Megamind: Blue, Zany Fun

Even when you’re brilliant, it’s easy to be bitter.

Megamind, you see, was destined for greatness. His parents, citizens of a dying planet, went to the trouble of packing up their infant son and sending him out into the universe in a spaceship. But the baby, so full of promise, arrived on Earth to find the role of interplanetary superhero already taken… by the charismatic, good-haired Metro Man.

It’s amazing what good hair can get you.  Metro Man gets to grow up in a lovely mansion, whereas Megamind lives in the Prison for the Criminally Gifted.  Metro Man can fly circles around people, whereas Megamind can merely think circles around people. And that brain is housed in a bright blue, bald scalp shaped like a lightbulb… no match for Metro Man’s mane.

So instead of being a superhero, he becomes a super villain.  That means that Metro Man gets the girls, the adulation of an adoring city, and his face on a statue, while Megamind is despised throughout the city. The greatness Megamind achieves is purely the evil kind.

Actually he’s despised and predictable.  Even the beautiful, intrepid reporter Roxanne feels Megamind’s falling into a routine: Kidnap Roxanne. Threaten world domination. Laugh maniacally. Release the brain bots. Get thwarted by Metro Man. It almost writes itself.

Until the day Megamind succeeds beyond his wildest imagination. Now the Dark Overlord of Metro City, he can have anything he wants, do anything he wants, spraypaint his name in big letters on any wall he wants.

Turns out, it’s just not much fun without Metro Man to thwart him.

How will Megamind find a replacement for Metro Man? Will Megamind find that the role of super-major-despicable-eeeevil villain wasn’t ever his destiny in the first place?

From Will Ferrell, who voices Megamind, this animated movie is full of fresh, fun humor, and not the grown up humor Ferrell is known for. (No nude shots of Ferrell’s backside here.)  He keeps it remarkably clean, earning a PG rating.

Megamind, like many of us who grew up with a nose in a book and not chatting with friends, insists on mispronouncing words. His faithful sidekick, unimaginatively named Minion (David Cross), doesn’t care. He gleefully goes along with any zany plan Megamind dreams up.

Luckily, Roxanne (voiced by Tina Fey), ever intrepid, won’t drop the dream of exposing Megamind, but she finds more than she bargained for. She has the ability to look beyond Megamind’s blue billiard-ball exterior. She doesn’t judge a being by its unattractive exterior. Even more, she knows people can change.

Your kids – and you – will be having too much fun to realize “Megamind” has a powerful redemption message. Superheroes are defined by what they do and by what they believe, rather than their white smile or bulging biceps. When Megamind realizes he cares more for doing right, and for Roxanne’s respect, than for blackhearted subjugation of a city, he questions his assumptions. He was destined to be a supervillian, but can he choose his own destiny? He taught himself not to care about others, but does he care more than he can admit?

Megamind will delight both kids and parents. Available in 3D, fun but not necessary to enjoy the film, the animation is very good.  While “Megamind” doesn’t reach the sublime emotion of “Toy Story 3,” it is certainly one of the best animated films of the year. It will have you cheering for the scrawny, blue, bald lightbulb in all of us.