Megamind

This article is about the film. For the video game, see Megamind (video game). For the short film, see Megamind: The Button of Doom.

Megamind
Theatrical release poster showing primary characters; from the right: Tighten, Roxanne, Megamind, Minion (inside his bipedal vehicle) and Metro Man
Directed by	Tom McGrath
Produced by	Lara Breay Denise Nolan Cascino Executive producers Ben Stiller Stuart Cornfeld
Written by	Alan J. Schoolcraft Brent Simons
Starring	Will Ferrell Tina Fey Jonah Hill David Cross Brad Pitt
Music by	Hans Zimmer Lorne Balfe
Cinematography	Phil "Captain 3D" McNally
Studio	DreamWorks Animation Pacific Data Images Red Hour Films
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	November 5, 2010 (2010-11-05)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$130 million[1]
Box office	$321,885,765[1]

Megamind is a 2010 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]

Plot

Megamind (Will Ferrell) is a super-intelligent alien, a (self-proclaimed) incredibly handsome genius and master of all villainry, and (also self-proclaimed but with more to back it up) villain of the fictional Metro City. Megamind has constantly battled and lost to his nemesis Metro Man (Brad Pitt) ever since they both arrived on Earth as infants. 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 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.

While attempting to destroy the museum (which he successfully does), Megamind disguises himself as its curator Bernard (Ben Stiller) (after he dehydrates Bernard into a small cube) to avoid being found by Roxanne and ends up talking with her. 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 named Tighten and preparing him to fight Megamind. Meanwhile, Megamind has become attracted to Roxanne, and continues to date her using his Bernard disguise. Tighten, also infatuated with Roxanne, becomes jealous of Bernard, while Minion, seeing Megamind losing interest in villainy, angrily leaves him. On a dinner date, Megamind's disguise falters, leading Roxanne to dump him. Megamind, heartbroken, returns to his lair and vows to fight Tighten the next day as planned.

Megamind becomes impatient waiting for Tighten and seeks him out, only to find that Tighten is intending to use his powers for nefarious purposes. Outraged, Megamind taunts Tighten into fighting him by revealing his "space dad" and "Bernard" disguises. In the midst of the fight, Megamind realizes that Tighten will not be satisfied with simply imprisoning Megamind, but intends to kill him. Megamind tries to activate his safeguard scheme by capturing Tighten in a copper-lined trap but is shocked to find it fails to work. Megamind flees, leaving the city to celebrate Tighten's victory, until Tighten reveals that he is taking 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 alive, secluded in his headquarters. Metro Man reveals he had become tired of being a superhero, feeling he was forced into the role. He reveals that on the day when Megamind trapped him in the observatory, Metro Man faked his own death (using a fake skeleton) and went into hiding to pursue his real dream--being a musician. Without any new leads, Roxanne tries to convince Megamind to fight Tighten as the city's hero, but Megamind feels he is destined to always be the failing villain, and turns himself back in to prison.

Later, Tighten captures Roxanne and secures her to the top of Metro Tower, threatening to kill her if Megamind does not fight him. Seeing Roxanne in danger, Megamind pleads to the Warden for his release, apologizing for all the wrongs he committed before. To the villain's surprise, Minion has disguised himself as the Warden, accepts Megamind's apology, and the two take off to save the city. Minion disguises himself as Megamind to lure Tighten from the tower and save Roxanne, while Megamind disguises himself as Metro Man to verbally berate Tighten for his actions. Tighten is temporarily bested, and told by "Metro Man" to leave "Metrocity" (Megamind's distinctive mispronunciation of "Metro City"), but the deranged villain returns, seeing through Megamind's disguise. Again, Megamind is forced to run from Tighten's wrath, until Roxanne discovers where Megamind left his invisible car and the tool to extract the superhero serum from Tighten. 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. A scene in the middle of the credits shows Minion putting Megamind's clothes in a washing machine, causing Bernard to rehydrate back to normal, as Megamind left him in his pants.

Cast

• Will Ferrell as Megamind, an extraterrestrial mastermind who turns from supervillain to superhero. He is a parody of Lex Luthor and Brainiac.^[3] The DVD commentary notes that his costume and showmanship are purposely evocative of Alice Cooper.
• Brad Pitt as the superhero Metro Man, Megamind's former arch-nemesis. He is a parody of Superman.^[4] The DVD commentary notes that his costume and showmanship are purposely evocative of Elvis.
• Tina Fey as Roxanne Ritchi, a TV news reporter who becomes Megamind's love interest. She is a parody of Lois Lane.^[4]
• Jonah Hill as Hal Stewart/Tighten, Roxanne Ritchi's hapless cameraman who has unrequited feelings for her. He later becomes a villain named Tighten. The name Hal Stewart refers to Hal Jordan and John Stewart of the Green Lantern Corps.^[5]
• David Cross as Minion, a sapient talking fish who has been Megamind's sidekick and best friend since childhood.
• 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.
• 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

The film was first titled Master Mind and then Oobermind.^[6] Lara Breay and Denise Nolan Cascino were the film's producers, and Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld were the executive producers.^[6] Ben Stiller was originally cast as Megamind, and later Robert Downey, Jr.,^[7] but Will Ferrell was given the role, due to "scheduling conflicts" for Downey.^[2] The film is written by Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons.^[8]

Soundtrack

Megamind: Music from the Motion Picture
Soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
Released	November 2, 2010
Genre	Classical
Length	48:10
Label	Lakeshore Records

Megamind: Music from the Motion Picture was released on November 2, 2010 by Lakeshore Records.

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

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Length
1.	"Giant Blue Head"		4:28
2.	"Tightenville (Hal's Theme)"		2:15
3.	"Bad to the Bone"	George Thorogood and the Destroyers	4:48
4.	"Stars and Tights"		1:25
5.	"Crab Nuggets"		2:17
6.	"A Little Less Conversation (Junkie XL Remix)"	Elvis Presley	3:31
7.	"Mel-On-Cholly"		2:32
8.	"Ollo"		3:06
9.	"Roxanne's Theme"		2:36
10.	"Alone Again (Naturally)"	Gilbert O'Sullivan	3:37
11.	"Drama Queen"		1:47
12.	"Rejection in the Rain"		1:45
13.	"Lovin' You"	Minnie Riperton	3:23
14.	"Black Mamba"		1:13
15.	"Game Over"		3:21
16.	"I'm the Bad Guy"		2:37
17.	"Evil Lair"		3:29
Total length:			48:10

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

Reception

Megamind received positive reviews from most critics, with the film garnering a 72% "fresh" rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes based on 166 reviews with an average rating of 6.6/10.^[9] 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."^[9] Another review aggregate, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 64 based on 32 reviews.^[10]

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."^[11] 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."^[12] 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."^[13] 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."^[14] 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."^[15]

Box office

Megamind opened to $12,530,397 on opening day, and earned $46,016,833 over the three-day weekend, taking the #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 #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.^[16][17] It was also the second highest-grossing superhero comedy film, behind The Incredibles.

Awards

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

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.^[18] 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,^[19] and on September 11, 2011, exclusively at Best Buy stores.^[20]

Marketing

Trailers

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

A 47-second teaser trailer of the film was released online on March 18, 2010 and then premiered in How to Train Your Dragon. A second trailer premiered in Shrek Forever After and then in select screenings of Toy Story 3, The Last Airbender, Despicable Me, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice and also appeared on PBS Kids DVDs, Super Why: Attack of the Eraser and Dinosaur Train: Dinosuars Under the Sea. A third 4-minute trailer of the film premiered at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, which later aired during a commercial break of Futurama's 100th episode, "The Mutants Are Revolting".^[21] The final trailer was shown online on September 10, 2010 which showed more plot detail of the film that reveals Metro Man is still alive.

Prescreenings

The first five minutes of Megamind were shown during an episode of iCarly on Nickelodeon on October 2, 2010.

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.^[22]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Megaming @ Box Office Mojo
2. ^ ^{a b} SuperHeroHype (August 16, 2009). "Ferrell, Pitt and Hill to voice Oobermind". Superhero Hype!. http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/99311-ferrell-pitt-and-hill-to-voice-oobermind. Retrieved August 18, 2009. 
3. ^ Greydanus, Steven D. (November 11, 2010). "'Megamind' a Clever Spoof". National Catholic Register. http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/megamind-a-clever-spoof/. Retrieved August 29, 2011. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Wilkins, Alasdair (July 22, 2010). "Megamind asks the great superhero question: what if Lex Luthor killed Superman?". io9. http://io9.com/5594075/megamind-asks-the-ultimate-superhero-question-what-if-lex-luthor-killed-superman-once-and-for-all. Retrieved August 29, 2011. 
5. ^ Knolle, Sharon (June 17, 2011). "A Moviefone Salute to Guys Named Hal". Moviefone. http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/06/17/movie-characters-named-hal/. Retrieved August 29, 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Skott Stotland (May 28, 2009). ""Master Mind" becomes "Oobermind"". Bam! Kapow!. http://www.bamkapow.com/post.phtml?pk=3294. Retrieved August 18, 2009. 
7. ^ Dennis Michael (April 4, 2007). "Mr. Furious Goes Evil". FilmStew. http://www.filmstew.com/showArticle.aspx?ContentID=15729. Retrieved August 18, 2009. 
8. ^ Alex Amelines (August 17, 2009). "DreamWorks reveals voice-cast for Oobermind". One Huge Eye. http://www.onehugeeye.com/dreamworks-reveals-voice-cast-for-oobermind.html. Retrieved August 18, 2009. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "MegaMind Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/megamind/. 
10. ^ "Megamind Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. http://www.metacritic.com/movie/megamind. 
11. ^ Ebert, Roger (2010-11-03). "Megamind :: rogerebert.com". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun Times Media Group. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101103/REVIEWS/101109990. 
12. ^ Holden, Stephen (2010-11-04). "Animated Ambiguity, Featuring a Big Head". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/movies/05mega.html?ref=movies&pagewanted=1. Retrieved 2010-11-05. 
13. ^ Glieberman, Owen (2010-11-03). "MegaMind Movie Review". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20438854,00.html. Retrieved 2010-11-05. 
14. ^ Travers, Peter. "MegaMind Film Review". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media LLC. http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/45905/231040. Retrieved 2010-11-06. 
15. ^ Sharkey, Betsy (2010-11-05). "Movie review: 'Megamind'". Los Angeles Time. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-megamind-20101105,0,1617798.story. Retrieved 2010-11-07. 
16. ^ "Will Ferrell Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. http://boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Actor&id=willferrell.htm. Retrieved 2011-07-06. 
17. ^ "Tina Fey Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Actor&id=tinafey.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-30. 
18. ^ Calonge, Juan (2011-01-04). "Megamind Blu-ray Announced". Blu-ray.com. http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=5681. Retrieved 2011-01-04. 
19. ^ Calonge, Juan (March 24, 2011). "Samsung 3D Starter Kit Now with Megamind 3D Blu-ray (Update)". Blu-ray.com. http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=5976. Retrieved October 5, 2011. 
20. ^ Peck, Aaron (September 20, 2011). "Megamind - 3D (Blu-ray)". High-Def Digest. http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/4284/megamind_3d.html. Retrieved October 5, 2011. 
21. ^ Maryon (2010-10-08). "4 minutes clip to the San Diego Comic-Con". Filmissimo.it. http://www.filmissimo.it/blog/megamind-a-natale-nei-cinema-il-trailer-in-italiano.html. Retrieved 2010-10-08. 
22. ^ DreamWorks' Megamind: The Video Games. Retrieved 2010-12-08.

External links

• 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