Megamind (2010)

I enjoyed Despicable Me slightly more than Megamind. Nevertheless, Will Ferrell did a fine job as the tragically one-upped also-ran whose planet implodes just after his parents pack their infant son into a spaceship bound for Earth -- only to meet a lifetime of denial of all the perks of adoption, recognition, and adulation garnered by a second interplanetary traveler who got there first and became Metro City's self-confident, dashing, and debonnaire superhero, Metro Man. So like many a frustrated, unemployed, nerdy, colored-skin (in this case, blue), unlucky-at-love adolescent, Megamind's antisocial experiences radicalize him towards a life of villainy and terrorism. His accidentally greater-than-anticipated success goes even further to his head, however, and soon he realizes that being the supreme all-powerful ruler of "Metrocity" is not all it has cracked up to be: He needs a challenge, a foil, an enemy with which to do battle. Sure, he can create another superhero -- but what if such a superhero were to turn even more evil than Megamind? What about Megamind's secret feelings for the TV news reporter (Tina Fey)? Is there a line beyond which even Megamind will not go -- or a pale beyond which Megamind would feel compelled to choose good instead of evil? Megamind innately works well as a movie because it turns the superhero/supervillain tropes on their ears and puts a contemporary spin on the megalomaniacal soliloquys so favored by all-powerful overlords. Even Metro Man is all high-school- or pro-football-star writ large, with his smarmy high-fives, showboating, and baby juggling. Cartoons can be fun even for adults and Megamind, for one, fills the bill. 4.5 stars. (3-10-2011, posted 3-7-2016)