Megamind is the bad guy of Metro City and for years he has been trying to get rid of his enemy Metro Man. Megamind finally succeeds in killing Metro Man and takes over Metro City. Megamind has it all, but as time passes he feels that he has too much. Megamind misses Metro Man and he wants a challenge, so he decides to create a new hero to go up against using pieces of DNA on Metro Man’s cape.
Blaine: The idea for “Megamind” started in 2003. Writers Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons had a notebook of ideas and one of them was about a villain becoming a hero. A year later they started writing the script, but they were in separate locations. Alan was in New York and Tom was in L.A. so they discussed how the story for “Megamind” should go over the phone. The entire script was done over the phone. Alan and Brent thought of “Megamind” being a live action movie until producer Lara Breay read it and recommended that it be an animated feature instead. It was a hard decision to decide if “Megamind” should be an animated feature for Alan and Brent. In 2006, Lara Breay was producing “Blades of Glory” with Ben Stiller and she showed him the script for “Megamind”. They laughed hard as they read through it and Lara felt that it was time to start making it into a movie. So Lara contacted Dreamworks studios and they agreed to finance the movie. Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons forgot about the project for a while until Chris Kuser at Dreamworks called them saying they would like to make their “Megamind” script into a movie. Both Alan and Brent didn’t care because they moved on and it didn’t sell right away when they were interested after finishing writing the script.
While Ben Stiller was doing voice work for “Madagascar 2” he pitched the idea of “Megamind” to director Tom McGrath. Tom thought it would be hard to pass on something like because it sounded like a great idea for a movie. He signed on to direct shortly after. The script didn’t have an origin story of where Megamind came from at first. Ben, Lara and Tom felt that an origin story would show why Megamind is bad in the beginning and that is because he was treated like an outcast in his youth. They also decided to add some kind of Superman spoof to that origin story. Megamind would come from another planet that was about to be destroyed, but his parents saved him by putting him in an escape pod that sends him to Earth. But on Earth he is treated like a loser.
Megamind mispronounces a few words and that came from one of the artists who is French. He pronounced Metro City as “Metrocity” and Alan and Brent thought that was funny so they added that into the script. They recorded the voices first before doing the animation because the actors brought so much fun and humor into their performances and it became an inspiration for the animators on how their expressions should look. The character, Megamind, was written for Will Ferrell and it didn’t take him that long to develop the character. Will knew this character was made for him. Will also felt that the project was a great twist to the Superhero genre where the main character starts off evil, but then becomes good. Tom McGrath gave Will the freedom to say his lines anyway he wanted.
Roxanne Ritchie was made to look like the damsel in distress, but at the same time someone who is smart and strong. Tina Fey did the voice of Roxanne and she came up with some of her own lines for the character to say. Tina also thought of a lot of stuff to make her character funny and a lot of other characters as well. Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons had an idea of Lex Luthor and Lois Lane getting together over Superman’s death and finding out they have a lot in common and that’s what they did with Megamind and Roxanne. They also thought it would be a good idea for Megamind to explore what life is like outside prison the more time he spends with Roxanne.
Hal Stewart is a camera man who is a weirdo, but that’s what makes him so funny. Then he becomes the hero Megamind wants to fight. But then he becomes dangerous because he is jealous that Roxanne chooses another guy, who is Megamind in disguise, over him. When they made muscular changes to Hal Stewart, all the designers had to do was take his head and add it onto Metro Man’s body. Originally Megamind was going to disguise himself as Pat Morita from the “Karate Kid” movies when he teaches Hal Stewart how to be a superhero, but then they decided to go with a Marlon Brando thing from “Superman”. They showed the design of the Space Dad to Will Ferrell and when they started recording his voice for that scene he did this Marlon Brando thing with his lips and everyone was laughing hard. I think Will Ferrell did a terrific job with his voice and watching that character gave me a Marlon Brando feeling.
There were a lot of old designs of villains the artists did and Lara found this one of a fish with a gorilla body and so they made that character the minion to Megamind. David Cross brings a lot of the heart into Minion. Brad Pitt was told that this movie was a Elvis vs Alice Cooper relationship when he was offered the role of Motro Man and he loved the idea. Brad Pitt wanted to move around while holding a mic as his voice was being recorded instead of just standing next to a microphone because he’s a physical actor.
J.K. Simmons has done the Superhero genre before when he was apart of the “Spider-Man” trilogy they thought someone with his voice should be in the movie so they had him do the voice of the Warden at the prison.
Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water) came in as a creative consultant and he had two ideas for “Megamind”. He thought about the film starting off with Megamind falling to his death, then it would flash back to him as a baby and then showing him growing up as he talks about his life. Another idea Guillermo had was Megamind organizing and cleaning up the city for his preparation for his fight with Hal, also known as Tighten, when really it’s to make Roxanne Ritchie happy that everything is back where it belongs.
My rating on “Megamind” is five out of five stars
Songs
Highway to Hell
Crazy Train
Welcome to the Jungle
Bad
Will Ferrell dressed as Megamind at Comic-Con 2010
