Why Megamind is a Subversive Masterpiece

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got lost in the shuffle as a result of releasing so close to these two franchise toppers well that's not entirely true there was also no god please no no no yes and x now i know what you're thinking oh geez did katzenberg have his tiny spy cameras planted on anyone who even thought about releasing an animated movie but that's just a theory jeffrey katzenberg could very well be keeping tabs on every single person who has ever dabbled in animation at all just to steal their ideas for his dying animation company that is now being held by the head of illumination how wonderful and yeah the precursor to illumination's domination and dreamworks is increasing their relevance throughout the animation industry can betray releases and the aftermath that followed one was massively successful spawning a gigantic franchise that is solely responsible for the minion ridden hellscape that we now toil in and the other didn't do that as a kid i liked despicable me a lot more than megamind it just seemed a lot funnier and even more emotional at times now as an adult whenever i see this movie i really really still like it keep in mind this was back before illumination figured out that they didn't have to try in order to make a profit on their movies so with their first outing they actually tried with good emotional beats and funny jokes this is pretty much the only good animated film they've ever made as a result but of course now i think it's a darn shame that this was the massive success between these two movies because revisiting megamind as an adult i can now see the emotional intelligence wit and even artistry at work in this underappreciated gem more and more people are really starting to connect with this one and recognize its strengths so i figured i'd take a look at it and see what those strengths are here's why megamind is a subversive masterpiece one of megamind's strongest attributes is the shockingly mature story it decides to tell with its characters this movie has a lot of introspection and reflection and connection and misdirection and inspection and direction bottom line is the way events unfold in this movie are kind of novel for an animated comedy made for kids this is another one of those kids movies that very rarely talks down to its audience if at all so just like superman megamind is a baby on a planet that's gonna blow up he gets escaped potted away but it turns out that this other kid had the exact same idea metro man ends up with a loving family that seems to have a ton of riches and notoriety perfect for raising the ego of a young impressionable mind but mega mine goes to prison he just lands in prison and they just keep him there can we keep it that's just great honestly i feel like right off the bat this movie contains undertones of the whole nature versus nurture debate of which i am an expert because i wrote a paper on it in the 10th grade i got like a b i think so yeah like i said expert i know everything there is to know about it the debate essentially boils down to the question is bad behavior inherited or acquired in this case we don't really know anything about the traits that mega man or metro mind inherited from their families or home planets for all we know metro man could have come from a planet of evil space tyrants kinda like superman and megamind could be from a world of benevolent blue people like that live-action pocahontas remake james cameron made i personally think that megamind was not destined for evil nor did he come from some sort of evil planet this line has always been especially clever to me you are destitute i didn't quite hear that last part but it sounded important destined for what not only is that pretty funny but it allows us to fill in the blank ourselves is megamind destined for greatness heroism destruction decay what well that's up for him to decide or i guess for society to decide this is where the nurture element comes into play and where the two sides start conflicting megamind is raised to think that burglars good police bad which you know that last thing is kind of true sometimes but let's not worry about that megamind has been nurtured to be bad and use his intellect to escape prison but his nature suggests otherwise he's excited to go to school and fit in among his peers he wants to impress them and be loved but constantly being rejected because of his dangerous failed inventions and because people be racist towards blue guys i guess makes him doubt himself and turn back to the things he's been taught he gives in to how he was nurtured despite his nature being good at heart later on in the movie he slowly starts getting reformed through the positive influence in his life that is roxanne but once she discovers his true identity and rejects him his immediate impulse is to go back to the villainy that defined his life for so long he's convinced himself that being bad is simply in his nature when that couldn't be further from the truth everyone in metro city thinks that however everyone reinforces this idea through their hatred and rejection of him it's no surprise that he internalizes that idea for so long but it's not just negative reinforcement that could warp the way a person perceives their role in the world let's talk about the quote-unquote good guy [Music] the way metro man is developed throughout the course of the story is also really interesting in a story about a sympathetic villain who always loses to a beloved hero the movie would usually end up making that hero the movie's antagonist not necessarily evil since that'd be weird that was his mistake but you know a big [ __ ] a meanie head this movie doesn't go that direction however metro man is kind to citizens while simultaneously coming off as very egotistical and self-absorbed it's clear from his smug looks as a kid that he adores the attention and he kind of lets it go to his head the ceremony celebrating him at the beginning of the movie is one of the best character establishment scenes i've ever seen in an animated film he's modeled after elvis presley and he clearly has some rock star flair but the way he uses his super powers is kinda questionable like when he juggles babies it of gives off the impression that these are just props to him and he's so overconfident in his abilities that he has no problem with tossing babies up into the air and flinging them back to their parents at high speed like what a great way to show off this guy's arrogance and conceded nature and i love how the mothers aren't even concerned because of how much everyone worships him speaking of which so he can do a couple of tricks not like he can walk on water hey everybody this is just a fantastic way to establish hubris that i cannot get over it and then there's this iconic line i love you metro man and i love you random citizen see he doesn't really care about this guy to simply say and i love you sir or and i love you these are just random citizens to him people who give him adoration and praise even though he really doesn't care about saving them and this becomes obvious when he fakes his own death and lets megamind and later titan take over the city without doing anything cause he's tired of being a hero and wants to play music and music man was born music man that way i could keep my logo because he really only cares about notoriety huh well yes and no it becomes evident that metro man never aspired to be a superhero and you can kind of understand him when he says he was never really given a choice and always had to be what the city wanted it's understandable that he couldn't handle the societal pressure to be one thing forever but at the same time it signifies that he's not really deserving of the title of superhero remember in spider-verse when mj said peter didn't ask for his powers but he chose to be spider-man peter is naturally good at heart and he used his powers to help others and make a difference which is what made him a superhero metro man really only ever cared about the notoriety that came from stopping megamind be it gold stars in class or a museum dedicated to him society molded him into an egotist but it never really gave him a choice in the matter so when he chooses not to be metro man anymore and fake his own death is he being selfish or is it good that he's putting his own feelings before that of society as the only superhero the city has ever known does he owe them more than say a fireman who gets tired of firefighting and just kind of leaves one day or is there a sense of truth present when he tells megamind there's a yen for every yang if there's bad good will rise up against it it's taken me a long time to find my calling now it's about time you find yours the movie doesn't really pick a side either way about whether or not metro man's choice is justified or cowardly it's up to the audience to decide and i really like that he doesn't have that moment where he comes back in the end it's just megaman pretending to be him in order to scare off titan that's honestly a great subversion of that tired annoying trope that even moana does honestly that's probably the only problem i have with moana if we're being honest instead of maui coming back for no reason to help moana fight dakar tamatoa should have risen from the depths and entered a kaiju battle which would have gone down as the greatest third act in cinematic history but whatever they tried i guess but if metro man using his powers for notoriety cast him in a negative light what about someone using those powers for hal stewart is an incel and also one of the most unique and subversive takes on a super villain i've ever seen remember my frollo video when i said that disney would never have the guts to develop a seemingly nice character into a villain over the course of a story unless they were secretly evil the whole time that was his thing well what do you know dreamworks already beat him to it hal doesn't start off as an evil monster though he also isn't exactly a nice guy unless we're talking this kind if he mention a nicer guy he is a nice guy he's kind of a total creep actually who feels entitled to roxanne because he's just so gosh darn nice to her he's not like those other guys you see he's a nerd so there's no way in hell that he could mistreat her he understands women he gets it honestly this character was kind of ahead of his time since we now live in the age of nice guys who feel this bizarre sense of entitlement to women because media and society have made them believe that they deserve the girl no matter what only now is this sort of skeevy behavior starting to get called out but mega man got it even back in 2010 if an entitled perv suddenly got godlike powers in real life they would be the villain he gets angry when roxanne hangs out with another guy he has a poster of her hanging up with a taped on portion that says good night hal he invites her to a party where it's just gonna be the two of them with a wedding photographer there i don't know how i don't really feel like being around a bunch of people no no that's the best part it'll just be like you and me what in hal's mind the only thing holding him back from being with roxanne is a lack of superpowers he's already perfect for her but she likes metro man because he's got muscles and perfect hair and so on and so forth so now that hal's super all he has to do is take her on a flight against her will put her immortal danger then save her tada they're in love except no because that's unrealistic and dumb roxanne justifiably tells him that they'll never be together and he kinda throws a temper tantrum and leaves he's unable to accept the idea that the problem wasn't his lack of powers it was his scumminess and entitlement much like how metroman stuck with the hero gig in order to gain adoration hal only wanted to be a hero in order to get the girl when that doesn't happen he decides to steal stuff instead because it's just in his nature to be horrible now he finally has an outlet to do horrible stuff without any concern of potential consequences and also i didn't pick up on this until the end of this whole script writing process but i now kind of see some similarities with syndrome a dorky ginger kid gets rejected which makes him angry but then he gets super abilities of some kind and now he's out for a revenge hal is admittedly no syndrome in terms of menace or well presentation but he's probably funnier than syndrome so there's that you're living a fantasy there is no easter bunny there is no tooth fairy and there is no queen of england plus syndrome was a commentary on toxic entitled fans you're not affiliated with me hal is a commentary on toxic entitled nerds who think they're owed women's affection yeah he calls roxanne out for never taking the time to get to know him before he became titan but then you remember that he has literally never not been creepy in any of the scenes these two characters shared i genuinely hope nobody watched this movie and said yeah well hal has a point you know because like no hey wait a minute how did he even afford a wedding photographer in a bouncy castle with the salary of a cameraman hey wait he lives in this tiny apartment where was the bouncy castle supposed to go up unless he was lying about it you really think someone would do that that's it i hate this guy even more now he's even eviler than syndrome and the most evilest bad guy in the whole world how could he betray the sanctity of bouncy castles like that i don't even know what i'm doing anymore can we just cut to the next part [Applause] ah the trademark shay furless talks about humor and music in the same segment segment of the video it's kind of hard to talk about what makes comedy work or not work due to its subjective nature and i think the biggest flaw with my shrek 2 video is my inability to fully explain what made the comedy work so well so let me try to thoroughly detail why megamind is a cinematic riot this movie just has a sense of energy to it that a lot of other animated movies sorely lack it's not overly energetic like that wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man from norm of the north but it's not lifeless and flat like the entirety of shrek iii there's always a great sense of comedic pacing which is ode to the performances the animation the editing and the writing all coming together into a great package will ferrell is great as megamind honestly this might be his best role he delivers his comedic lines so expressively and delightfully while also bringing a nice amount of dramatic pathos to the role tina fey brad pitt and david cross all bring a lot to their characters as well and while jonah hill is pretty well cast as hell and delivers some lines very well there are admittedly some lines that could have used an extra take or two and didn't feel super convincing this isn't how you play the game game over wait that was the best take you got from him still for the most part this movie doesn't feel like celebrity is going through the motions it feels like a genuinely great cast that complements the roles and the script it's not like those random animated movies that just throw seth rogen in there because haha funny man voice animal haha funny joke even kung fu panda is guilty of this can hollywood stop hiring seth rogen for voice over work i don't even hate him i'm just tired of hearing his voice oy vey let's get back to talking about funny movie now the animation lends itself to comedy so well simply based on the way the characters move there's a hilarious segment where megamind pretends to fight another guy who he's disguising himself as so he switches back and forth while also complimenting himself along the way it's so good there's also the way his giant robot moves the poses and body language metro man and titan make while flying all the amazing facial expressions these characters make it's so solid but obviously the star of the show here is the writing it feels like this movie has more laughs per minute than the average dreamworks movie it simply crammed so many into a short period of time that even if one isn't a banger there are at least five more coming up that are dude that exchange between megamind and metro man about warranties that actually made me laugh harder than anything in shrek 2. that is high praise right there these characters just have such strong quirky personalities that mesh really well together and lead to a ton of great exchanges over the course of the movie the other thing that meshes well the music there's so many iconic rock songs that complement the bad theme so well like back in black crazy train welcome to the jungle bad and of course high weight ahead the fitness gram pacer test is a multi-stage aerobic what that city test well yeah progressively sitting on the remote as it continues oh sorry i thought it was a brownie anyway yeah these songs are well implemented and make these scenes exciting nothing amazing in this department but it's important to recognize that it doesn't have the same garbo implementation as shrek the third that's important oh yeah and hearing mr blue sky play over a montage that includes a donkey kong reference is something i never knew i needed so yeah great characters humor music animation all that good stuff but how's about i serve you a delicious plate of drama better eat it hot because it does not taste good when we heated in the microwave of evil let me tell you who would i be without you i love you metro man and i love you random citizen it's kind of weird that i went this long without discussing the actual story but to be honest i just wanted to save the best part of the movie for last though don't expect this to have the same impact as the end of the shrek 2 review i'm just going to say right off the bat that i don't even plan on trying to top that i don't have the same personal connection to mega mine's growth in this movie as i did with shreks but i think the character growth this movie showcases is almost as strong if not equal to shrek 2. towards the beginning i mentioned that megamind is really only a villain because society deems himself no one has ever given him a chance to be anything other than evil it's the only thing he's good at because it's the only thing he's allowed to do so when he takes over the city it's no surprise that he quickly becomes bored of it the superhero he fought the only person who gave his life any sort of meaning is now gone he has no purpose anymore that's the thing about life success is actually kind of meaningless in the sense that it doesn't give you true happiness true happiness comes from connecting with others forming bonds sharing experiences and making each other happy this isn't strictly tied to romantic connection it's just in our nature to seek companionship of any kind that's all megamind wanted growing up to be loved and accepted by his peers but just like shrek he's an outcast simply due to society's preconceived notions about him and his nature meaning he has no choice but to be the monster that people expect him to be now that his evil ambitions have been achieved of course he's unhappy he never aspired to be evil until society convinced him that's what he wanted it's almost poetic that he finally finds genuine purpose with roxanne richie yes he kidnapped her a bunch of times but that's the villain gig kidnapping someone close to metro man to draw him out it's clearly not personal against her as evidenced by this exchange what if tomorrow we could go kidnap roxanne richie that always seems to lift your spirits good idea minion but without him what's the point so when he accidentally inspires her while disguised as the librarian bernard and she returns that kindness by being kind to him for the first time you get the feeling that he deserves the second chance at happiness they both deserve a chance at happiness after all they've been through and now that there's someone in megamind's life treating him with genuine affection other than minion who's great but really just an enabler for his evil schemes megamind finally has a chance to grow as a person and improve himself he cleans up the streets returns everything he stole and makes the city a safer place all to make roxanne happy this is what a loving companion can do help you become the best version of yourself you can be yeah he's technically lying to her but it's not to hurt her and there's no way that she would give the villain who murdered a superhero and took over the city a chance and you know what she's totally justified in thinking that so when she does finally find out it's mega mind and they have an emotional confrontation where she tells him off for all the horrible things he's done it's brutally heartbreaking you know she's right but you also know that he's become such a better person thanks to her this isn't some forced rift that tears two characters apart before they reunite in the climax which admittedly this movie also does but it's pretty well handled so that's fine this is an organic unflinchingly honest moment that speaks to the emotional complexity and maturity of this animated blue will ferrell movie that was a real sentence yes this is dreamworks's greatest strength as a company they understand the intricacies of wanting to find meaning in something you never thought you were cut out for even if you never thought it was possible to be a good person someone worthy of caring and praise and love you always have the capacity to be that person everyone has it in them to change and anyone who's been wronged by someone in the past so many times is completely justified in not giving that person another chance megamind understands this and rather than kidnap roxanne or force her to be with him he lets her go because he's grown to respect her as a person and admits that her hatred for him and everything he's done is justified this is great character growth that is deliberately contrasted with hal who can't move on because he sees roxanne as an object who owes him affection when hal goes berserk megamind and roxanne have no choice but to team up again and find man who as it turns out has no interest in helping them or the city he tries to encourage megamind by telling him that good will always rise to match evil and that it may finally be his time to prove that he's good at heart and after all the rejection megamind has received after everyone telling him that he'll never be more than a villain he's internalized it and is unable to move past it so he turns himself into jail i used to find this plot point kind of forced but honestly at this point in the story it makes perfect sense that he doubt himself to this degree after reconciling with minion and realizing that he can at least right the wrongs he caused roxanna in the city he returns but disguised as metro man this is crucial not only because it intimidates hal but because he wants to give the city something to believe in the hero they deserve when minion says he's the real hero i felt that man but the best part is when he descends after scaring titan off with the cheers of an adoring public echoing through the streets only for roxanne to extend her hands kind of unsure what to do megamind grabs her hands but she goes for the watch and changes him back to normal much to his and the crowd's surprise he didn't think these people would understand or accept the idea that he came to save them he wanted to keep the charade going since he thought it was in everyone's best interest to believe he was someone else just like the entire time he was with roxanne but she makes the decision to let everyone know that yes megamind has changed for the better and while the crowd hasn't quite figured out how to feel about this the smile roxanne gives him is all the acceptance he needs pretty sneaky sis if there's only one person i know who calls this town atrocity [Music] this is honestly a really clever way for titan to figure out it wasn't metro man so after a brief fight with some solid laughs and even emotional reconciliations megamind finally saves the day not by pretending to be someone he's not but through his ingenuity and amazing inventions the crowd cheers for him and much like a lot of this movie it's a perfect blend between heartfelt and hilarious get back you savages sorry sorry he's just not used to positive feedback and after a great ending sequence where megamind gets his own ceremony the movie is over wow what an incredible funny emotional well-written masterpiece i'm so glad it got the critical and commercial respect it deserved megamind is the most baffling non-success i've ever seen i get the despicable me came out first and everyone liked it or whatever but megamind is just a lot richer more emotionally mature and way funnier than despicable me which i also really like mind you however it made less money had less positive critical reception and made much much less of an impact on popular culture but it endures in a ton of internet circles since people are really starting to realize in retrospect that it's one of dreamworks best movies to date i don't think it's derivative at all and i appreciate the subversions and twists that applies to the superhero formula but people at the time didn't see it that way including mr jeffrey katzenberg back in april 2011 in a statement that really grinds my gears katzenberg said that dreamworks would not produce any more movie genre parodies like shark tale monsters vs aliens and megamind stating that they quote all shared an approach and tone and idea of parody and did not travel well internationally oh boy now look it's one thing to realize that genre parodies as a whole aren't generating revenue and to focus your efforts onto other projects but this statement which lumps a smart emotional witty subversive take on a genre with two pieces of garbage that couldn't be bothered to tell good stories represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what megamind was trying to accomplish the problem with sharktail wasn't that it tried to parody mobster movies the problem was literally everything else about it it is a fundamentally broken movie the mobster stuff is kind of secondary to the gaping flaws in terms of character and story and monsters vs aliens didn't do anything new or different with its genre it's just a kids monster movie that also happens to suck don't at me maybe there was also an issue with the general look of megamind's characters and world being so similar to this movie i know as a kid i was confused by the villain looking visually similar to megamind to the point where i mixed up these two movies all the time that's the issue with megamind the way people perceived it on the surface it looks pretty similar to a ton of other animated movies at the time and didn't seem to offer anything new many people either didn't give it a chance or watched it but tuned out the really strong elements because they thought it was just a ripoff of other successes but that couldn't be further from the truth megamind is a genre parody yes but it does amazing beautiful surprising things with the genre decides to lovingly spoof it really has no reason being as great as it is but as long as it is this great i'm glad more people are giving it the attention it deserves it's engaging clever fun and powerful kind of like another 2010 dreamworks movie that went unloved upon its release i said unloved upon its release yeah that's the one next time baby but first i have a quick question what's the most important aspect of building an online presence the answer presentation if you want to develop your brand online look no further than squarespace an intuitive online website building tool that'll make your business stand out squarespace allowed me to explore all the different styles and themes that make for a visually stunning 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Channel: Schaffrillas Productions

Views: 9,740,220

Rating: 4.9289632 out of 5

Keywords: Schaffrillas Productions, Megamind, DreamWorks, Despicable Me

Id: c-2Tjm2M2cg

Length: 28min 3sec (1683 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 15 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/velvetpinches]

Honestly this is an excellent analysis of this film and covers a lot of great topics. Ever since i first saw the film, when it immediately became my new favorite movie, ive had a hard time explaining to people why i love it so much. And this video does a good job of putting some of that into words.

[u/Speeider]

It makes me sad that he saw this as a kid but it's now an adult. I saw the movie as an adult... And am still an adult. I feel so old.

[u/TheForsocken]

Great film review! I love this movie so much.