Why Tighten Is A Perfect Twist Villain

i think that when most people think of twist villains they tend to think of disney this is somewhat unfortunate however as it means that some really great characters get left out of the mix case in point titan dreamworks at least the way i see it are masters of good subversion almost every one of their films has some great twists that you almost certainly wouldn't see coming i mean how many people could have guessed that stoic is more of an aggressor than the dragons are how many people could have guessed the secret of the dragon scroll is nothing and how many people would have guessed that the boss baby would have gotten a sequel but of all the twists and turns of dreamworks films i still believe that megamind offers the best in this regard especially with regards to our villain there's so much to love about the writing of this character i mean the uniqueness of the sky is second to none in the animation world as a very quick recap and spoiler warning obviously for anybody who hasn't seen the film megamind takes place in a world where two aliens crash land on earth metro man a superman style superhero and megamind a genius super villain after years of battling one another megamind supposedly successfully kills metro man and takes over the city however he becomes bored without anyone to fight and so he uses metro man's dna to create a serum which can give an ordinary person metro man's powers megamind accidentally gives them to hal stewart a seemingly harmless weirdo who ends up becoming a total psychopath upon gaining his newfound powers now in order to make this a bit more straightforward and coherent as those of you who've watched my previous video in this series will know i've created a gradient to judge twist villains by so we can be a little objective so let's get to that number one is the twist genuinely surprising absolutely it is i mean this is among the most shocking twists i've ever seen in a cartoon so much so that even if you describe the plot of this film to someone who hasn't seen it they probably still wouldn't guess that titan is the bad guy up until the point where he fights megamind i mean think about it megamind an evil supervillain kills the most beloved hero in the world and takes over the city then a down on his luck cameraman with a crush on the news reporter he works for ends up trying to get her back from the clutches of that very same villain accidentally gaining the original superhero's powers in the process in almost every other story the hal steward archetype here would be the hero but it's only because of the minutia of his twisted personality that he ends up as the antagonist it becomes way more interesting to watch this movie a second time and really pick up on the glorious subtleties of this film and how artfully they pull this off i mean most of the surprise comes from the realization that megamind isn't even really that bad of a guy and that helps to contrast with titan's villainy and makes him all the more malevolent megamind basically wants to be a cartoon villain and yeah i get the irony but he really doesn't seem to actually want to do any real harm to anybody his evil schemes never really hint that he intends to kill people and the one time he actually does he seems to be genuinely and deeply upset by it he also doesn't even really seem to actually want to rule over the city as he basically gets bored with it after a couple of days he's essentially a big child and just wants to play a game with somebody something that becomes a lot more apparent as the film goes on titan on the other hand despite initially coming off as merely a socially awkward weirdo is revealed to in reality be a total psycho who doesn't actually want to be with roxanne because of any genuine affection but rather obsession so twisted and controlling that he resorts to trying to murder her when she refuses his advances i seriously doubt that anybody could have guessed this twist without having any prior knowledge of the film and so that makes this character an a plus in this department number two are there any hints toward titan's true nature earlier in the film yes there's actually a lot of hints but they're well done and even if you pick up on them you probably still wouldn't guess early on that hal would end up being the main villain of the movie until he actually gets his powers you see this character's a lot different from most twist villains and that the twist comes pretty early on it's actually the characters around titan that have to have it revealed to them that he's actually a threat rather than the audience who's clued in pretty early on in the film first of all and probably the least subtle is how creepy and strange hal is to roxanne this very much sets up his obsessive stalker mentality going forward but most people would probably assume that hal was just going to be a one note joke character and not a major part of the film and so it helps to mask his true role later on during his hero training hal also showcases his violent nature by melting the mega mind all with his heat vision something that would be called back to later on during his confrontation with megamind also a bit of especially hilariously specific trivia about this movie that also serves as a hint toward his villainy is the fact that during the training montage there's actually a reference to donkey kong circus on the 99 chance that you don't know what that refers to it was a video game in which mario was the villain and donkey kong was the hero now this hints toward the fact that even though titan is supposed to be a superhero he'll actually end up reversing his intended role on the more subtle side of things when megamind and minion knock hal unconscious you can see that he was reading a book about the best super villains ever but of all the hints toward his evil nature my absolute favorite is the next scene hal appears in following metro man's death you can see he's wearing a shirt that says game over this is a hint towards the fact that the innocent kid-like game that megamind was playing with metro man is now over and a far more dangerous villain is on the stage this is also brilliantly referenced later on in the film when titan tries to kill megamind i thought that battle went really really well i mean i have a few notes notes but they can wait oh you can take me to jail oh no no no i was thinking more like the morgue you're dead whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa this isn't how you play the game game over finally is the transition of the character into villainy necessary for the plot to progress of all the different twist villains throughout animation history i think this might be more true of titan than any other character as a matter of fact i remember the first time i saw this movie i was extremely confused because i couldn't for the life of me figure out what they were going to do with the plot of this film before hal became titan titan's arrival is perfect because it allows for the film to really grab you once more after the plot seems to be at a standstill and makes the stakes way higher than you initially anticipated and at least to me anyway that makes this among the best twists in all of animation history but setting aside the scoring gradient what makes titan a particularly fascinating character in my opinion is that he's disturbingly real to life despite his goofy and obviously comedic writing the sort of dark underbelly of this character is the somewhat saddening truth that not everyone who is socially awkward and ostracized is a lovable scamp not every down on his luck underdog is peter parker and sometimes the underdog is actually even more cruel than the people with high social standing hal is a type of evil that we don't see represented often in the media and as silly as it might sound he's sort of a modern day frollo in a sense i mean when you boil this character down to his basic essence he's essentially a nice guy and no i'm not talking about guys who are nice i'm talking about the phenomenon of men who think that doing the most basic of niceties for women like holding doors open entitles them to a relationship and they tend to become erratically aggressive when they don't get what they want from said woman but i have powers i have a cape i'm the good guy you are a good guy hal but you don't understand we need to find out why this isn't right you're supposed to be with me and sometimes this unbelievably childish misunderstanding of social transactions deranges men like this to the point where they do real-life acts of extreme violence against people and so in that way villains like hal stewart are among the most effective to me because they reflect the real world and so despite megamind cloaking its social commentary and hilarious comedy it is saying something beyond just trying to make you laugh and what more can you ask from good animation than that thank you for watching i'm sorry this was so late i've had a very very busy last few weeks but the good news is that i'm going to be putting out some long-form videos again very soon they're already being edited as we speak and as always if you liked the video leave me a like dislike the video if you didn't like it and subscribe for more that's all for now [Music] [Music] you

Channel: 4shame

Views: 1,043,471

Keywords: tighten megamind, megamind review, twist villains, jonah hill, animation review, megamind hal and roxanne, megamind, video essay, cartoon review, 4shame

Id: XZid_ggxrJE

Length: 9min 12sec (552 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 01 2022