Megamind [Blu-Ray]

What would happen if the escape pod carrying an alien baby refuge didn't have such a fortuitous landing? Megamind takes this set up to the extreme, depicting the growth of a super-villain and superhero as the consequence of chance. Fully human in appearance, Metro Man landed on the steps of a mansion, where he was afforded every luxury of class and became a protector of the people. Bigheaded and blue-skinned, Megamind landed in a penitentiary, where inmates raised him. Social graces eluded the young boy, and thusly unpopular, he took the natural jealous step of becoming Metro Man's arch nemesis. There's a lot of back-story before the film reveals its intentions. Were it not for marketing, I'd consider it a spoiler to reveal that Megamind is about what befalls a victorious super-villain. You see, Megamind, the character, isn't really all that evil, he just doesn't know what else to do with himself. So, aside from a lot of flash and jabbering, his plans for domination are insubstantial. Growing swiftly bored of having no foe to test him, Megamind creates a formula to imbue someone noble with superpowers. It doesn't take much of a leap to guess this goes terribly wrong. Basically a story of self-acceptance ― be whom you are well, instead of trying to be someone else poorly ― Megamind takes many superhero clichés and gives them a Wet Willie. Refreshing as it is to experience a story from the perspective of a villain, it still has to be a likeable scoundrel on the path to redemption ― this is a Dreamworks production, after all. Who better, then, to voice the misguided man-child than Will Ferrell? Ferrell invests a lot of warmth and vulnerability into the character ― behind all the rock star mechanisms of his evil mastermind persona, he's a simple, lonely soul. Tina Fey is suitably sassy as Lois Lane stand-in Roxanne Richie and who more appropriate to voice a gender confused alien fish on a cyborg-gorilla body than David Cross as Megamind's minion, Minion? Jonah Hill and Bratt Pitt are likewise well cast as a socially stunted Jimmy Oslen parody and Metro Man, respectively. According to the feature commentary with director Tom McGrath, the writers and two producers, Pitt got so into the Elvis-inspired persona of Metro Man that he'd use a hand held mic to roam about the studio like he was really working a crowd. Unfortunately, there's no footage of that in "Meet the Cast," comprised of shots of, and interviews with, the other primary cast members while they're recording their dialogue. There's only a single deleted scene, lost to pacing, but there is a wealth of other bonus content. "Inside Megamind's Lair" focuses on character design and developing the persona; "Animator Man" demonstrates how video reference footage is used in the animation process; "You Can Draw Megamind" is a lesson in drawing with one of the storyboard artists; "The Reign of Megamind" is a video comic book chapter set around mid-film that highlights banter-filled confrontations between the adversaries from years past. Best of all is an entire short film epilogue entitled "The Button of Doom" that maintains the wacky comedy and bold action of the main feature. Also included: a "Spot the Difference" game for kids, and the "Mega Rap" trailer. It's still not up to par with Pixar standouts like The Incredibles, but Dreamworks has taken another step towards creating a two-party system for quality, high concept animated films in Hollywood.