals help make Megamind a pleasant, if unspectacular, diversion."^[3] Another review aggregate, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 63 based on 33 reviews.^[19]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three out of four stars, stating "This set-up is bright and amusing, even if it does feel recycled from bits and pieces of such recent animated landmarks as The Incredibles with its superpowers and Despicable Me with its villain."^[20] Stephen Holden, film critic for The New York Times, positively wrote in his review that "Visually Megamind is immaculately sleek and gracefully enhanced by 3-D."^[21] Entertainment Weekly film reviewer Owen Gleiberman graded the film a B+ described the film as "too goofy-surreal to pack a lot of emotional punch, but it's antically light on its feet, with 3-D images that have a lustrous, gizmo-mad sci-fi clarity."^[22] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that "What this raucous 3D animated fun house lacks in originality (think bastard child of The Incredibles and Despicable Me) it makes up for in visual and vocal wit."^[23] Betsy Sharkey of The Los Angeles Times gave the film mixed review as well writing "Just as Megamind struggles to find his center, at times, so does the film."^[24]

Box office [link]

Megamind opened to $12,530,397 on opening day, and earned $46,016,833 over the three-day weekend, taking the No. 1 spot and averaged $11,668 from around 7,300 screens at 3,944 theaters. The opening was a bit higher than How to Train Your Dragon, which earned $43.7 million back in March 2010. It was the fifth-highest opening for an animated feature in 2010. In its second weekend, it repeated at No. 1 and dropped 37% to $29,120,461 for a $7,374 average from 3,949 theaters, and bringing its 10-day cumulative total to $88,822,635. On its third weekend, it fell 45% to $16,012,831 and finished second to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, averaging $4,237 from 3,779 theaters. Over Thanksgiving weekend, it held well with just a 22% drop to $12,575,778 and slid to third place behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and Tangled (it earned $17,304,307 over the five-day Thanksgiving period). Following Thanksgiving, the film fell a sharp 61% in its fifth weekend to $4,936,851 and finished in sixth place.

The film closed in theaters on February 24, 2011 after grossing $148,415,853 in the U.S. and Canada as well as $321,494,448 worldwide.^[1] The final gross was on the low end for a DreamWorks Animation film, but was still a box office success since it beat its $130 million budget. It was the sixth highest-grossing animated film from 2010 worldwide, behind Toy Story 3 ($1.063 billion), Shrek Forever After ($753 million), Tangled ($591 million), Despicable Me ($549 million), and How to Train Your Dragon ($493 million). The film also became the highest-grossing film worldwide in both Ferrell and Fey's careers.^[25][26] It was also the second highest-grossing superhero comedy film, behind The Incredibles.

The film also had theatrical releases around the world. It was supposed to be released in Japan sometime in 2011, but because of the earthquake and tsunami in Tōhoku of that year, the Japanese release has been postponed indefinitely.^[27] It is unknown if it will ever be released in Japan.

Accolades [link]

Video games [link]

Several video game tie-ins published by THQ were released on November 2, 2010 to coincide with the film's release. An Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version is titled Megamind: Ultimate Showdown, while the Wii version is titled Megamind: Mega Team Unite and the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS versions are both titled Megamind: The Blue Defender. All three versions of the game have been rated E10+ for fantasy violence by the ESRB.^[28]

Comic books [link]

DreamWorks Animation and WildStorm produced a 32-page full colour comic book titled The Reign of Megamind, which was released in July 2010 exclusively at the Comic-Con convention.^[29] Full version of the comic is also available on the Megamind website.^[30]

Ape Entertainment released under Kizoic label five full colour comic books based on the film. A 52-page prequel titled "MEGAMIND: Reign of Megamind" was released in October 2010. It features two stories titled "The Reign of Megamind" and "MINION 2.0". The stories show Megamind and Minion's biggest failures in their attempt to defeat Metro Man. In 2010 and 2011 followed a mini series of four 32-page books. The comic book #1 features story titled "Can I Have This Dance", #2 features "Bad Minion! Bad!", #3 features "Megamutt" and #4 features "A Sidekick's Sidekick".^[31]

References [link]

External links [link]

• Official website
• Megamind interactive trailer
• Megamind at the Internet Movie Database
• Megamind at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Megamind at AllRovi
• Megamind at Rotten Tomatoes
• Megamind at Box Office Mojo