MEGAMIND

Publicity poster for Megamind (© Tom McGrath/DreamWorks Animation/Pacific Data Images/Paramount Pictures - reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 8 May 2020, I finally got round to watching Megamind, a 2010 DreamWorks animated movie directed by Tom McGrath that I'd long been promising myself to see, and it was well worth the wait.

Featuring the voice talents of Will Ferrell as the film's eponymous dome-headed super-intelligent super-villain and Brad Pitt as his egotistical bequiffed super-hero nemesis Metro Man - imagine an incompetent blue-skinned Mekon versus the preening love-child of Superman and Elvis Presley - both of them refugees from doomed alien planets but having been reared here on Earth under very different circumstances, the movie portrays them constantly doing battle with one another in Metro City, with Metro Man invariably winning.

 

One day, however, much more by sheer random luck than by any result of actual preconceived judgment on his part, Megamind actually destroys Metro Man. But after an initial period of euphoria and gloating, Megamind realises that without Metro Man to battle, he himself no longer has any purpose, any goal. So what does he do?

With the help of his ever-loyal friend Minion (a super-intelligent fish who was sent with him when his parents jettisoned him into Outer Space just before their planet exploded), Megamind creates a new super-hero to battle - Titan (or Tighten, as the dim-witted character names himself - long story!). However, Megamind all-too-soon discovers to his horror that Titan (aka Tighten) is no super-hero but is super-villainous instead, meaning that he, Megamind, the former super-villain, now has to reinvent himself - and pretty darn quickly - as a super-hero if he is to combat his malevolent creation, rescue his love interest Roxanne, and save Metro City from total destruction.

Yes indeed, there are even more role-reversals and unforeseen twists in this movie than in your average Shakespeare play (and that's saying something!). All good fun, though, with spectacular and extremely colourful animation throughout - and just who is that still-preening, still-bequiffed, still-egotistical recluse reinventing himself (badly!) as a Country & Western star that Megamind unexpectedly encounters when striving to annihilate Titan/Tighten?

Potentially confusing, incidentally, is that Megamind's sidekick Minion shares the same name as the Minion sidekicks of another animated villain, Gru - in the movie Despicable Me, which was released in the same year as Megamind. Unlike Despicable Me, however, Megamind has not spawned any sequel movies (just a single 16-minute short cartoon, Megamind: The Button of Doom), which is a shame, as I consider it far superior - Despicable Me bored me rigid, if I'm honest, although I freely accept that it is very popular and has countless fans. Each to their own, evidently.

Anyway, here is a multicoloured Megamind montage in trailer form to give you an idea what to expect if you decide to pay a visit one day to Metro City.

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