Megamind Information

Megamind is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated superhero action comedy film directed by Tom McGrath. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation 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, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross and Brad Pitt.

The film tells the story of a super-intelligent alien supervillain, Megamind, who after a long-lasting battle one day actually destroys his nemesis, the much-loved superhero Metro Man. Having the fictional Metro City for himself, Megamind finds out that his villainy has no purpose and thus creates a new superhero for him to fight.

Megamind received generally positive reviews from critics, praising its strong visuals, but criticizing its unoriginality. With a budget of $130 million, the film grossed over $321 million worldwide, becoming one of the lowest grossing DreamWorks' CG animated films.

A short film, titled Megamind: The Button of Doom, was released on February 25, 2011, on the Megamind DVD and Blu-ray.

Plot

Megamind (Will Ferrell) is a super-intelligent alien, and the supervillain of Metro City. He continually battles - and loses - against his nemesis, Metro Man (Brad Pitt), a rivalry that has extended since the two arrived on Earth as infants.

On the day of dedication of a museum in Metro Man's honor, Megamind escapes from jail, rejoins his sidekick Minion (David Cross), and kidnaps reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) to lure Metro Man into a copper-lined observatory. Inside, Metro Man seemingly becomes weak from the copper, and everyone is surprised when Megamind's death ray kills Metro Man. Megamind revels in his victory, but this is short-lived as without a nemesis, his villainy has no purpose.

While attempting to destroy the Metro Man museum, Megamind uses a holographic disguise of the curator, Bernard (Ben Stiller), to talk with Roxanne. She unwittingly gives him the idea of creating a serum containing Metro Man's DNA to inject in a worthy target, thus creating a new superhero for Megamind to fight. Later, as Megamind finishes the serum in his lair and locates a worthy target, Roxanne sneaks into the lair, and in the resulting chaos, Megamind injects the serum into Roxanne's dimwitted camera man, Hal (Jonah Hill). Megamind disguises himself as Hal's "space dad" to groom the new hero into shape to fight Megamind in a few days; Hal takes the superhero alias of "Tighten," a result of mishearing Megamind's suggestion of Titan. During this, Megamind, in the Bernard disguise, continues to see Roxanne and becomes close to her, unaware that Hal also has romantic feelings for her. Minion expresses discontent at Megamind's lack of villainy and angrily leaves him when finding out he has fallen for Roxanne.

On the night before the battle, while dining with Roxanne, and gaining their first kiss together, the holographic disguise fails revealing his identity, and Roxanne angrily rejects him in the rain upon finding out Megamind's true feelings towards her, dismissing the idea that they could ever be together. Furthermore, he loses track of his invisible car that has the anti-serum to restore Hal to normal. Heartbroken, he vows to fight Hal the next day, but Hal does not show up at the appointed time. Megamind finds a bitter and equally heart-broken Hal (who witnessed Roxanne and "Bernard" having dinner) having used his powers for ill-gotten gains. Megamind is horrified at this change and attempts to convince Hal to be a "hero" by revealing how he has manipulated Hal by revealing his space dad and Bernard disguises. Hal realizes he has been toyed with and battles Megamind. When defeated, Megamind is shocked to learn that Hal actually wants to kill him and tries to escape. Megamind attempts to capture Hal in a copper-lined trap, but it fails to weaken Hal, which confuses him, and the villain is forced to flee Metro City, while Hal begins to threaten the city with his powers.

Megamind meets with Roxanne who takes him to Metro Man's secret lair, which happens to be the schoolhouse both Megamind and Metro Man attended in their childhood, and the two are surprised to find Metro Man there. The former hero explains on the fateful day, he had an epiphany and pretended to have a weakness for copper and be killed as to forgo the superhero career and become a musician. He refuses to help stop Hal. Roxanne tries to convince Megamind that he could be the hero, but Megamind has resigned himself to be the villain and turns himself in at prison. When Hal kidnaps Roxanne and threatens her life if Megamind does not fight him, Megamind has a change of heart and requests the warden to let him go, surprised to find the warden is Minion in disguise, having returned to help out.

Megamind and Minion fight Hal by holographically disguising themselves as Metro Man and Megamind, respectively, but Minion is exposed and defeated while Megamind lures Tighten away, but goes back when Roxanne exposes Megamind. In the fray, Megamind discovers his misplaced invisible car. He grabs the anti-serum and heroically dejects the serum out of Hal with it, reverting the superhero to a normal man. Hal is taken away to jail while Roxanne convinces Metro City's citizens that Megamind chose to be their hero. Later, Megamind and Roxanne's relationship has become close, and the city welcomes Megamind as their new protector, while a disguised Metro Man, hidden in the crowd with his grown beard and mustache, quietly congratulates him.

In a mid-credits scene, Minion washes Megamind's pants when Bernard (who was dehydrated by Megamind at the Metroman museum) emerges from the washing machine and is knocked out by Minion.

Cast

|image2=Tina Fey by Gage Skidmore.jpg

|caption2= |width2= |image3=Jonah Hill by Gage Skidmore.jpg

|caption3= |width3= |header=Cast members of Megamind at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International |header_align=center }}

• Will Ferrell as Megamind, an extraterrestrial mastermind who turns from supervillain to superhero. He is a parody of Lex Luthor and Brainiac. 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. 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.
• Jonah Hill as Hal Stewart/Tighten, 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.
• 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.
• Christopher Knights as a Prison Guard.
• Tom McGrath as Prison Guard.
• Jack Blessing as Newscaster.
• Jessica Schulte as Megamind's mother.

Production

The film was written by Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons. It was first titled Master Mind, and then Oobermind. Ben Stiller was originally cast as Megamind, and later Robert Downey, Jr., but Will Ferrell was ultimately given the role, due to "scheduling conflicts" for Downey. Lara Breay and Denise Nolan Cascino were the film's producers, and Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld were the executive producers. 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, 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.

Music

Megamind: Music from the Motion Picture is a soundtrack to the film of the same name, composed by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe, and released on November 2, 2010 by Lakeshore Records.

Release

Marketing

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.

Home media

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. 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, and on September 11, 2011, exclusively at Best Buy stores.

Reception

Critical response

Megamind received positive reviews from most critics, with the film garnering a 73% "fresh" rating on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on 172 reviews with an average rating of 6.7. 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." 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.

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." Stephen Holden, of The New York Times, positively wrote in his review, "Visually Megamind is immaculately sleek and gracefully enhanced by 3-D." Entertainment Weekly reviewer Owen Gleiberman graded the film a B+ and wrote, "...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." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone commented, "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." In a mixed review, Betsy Sharkey of The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Just as Megamind struggles to find his center, at times, so does the film." Movie Room Reviews gave the film 4 out of 5 stars saying "In this film you will want to root for the villain".

The main point of criticism was the unoriginality of the film. Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune wrote: "You have seen all this before", while Justin Chang of Variety said: "Though enlivened by some moderately clever twists on the superhero-movie template, Megamind never shakes off a feeling of been-there-spoofed-that." Claudia Puig of USA Today even asked: "Do we really need Megamind when Despicable Me is around?"

Box office

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 1 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 (a day before it was released on DVD and Blu-ray), after grossing $148,415,853 in the U.S. and Canada as well as $321,885,765 worldwide. 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 is 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 ($543 million), and How to Train Your Dragon ($495 million). The film also became the highest-grossing film worldwide in both Ferrell and Fey's careers. 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 T?hoku of that year, the Japanese release has been postponed indefinitely. It is unknown if it will ever be released in Japan.

Accolades

Award	Category	Name	Outcome
38th Annie Awards	Animated Effects in an Animated Production	Krzysztof Rostek
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards 2010	Best Animated Film
2011 Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Buttkicker From An Animated Movie	Will Ferrell
The National Movie Awards	Best Animated Movie
The Comedy Awards	Best Animated Comedy Movie

Video games

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.

Comic books

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

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".

Sequel

In April 2011, DreamWorks Animation's CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg, revealed that due to the poor commercial reception of the film, Megamind will not get a sequel. Referring to Shark Tale, Monsters vs. Aliens and Megamind, he said: "All shared an approach and tone and idea of parody, and did not travel well internationally. We don't have anything like that coming on our schedule now."