Megamind - Blu-Ray

Movie: After already showing in a very amusing way that even the meanest villains have a soft core, Madagascar director Tom McGrath also proves the truth of this thesis in a highly entertaining way with his animated fun Megamind.

From the moment Megamind arrives on Earth as a baby after the destruction of his home planet, his fate is sealed. Because unlike Metroman, who lands on the blue planet at the same time, he grows up not sheltered by a loving family, but among evil jailbirds in prison. And so two arch-enemies are born, who year after year fight a bitter battle for Metro City - a battle that Megamind always loses. But one day, when Metroman is once again hailed as a hero by the city and is to be honored with a grand museum opening, the unbelievable happens: Megamind defeats his nemesis and becomes the ruler of Metro City. But the joy of victory quickly gives way to yawning boredom. Because without Metroman, there is no one with whom Megamind can measure his strength. But a solution is quickly found: the ingenious villain creates a new superhero without further ado, who is to protect the city and thus becomes a new worthy opponent for Megamind. Too bad that this new superhero Tighten sees things a little differently and far outshines Megamind in terms of evil. And so now it's up to him, of all people, to save Metro City and become the city's new hero...

The parallels to the hit I - Simply Incorrigible may be unmistakable at first glance: a supervillain who realizes his good side in his quest for the perfect crime, with a loyal sidekick named Minion at his side - it sounds an awful lot like the same script idea just passed through two different hands here. But it wouldn't do Megamind justice to simply judge it as a mere knock-off. That's because this animated adventure, peppered with charming references to various superhero movies, but most especially Superman, has a sense of humor all its own that may not be all that clever or original, but is still endearing and, more importantly, funny enough to warrant a trip to the movies.

Filled with quirky but somehow endearing characters and plenty of great gags, the fun makes for extremely good laughs despite a certain level of recognition. The visuals are great, but noticeably more cartoonish than many animated films striving for particular realism. But since especially the humor of Megamind has a very big cartoon character, the visuals are absolutely appropriate and increase the entertainment factor significantly. The whole thing is supported by the wonderful work of the voice actors, whereby this is one of the lucky cases where the German version could transport almost all the wit of the original. Admittedly, this is also due to the fine voice actors, who have a good track record when it comes to comedy timing. While Megamind and Metroman were voiced by Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt in the original, the German version featured a great Bastian Pastewka, Oliver Welke and - wonderfully as a Minion - Oliver Kalkofe behind the microphone. And they, along with the rest of the voice actors, clearly went all out to live up to the wit and charm of the original.

Sure, the bottom line is that Megamind is not the most original and truly not the best animated film of the year. Extremely good laughs and a charming story make the film worth watching for young and old viewers alike! A good example of nice cinema entertainment without a long term effect, but with a high enjoyment factor. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: Technically, Megamind on Blu-Ray is a real treat. The picture is absolutely clean and has a high level of detail. The colors are boldly presented and more than do justice to the colorful hustle and bustle on the screen. But also the sound is convincing. Especially the duels between Megamind and Metroman, or later with Tighten let it crack so nice in the home theater. Very good!

Extras: The most interesting extra on the Blu-Ray is without question the new 15-minute short film The Button of Doom. Megamind and Minion have sold off all the weapons and inventions in Megamind's arsenal. Only one strange button remains, which turns out to be a particularly nasty invention from Megamind's days as a villain. Too bad, though, that the newly appointed savior of Metro City has no tools left to fight his own invention...

In addition to the thoroughly amusing little film, for which both the English and German language versions again featured the voice actors from the feature film, the disc also has a few other extras to offer. For instance, there is an audio commentary by the filmmakers, which can optionally be viewed as a picture-in-picture video commentary. There's an additional nearly-completed scene (approx. 1:29), a short featurette on the casting of the original voice actors (approx. 9 min.), and on the design of the film (approx. 7 min.). Featurettes such as Animator Man (approx. 1:57), MegaRap (approx. 1 min.), You Can Paint Megamind (approx. 12 min.), and Even More Megamind are geared more towards a very young target audience and don't offer any real insight into the making of the film.

Finally, there's an English video comic, facts about the film, and a trailer for the Megamind game. Even if the extras are nowhere near as entertaining and clever as the main film, the encores are nice.

Conclusion: Megamind may not be the funniest, most original, or best animated film in recent months. However, the superhero parody/homage is definitely worth seeing. The Blu-Ray is technically more than convincing, in the bonus material especially pleases the new short film. All this makes this disc bottom line: thoroughly recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp