8 / 10
The Overlooked One
Megamind came out in 2010, the same year as Despicable Me, another animated film about a supervillain with a soft heart, and it has always lived in that film’s shadow. That’s a shame, because Megamind is the sharper, funnier and more interesting of the two. It’s a genuine parody of superhero stories, made before the genre took over Hollywood, and it asks a question most superhero films never think to ask: what would a villain do if he won?
Tom McGrath directed it for DreamWorks, and it made a respectable amount of money without ever becoming a phenomenon. It has quietly built a following since, especially among people who grew up with it. I give it an 8. It’s funny, fast and surprisingly thoughtful, with a great central performance from Will Ferrell.
A Superman Origin, Reversed
The film opens with a parody of Superman’s origin. Two alien babies are sent to Earth in escape pods as their home planets are destroyed by a black hole. One lands in the mansion of a rich, loving family and grows up to be Metro Man, handsome, strong, beloved and perfect. The other, a blue baby with a huge head, lands in the yard of a prison and is raised by the inmates.
At school, Metro Man is popular and good at everything. Megamind is an outcast who tries to fit in and fails every time. He finally decides that if he can’t be the hero, he’ll be the villain, because being bad is the one thing he’s good at. It’s a funny, quick and surprisingly sad opening, and it sets up the film’s argument: villains aren’t born, they’re made by the people around them.
The two grow up as rivals in Metro City. Megamind builds elaborate plans to defeat Metro Man, and Metro Man foils them every time, and the city cheers. It’s a routine they’ve both settled into, and neither of them questions it. Megamind even has his own collection of entrance music and a set of rules for the fights, and Metro Man plays along, and the city treats the whole thing like a sport.
For Writers
The opening shows Megamind trying to fit in and failing until he decides that being bad is the only thing he’s good at. The villain’s origin is rejection.
When you write a villain, showing how they became who they are can turn them from a threat into a character the reader understands, without excusing them.
Write a short scene from your antagonist’s past where they were denied the thing they wanted most. Let it explain one choice, not justify all of them.
Will Ferrell’s Megamind
Will Ferrell voices Megamind as a theatrical, insecure, brilliant show-off who loves a dramatic entrance and mispronounces every long word he uses. He calls the city Metrocity, not Metro City, and his grand speeches are full of words that come out just slightly wrong. It’s a running joke that never wears out.
Ferrell is perfect for the role. Megamind is a blowhard who desperately wants to be taken seriously, and underneath the bravado he’s lonely and uncertain. Ferrell plays both sides at once, and his performance makes a blue-headed alien in a cape one of the most human characters in any animated superhero film.
His best moments are the villain rituals: the elaborate theme music, the dramatic reveals, the carefully planned presentations of his evil schemes, delivered with full production values. His entrance to AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, dancing, is a highlight. He’s a villain who cares far more about style than about evil. That’s what makes him lovable.
The Villain Wins
Then, early in the film, Megamind’s latest plan works. He traps Metro Man in an observatory with a death ray and a trap made of copper, Metro Man’s apparent weakness, and when the smoke clears, Metro Man is gone. Megamind has finally won. He’s so stunned that he doesn’t know what to do next, and for a while he simply stands in the smoking wreckage, waiting for Metro Man to reappear, the way he always has.
He takes over Metro City, loots the museums and does everything a villain dreams of doing. And he’s miserable. Without a hero to fight, his life has no purpose. There’s nobody to foil his plans, nobody to cheer against him and nothing to do. The city is his, and it means nothing.
It’s a clever idea and the heart of the film. The villain’s identity depended entirely on the hero, and without him, Megamind doesn’t know who he is. It’s a joke about superhero clichés, and it’s also a sharp observation about how people define themselves by their enemies. Megamind has spent his whole life as the opposite of someone, and without that someone, he’s nobody.
For Writers
Megamind wins, and winning is miserable. Without Metro Man, he has no purpose, because his identity depended entirely on his enemy.
When you write a story, giving your character what they want early can be more interesting than making them chase it. The question becomes what they do next.
Try letting your character achieve their goal at the end of the first act. Then write the story of what happens when the victory turns out to be empty.
Metro Man’s Secret
Brad Pitt voices Metro Man, and he’s funny as a smug, handsome, perfect hero who is secretly very tired of being perfect. Megamind eventually discovers that Metro Man isn’t dead at all. He faked his death because he wanted to quit being a hero and become a musician, and he’s hiding out in a secret lair, playing guitar badly and growing a beard.
It’s one of the film’s best jokes and a mirror of Megamind’s problem. Both men were trapped in roles they never really chose, the hero and the villain, playing out the same routine because everyone expected them to. Metro Man escaped by running away. Megamind has to find another way.
The scene where Megamind finds him, sitting in his secret hideout, strumming badly and telling his old enemy that he’s finally found his true calling, is one of the funniest in the film. Pitt’s lazy, contented delivery is perfect. The greatest hero in the world just wants to be left alone to write mediocre songs.
Roxanne
Tina Fey voices Roxanne Ritchi, a television reporter who has been kidnapped by Megamind so many times that she’s completely bored by it. She rolls her eyes at his threats, mocks his plans and is never remotely afraid of him. She’s smart, sarcastic and the best journalist in Metro City, and she’s the one person who sees through everyone.
Megamind, disguised as a museum curator called Bernard, starts spending time with her and falls in love. The disguise gives him a chance to be seen as someone other than the villain, and Roxanne, who doesn’t know who he really is, falls for him too. The romance is sweet, and when she discovers the truth, her sense of betrayal is real.
Fey’s dry delivery is perfect for the role, and Roxanne is one of the best female characters in any DreamWorks film: capable, funny and never a damsel, even when she’s literally being held hostage. Her boredom with the whole kidnapping routine is one of the film’s funniest running jokes, and it’s also a quiet comment on how many superhero films have reduced their women to hostages.
Titan
Bored and lonely, Megamind decides to create a new hero to fight. He takes Metro Man’s powers, extracted from a sample of his DNA, and gives them to someone, intending to train him as a new champion. By accident, the powers go to Hal, Roxanne’s cameraman, a slovenly, creepy man who is obsessed with her.
Jonah Hill voices Hal, and he’s very funny and unsettling. Megamind, disguised as Hal’s space father, trains him as a hero called Titan. Hal misspells it as Tighten, and he has no interest in being good. When Roxanne rejects him, he decides to become a villain instead, and with Metro Man’s powers, he’s far more dangerous than Megamind ever was.
It’s the film’s cleverest turn. Megamind wanted a hero and created a real villain, and suddenly he’s the only one who can save the city. The film’s argument comes full circle: power doesn’t make a hero. Character does. Hal has all of Metro Man’s strength and none of his decency, and within days he’s more dangerous than any villain Metro City has ever faced.
For Writers
Megamind creates a hero and accidentally makes a far worse villain. His plan backfires in a way that forces him into the role he always resented.
When you write a plan that goes wrong, the best failures don’t just cause problems. They force the character to become something they never meant to be.
When your character’s plan fails, design the failure so the only way to fix it requires them to act against their established identity.
Minion
David Cross voices Minion, Megamind’s loyal sidekick, a small fish who lives in a water-filled globe mounted on a robot gorilla body. He’s anxious, devoted and the voice of common sense, and he’s the one character who has always believed that Megamind could be more than a villain. He has been with Megamind since they both landed in the prison yard as babies, and he knows him better than anyone.
Their friendship is the film’s quiet heart. When Megamind is at his worst, Minion leaves him, and his return is one of the film’s most touching moments. Cross gives him a nervous, loving warmth, and the design, a fish in a gorilla robot, is the kind of absurd, wonderful idea that animation does best.
Becoming the Hero
The final act has Megamind facing Titan to save Metro City, and he has to become the hero he always resented. He can’t match Titan’s power, so he uses what he has always had: cleverness, gadgets, bluff and theatrical flair. His victory comes from being exactly who he is, used for a different purpose.
The ending, with Megamind accepted by the city as its new protector and Roxanne by his side, is warm and satisfying. The film has argued all along that villains and heroes are defined by their choices, not their origins, and Megamind finally chooses. It’s a simple message, delivered with real wit and feeling.
The final fight also pays off every running joke in the film, from Megamind’s gadgets to his mispronunciations to his dramatic entrances, and it gives Minion, Roxanne and even Metro Man their moments. It’s a very satisfying climax, and it leaves the audience feeling that Megamind has finally become the person he was always capable of being.
The Soundtrack
The film’s soundtrack is full of rock classics, used with real comic timing: AC/DC’s Highway to Hell and Back in Black, Guns N’ Roses’ Welcome to the Jungle and Michael Jackson’s Bad. They’re chosen to match Megamind’s sense of himself as a rock star villain, and they give his big entrances exactly the swagger he thinks they deserve.
Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe wrote the score. It parodies the grand, heroic music of superhero films and then plays it straight when Megamind finally becomes a hero. The music is part of the joke and part of the emotion, and it works both ways. By the time the heroic theme swells for real, the film has earned it, and it’s stirring.
Why It Deserves More Attention
Megamind was released before the Marvel era turned superheroes into the biggest thing in cinema, and watched now, it feels ahead of its time. Its jokes about heroes and villains, secret identities, origin stories and dramatic speeches land harder now that audiences know every cliché by heart. It’s a better superhero parody than most of the superhero films that followed.
It has a real idea behind it: people become who others expect them to be, and they can choose otherwise. It’s an 8, and it’s well worth watching, especially for anyone who loves superhero stories and has started to find them predictable. It’s the film that shows how much fun the genre can have with itself.
Craft Note
Craft Note
Megamind turns the hero-villain rivalry into a story about identity. The villain needs the hero to know who he is, so when the hero disappears, the villain has to find a new reason to exist.
When you write a rivalry, the relationship between the two characters can say as much about each of them as their individual goals.
Ask what each of your rivals would lose if the other vanished. Then take one of them away, and write the other’s response.
The Verdict on Megamind
Yes. It’s an 8 and better than its reputation, a funny, clever and warm superhero parody with a great performance from Will Ferrell. It’s better than Despicable Me, released the same year, and it’s aged well now that audiences know every superhero cliché it mocks.
Frequently Asked Questions
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