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Megamind is a 2010 animated superhero comedy film 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, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross and Brad Pitt.[2] The film is directed by Tom McGrath.[2]
Megamind (Will Ferrell) is a super-intelligent alien who—at the age
of eight days old—is sent to Earth by his parents as his home planet is
destroyed by a black hole. However, he lands in The Prison for the
Criminally Gifted at Metro City, thanks to another infant alien
similarly sent from a different planet who eventually becomes a
superhero known as Metro Man (Brad Pitt), defender of the fictional
Metro City. As a result, Megamind is raised as a social deviant, who is
neglected for his destructive intellect, with his Piranha-like sidekick
Minion (David Cross) as his only friend. Realizing that he is only
gifted in causing trouble, and jealous of all of the attention young
Metro Man receives, Megamind becomes a supervillain to rival Metro Man,
though he is thwarted on a regular basis. During one of his many
attempts to defeat Metro Man, Megamind kidnaps news reporter Roxanne
Ritchi (Tina Fey) and uses her as bait to lure Metro Man into the city
observatory where Megamind intends to kill him with a death ray. The
plan appears flawed enough for Metro Man to escape, but he proclaims
that the inside of the observatory is lined with copper, which he says
drains his power. Metro Man is then seemingly killed by the death ray.
Megamind is initially happy that he has defeated his archenemy, but soon
grows depressed over the fact that without someone to fight, his life
as a supervillain no longer has any purpose.
Megamind talks with Roxanne while disguised as a museum curator named
Bernard and is inspired to create a new superhero to fight using a
serum of Metro Man's DNA. Hoping to uncover any evil plans Megamind has
for the city, Roxanne breaks into Megamind's lair and fights with him
over a syringe gun containing the serum, which is accidentally fired and
injected into Roxanne's cameraman Hal Stewart (Jonah Hill).
Megamind manipulates Hal into becoming a superhero named Tighten, but
at the same time falls in love with Roxanne and begins dating her while
disguised as Bernard. Tighten attempts to use his powers to woo Roxanne,
but is quickly spurned and grows jealous of the Bernard-disguised
Megamind. Megamind soon begins having second thoughts about being a
villain, finding more enjoyment pursuing a relationship with Roxanne. He
then gets in a fight with Minion and the two friends have a falling
out. After Roxanne kisses "Bernard" on a date, Megamind's identity is
accidentally exposed and Roxanne rejects him, saying she could never be
with him. Heartbroken, Megamind follows through with his plan to fight
Tighten. By this time, however, Tighten has decided he would rather be a
supervillain since, in his view, being a superhero is too much hard
work. Unlike Metro Man, Tighten has no qualms with outright killing
Megamind, especially when he reveals himself to be "Bernard" and he is
forced to flee for his life. With nobody to stop him, Tighten begins
wreaking havoc in Metro City.
Noticing how one of his copper-based attacks during the fight had no
effect on Tighten, Megamind convinces Roxanne to search for clues on his
weakness in Metro Man's old hideout. There they discovered that Metro
Man is still alive and learn that he faked his death (and his weakness
to copper) so that he could retire from being a superhero and live his
true passion: music. Megamind and Roxanne try to persuade Metro Man to
defeat Tighten, but he refuses and instead Megamind turns himself in.
When Tighten kidnaps Roxanne, however, Megamind is broken out of prison
by Minion and goes to save her. Megamind defeats Tighten by draining
Metro Man's DNA from his body, stripping him of his powers, and Hal ends
up in Megamind's former prison cell while Megamind is embraced by Metro
City as its new defender. Roxanne accepts Megamind just as he is after
he proves himself a true hero. Megamind begins to enjoy his new
reputation as a superhero and Roxanne's beau while a disguised Metro Man
silently congratulates him.
A post-credits scene shows Minion doing the laundry then Bernard pops
out of the washing machine claiming that this was the worst day of his
life, Minion then responds and whacks him with a forget-me-stick(riot).
- Will Ferrell as Megamind, the film's protagonist.
- Tina Fey as Roxanne Ritchi, a news reporter and Megamind's love interest.
- Jonah Hill
as Hal Stewart/Tighten, the film's antagonist who starts out as the
hapless cameraman of Roxanne Ritchi, for whom he has unreciprocated
feelings.
- David Cross as Minion, a sapient talking fish who is Megamind's sidekick.
- Brad Pitt as Metro Man, Megamind's archenemy.
- Justin Long as Brainbots, Megamind's robotic assistants possessing many talents, including flight, light display, and others.
- Bill Hader as Bob Prickles, Metro Man's adoptive father with a somewhat uninterested tone of voice
- Amy Poehler as Linda Prickles, Metro Man's adoptive mother with a sarcastic enthusiasm for her adoptive son's arrival
- Andrew Sego as Random Citizen
- J. K. Simmons as Warden, the no-nonsense head of Metro City Prison.
- Ben Stiller as (the real) Bernard, a museum curator.
- Justin Theroux as Megamind's Father who tells his son he is destined for greatness (the last word is unheard by baby Megamind, however)
- Christopher Knights as Prison Guard
- Tom McGrath as Lord Scott / Prison Guard
- Jack Blessing as Newscaster
- Jessica Benia as Megamind's Mother
- Joey Dinitere as Baby Megamind
- Noah Dinitere as Baby Metro Man
[edit] Production
The film was first titled Master Mind and then Oobermind.[3] Lara Breay and Denise Nolan Cascino were the film's producers, and Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld were the executive producers.[3] Ben Stiller was originally cast as Megamind, and later Robert Downey, Jr.,[4] 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.[5]
[edit] Soundtrack
Megamind: Music from the Motion Picture was released on November 2, 2010 by Lakeshore Records.
- "Giant Blue Head" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "Tightenville (Hal's Theme)" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers
- "Stars and Tights" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "Crab Nuggets" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "A Little Less Conversation (Junkie XL Remix)" by Elvis Presley
- "Mel-On-Cholly" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "Ollo" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "Roxanne's Theme" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O'Sullivan
- "Drama Queen" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "Rejection in the Rain" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "Lovin' You" by Minnie Riperton
- "Black Mamba" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "Game Over" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "I'm the Bad Guy" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
- "Evil Lair" by Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
Other songs used in the film include:
[edit] Reception
[edit] Critical
Megamind received positive reviews from most critics, with the film garnering a 67% "fresh" rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes based on 116 reviews with an average rating of 6.6/10.[6]
Its consenus 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."[6] 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.[7]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times
awarded the film three out a possible 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."[8] 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."[9] 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."[10] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that "this raucous 3D animated fun house lacks in originality, (The Incredibles and Despicable Me), it makes up for in visual and vocal wit."[11] 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."[12]
[edit] Box office
On its opening day Megamind debuted at #1 with $12,530,397. The film's opening day gross was slightly higher than Dreamworks Animation's last original CG-animated movie How to Train Your Dragon, which had an opening day gross of $12,111,766 back in March 2010.[13] Megamind grossed $46,016,833 in its opening weekend, which was higher than the $43,732,319 How to Train Your Dragon
made on its opening weekend and was also Dreamworks Animation's
ninth-highest opening weekend at the American and Canadian box office.
With $46.0 million in its first weekend, Megamind had the fourth biggest opening weekend for an animated film in 2010 in North America, behind Toy Story 3 with $110.3 million, Shrek Forever After with $70.8 million, and Despicable Me with $56.3 million.[14][15] In its second weekend Megamind dropped only 36.7% and was #1 for two weeks in a row with an estimated $29,120,461.[16]
As of November 21, 2010 Megamind has grossed $109,313,429 in
the U.S. and Canada as well as $26,987,000 internationally giving the
film a worldwide total of $136,300,429.[17]
[edit] Home media
Megamind will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc and Blu-ray 3D on February 22, 2011.[18]
[edit] Marketing
[edit] Trailers
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. 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".[19]
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.
[edit] Prescreenings
The first five minutes of Megamind were shown during an episode of iCarly on Nickelodeon on October 2, 2010.
[edit] 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.[20]
[edit] References
- ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mastermind.htm
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Dennis Michael (April 4, 2007). "Mr. Furious Goes Evil". FilmStew. http://www.filmstew.com/showArticle.aspx?ContentID=15729. Retrieved August 18, 2009.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b "MegaMind Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/megamind/.
- ^ "Megamind Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. http://www.metacritic.com/movie/megamind.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (2010-11-03). "Megamind :: rogerebert.com". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun Times Media Group.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Glieberman, Owen (2010-11-03). "MegaMind Movie Review". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20438854,00.html. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
- ^ Travers, Peter. "MegaMind Film Review". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media LLC. http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/45905/231040. Retrieved 2010-11-06.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Box office update: 'Megamind' earns $12.5 mil on Friday". Entertainment Weekly. http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/11/06/box-office-megamind/.
- ^ "Box Office Report: 'Megamind' dominates record weekend with $47.7 mil". Entertainment Weekly. http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/11/07/box-office-report-megamind/.
- ^ DreamWorks Animation Opening Weekends
- ^ Nov 14 Box Office Report: 'Megamind' stalls 'Unstoppable' to win weekend with $30.1 mil
- ^ Megamind Box Ofiice
- ^ "Megamind Blu-Ray - Amazon.com". /Film. http://www.amazon.com/Megamind-Blu-ray-Will-Ferrell/dp/B002ZG973I/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1289502960&sr=8-2. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
- ^ alexonx (October 8, 2010). "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 October 8, 2010.
- ^ http://www.megamindvideogame.com/
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