By: Rhea Srivastava
A supervillain, accompanied by his minion, aims to become the greatest villain of all time when he has a sudden change of heart and becomes a good guy. If this reminds you of Despicable Me, even though this article is clearly about Megamind, it’s easy to understand why the movie was overshadowed at the time of its release. Although the premise sounds all too familiar, Megamind is an underrated movie that takes a unique approach to teach us some valuable lessons, through an engaging storyline, great humor, and complex characters. This article does contain spoilers but come on, the movie’s been out for 11 years.
It’s always fun to watch over-the-top supervillains who still manage to feel relatable, despite their fabulous costumes and dramatic presentations. This is why people tend to gravitate towards villains over heroes in movies. The same holds true for Megamind. Considering his gradual transformation into the protagonist, it is entertaining to see his character develop throughout the course of the film. However, what truly fascinates is the unique antagonist of the story. This adversary is one which is rarely encountered in animated movies, yet it is one we know of all too well in real life; a man who cannot take “no” for an answer. He’s the “nice guy” who continuously makes advances towards a woman even though she is clearly not interested. He blames her for being shallow, despite pining after the woman only for her looks. Hal Stewart, the cameraman for reporter Roxanne Ritchie, exhibits this behavior. After the death of Metro Man, Megamind feels purposeless as he is without an opponent. He thus decides to create a new nemesis. During this process, he ends up giving Hal superpowers, albeit unintentionally. Megamind decides to train Hal to be the new hero of the city. On receiving his newfound powers and superhuman physique, Hal is sure that Roxanne will fall for him. Since he never recognized her lack of interest and had always assumed it was solely because of his looks, he is beyond offended when she rejects him once again. This rejection, coupled with the realization that being a superhero entails a lot of hard work with no materialistic rewards, leads Hal to the decision that he would rather be a supervillain.
Megamind’s plan, to create a superhero from a calculated recipe, backfires. This raises an important question: what truly makes someone a hero? Answering this question is a pivotal point in Megamind’s character development. In an origin story scene mimicking that of Superman, we see Megamind’s parents sending him away to safety in a small escape pod, as their planet heads towards destruction. Before being sent off, Megamind is told that he is destined for something; however, Megamind is unable to hear what exactly he is destined for. This becomes something that he ponders over often. After his arrival to Earth, he had always been told that he is not a good person. Understandably then, he concludes that he was probably destined to be evil. We are shown how Megamind has gotten the shorter end of the stick since childhood, even though his situation was almost identical to that of Metro Man, initially. We see how their paths diverged; Metro Man grew up in a rich household, beloved by all, while Megamind was raised in a prison and was persistently given a twisted view of right and wrong. This is a good example of the nature vs nurture debate, which questions whether a person’s behavior is determined by environmental factors or by their genes. Megamind’s circumstances led him to believe that he was destined for evil. However, upon witnessing Hal becoming a supervillain and uncovering Metro Man’s truth, he begins to question his belief.
Megamind is not only a great origin story for an antihero of sorts, but it also works as a great spoof of the superhero genre. It uses the typical superhero cliches and makes fun of most of them. It also tackles some mature themes that both entertained kids and adults, which was a balance that we saw very little of in the year 2010.
Once Megamind understands that there are no precursory factors at birth that decide a person’s character, he is able to embrace his good side and become the hero the city needs. This is an inspiring turn of events and acts as a gratifying character arc for the protagonist. It also gives rise to one of my favorite quotes: “destiny is not the path given to us, but the path we choose for ourselves.”