What is it with heavy metal and super hero films? Iron Man 2 had some amazing AC/DC music and now the animated superhero reimaging, Megamind, serves up a banquet of Metal anthems such as “Bad to the Bone” (George Thorogood and the Destroyers), “Crazy Train” (Ozzy), “Highway to Hell” and “Back in Black” (AC/DC), and “Welcome to the Jungle” (GnR).
Maybe after conquering children and parents, animation movies are now casting their nets wider to embrace a whole new demographic — the hipsters. So while the kiddies enjoy the cool animation and the nerdy, geeky types get every single one of the sly referential gags, the rockers and metal heads need not feel too sheepish about enjoying a kiddie film — it has got groovy music dude!
Ah well, this is not a sociological study on movie watching patterns, this is a review so let's get on with it. Megamind is a fairly smart deconstruction of the superhero. There are two alien babies sent off from their exploding planets to grow up in safety on earth. While one is Mr. Goody Two Shoes, Metro Man, the other is the blue, brilliant and bad Megamind.
Megamind with his piranha-faced sidekick, Minion, plot to take over Metro City and they are always foiled by Metro Man till one day Megamind wins and realises that life is no fun without an arch enemy to defeat. He creates another hero, Titan, who decides being bad is greater fun than being good. Megamind, now finds himself in the strange situation of having to get rid of the bad guy and save the world.
The animation is neat, the 3D works and some of the jokes are way cool (the poster saying “no you can't” and the Marlon Brando/Jor El impersonation were super). The voice cast is good from Will Ferrell as Megamind and Tina Fey as the reporter Roxanne Ritchi to Jonah Hill as Titan and David Cross as Minion. Brad Pitt has fun as Metro Man (one is reminded of Blokeman who “doesn't work on Sundays and on his days off”). The movie is not beyond brilliant with razor sharp wit or anything like that. It is mildly funny but the animation is sleek and the music totally rocks.
Megamind
Genre: Animation/Adventure/Comedy
Director: Tom McGrath
Cast: Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, Brad Pitt, Ben Stiller
Story: Megamind, an evil mastermind, gets a chance to become good
Bottomline: Excellent animation and music lift this mildly funny movie to a whole new level
