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Megamind is a 2010 American Animation Superhero film comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation. Directed by Tom McGrath, and written by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, the film features the voices of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, and Brad Pitt. It tells the story of Megamind, a highly intelligent alien supervillain. After defeating his long-time nemesis Metro Man, Megamind creates a new hero to fight, but must act to save the city when his creation becomes evil.
Megamind premiered in Russia on October 28, 2010, and was released in the United States on November 5 by Paramount Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $322 million against a $130M budget. In the years following its release, the film gained a cult following via a variety of .
The film later spawned a franchise, including three video games and a short film, Megamind: The Button of Doom, which was included in the film's home media releases. A sequel, Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate, and a follow-up television series, Megamind Rules!, premiered on Peacock in 2024.
Over the years, Megamind and his fish-like assistant and best friend Minion frequently and unsuccessfully battle Metro Man for control of the city. On the day of the new Metro Man Museum’s grand opening, Megamind escapes prison, kidnaps news reporter Roxanne Ritchi, and lures Metro Man to an abandoned observatory to rescue her. Megamind blasts him with a sun-powered death ray; Metro Man is unable to escape, stating the copper-lined observatory roof weakens his powers. Overjoyed, Megamind takes over the city and executes a crime spree, but eventually becomes depressed and purposeless without Metro Man to oppose him.
Megamind decides to blow up the Metro Man Museum to forget the hero, but sees Roxanne is also there; as he runs, he dehydrates the museum's curator, Bernard, turning him into a small cube. Disguised as Bernard using hologram technology, Megamind talks to Roxanne, whose remarks inspire him to use Metro Man's DNA to create a new superhero to fight. Megamind perfects the formula, but during a fight between him and Roxanne in his lair, he accidentally injects it into Hal Stewart, Roxanne's cameraman who is infatuated with her.
Disguising himself via hologram as Hal's "Space Dad", Megamind trains Hal to become a superhero. Hal, seeing this as a chance to win Roxanne's heart, accepts and takes on the name "Titan", which he misspells as "Tighten". Megamind begins to date Roxanne while disguised as Bernard, and he and Minion have a falling out over Megamind's apparent lack of interest in committing further crimes. Roxanne rejects Tighten when he comes to court her, and Tighten later witnesses her on a date with Megamind disguised as Bernard. After a heartbroken Tighten leaves, Megamind’s disguise fails, and Roxanne rejects him as well.
Megamind arranges to fight Tighten the next day, but soon learns that Tighten is now using his powers to conduct a crime spree. Tighten offers to ally with Megamind, who deliberately reveals his disguises and deceptions to goad Tighten into fighting. Angered, Tighten savagely beats Megamind in the fight. Realizing that Tighten is uninterested in justice and means to kill him, Megamind traps Tighten in a copper ball, but it fails when Tighten easily breaks out. Megamind and Roxanne escape to Metro Man's old hideout and discover that he is still alive, having faked his weakness and death to rename himself Music Man, and pursue his dream as a musician. Megamind attempts to enlist his help against Tighten, but Music Man refuses; he instead attempts to encourage Megamind to become the city's new hero by telling him that a hero will always rise to defeat evil.
Dejected, Megamind willingly returns to prison. Tighten goes on a rampage and kidnaps Roxanne when she tries to reason with him. On a televised message, Tighten holds Roxanne hostage and demands that Megamind fight him. Regretting his actions of trying to kill Metro Man in the first place, a redeemed Megamind escapes prison with the help of Minion and reconciles with him. He goes to confront Tighten, using holographic disguises to appear as Metro Man, and Minion as Megamind, to frighten Tighten away and rescue Roxanne. However, Megamind's speech patterns give him away, and Tighten attacks Megamind, throwing him into the stratosphere. Dehydrating himself into a cube and landing safely in a fountain, Megamind re-hydrates next to Tighten and extracts the DNA from him, removing Tighten's powers. After Hal is arrested, Megamind rekindles his relationship with Roxanne, while the city celebrates Megamind as their new hero. The museum is rebuilt in Megamind's honor, a disguised Music Man cheers for him at the grand opening ceremony, and everyone dances to Michael Jackson's "Bad".
Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" was also used in the scene where Megamind and Tighten have their last battle.
The film was released on Blu-ray 3D in March 2011 exclusively as a part of Samsung 3D Starter Kits, and on September 11, 2011, exclusively at Best Buy stores. In 2014, the film's distribution rights were purchased by DreamWorks Animation from Paramount Pictures and transferred to 20th Century Fox; the rights are now owned by Universal Pictures, following NBCUniversal's 2016 acquisition of DreamWorks Animation.
The film closed in theaters on February 24, 2011 (a day before it was released on DVD and Blu-ray), earning $148.4 million in North America, and $173.5 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $321.9 million. It is the sixth-highest-grossing animated film from 2010 worldwide, behind Toy Story 3 ($1.063 billion), Shrek Forever After ($753 million), Tangled ($591 million), Despicable Me ($543 million), and How to Train Your Dragon ($494 million), the highest-grossing film worldwide in both Ferrell's (until 2014's The Lego Movie) and Fey's careers, as well as the fifth-highest-grossing computer-animated superhero film, behind Incredibles 2, The Incredibles, Big Hero 6 and .
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, stating, "This set-up is bright and amusing, even if it does feel recycled from bits and pieces of such recent animated landmarks as The Incredibles with its superpowers and Despicable Me with its villain." Stephen Holden, of The New York Times, positively wrote in his review, "Visually Megamind is immaculately sleek and gracefully enhanced by 3-D." Entertainment Weekly reviewer Owen Gleiberman graded the film a B+ and wrote, "...too goofy-surreal to pack a lot of emotional punch, but it's antically light on its feet, with 3-D images that have a lustrous, gizmo-mad sci-fi clarity." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone commented, "What this raucous 3D animated fun house lacks in originality (think bastard child of The Incredibles and Despicable Me) it makes up for in visual and vocal wit." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Just as Megamind struggles to find his center, at times, so does the film."
The main point of criticism was the film's perceived lack of originality. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote: "You have seen all this before". Justin Chang of Variety said: "Though enlivened by some moderately clever twists on the superhero-movie template, Megamind never shakes off a feeling of been-there-spoofed-that." Claudia Puig of USA Today asked: "Do we really need Megamind when Despicable Me is around?".
Minion finds a stray box with a button on it that he was also unable to sell during the auction. Not remembering what the button does, Megamind pushes it, activating an AI program based on his former evil personality that transfers itself into a giant robot called the Mega-Megamind. After scanning the supersuit, the robot thinks that Megamind is Metro Man and starts attacking him. Megamind fights the Mega-Megamind with his new powers, but is unfamiliar with their use, which causes him to crash-land in his lair. Megamind and Minion hide in the Invisible Car, and Megamind fears they will have to stay there forever, as he programmed the AI to never stop until Metro Man was dead. Minion suggests that Megamind should stop trying to be Metro Man and fight the robot in his own way. He also reveals he secretly kept their giant Spider-Bot, having grown fond of it as a pet.
Megamind thanks Minion and plans to lure the Mega-Megamind to the abandoned observatory in which the real Metro Man faked his death. Megamind, riding the Spider-Bot, succeeds in luring the Mega-Megamind to the spot, but Minion cannot activate the Death Ray because its main controls were smashed by Megamind's suit when he crash-landed. Megamind has Minion test the contents of a box of old secondary remotes to find the one for the Death Ray. Minion does so, and activates several features in the lair and on the Spider-Bot in the process, allowing the Mega-Megamind to capture the Spider-Bot. Finally finding the correct remote, Minion blasts the giant robot with the ray just as Megamind uses the robot's own arm-mounted crossbow to launch himself and the Spider-Bot to safety.
Megamind and Minion subsequently recover their old gadgets and re-purpose them for good. Upon finding Damien and the De-Gun, they discover he has dehydrated the parents of several other children as well as his own, and he and the children are throwing a party to celebrate their new freedom. Megamind reclaims the De-Gun, and re-hydrates the parents with a glass of water, much to the children's dismay. Later, Megamind and Minion see a signal in the sky (a spoof of the Bat-Signal) and ride off in the Invisible Car as they are called to action.
On August 5, 2022, Simons confirmed that the show's writing was completed and production was moving forward. In January 2023, it was revealed that the series would be released in 2024. In February 2024, it was announced that a sequel film, titled Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate, and the series, now titled Megamind Rules!, would be released on Peacock on March 1, 2024.
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