It's a testament to the wondrous state of animation moviemaking in which we find ourselves that "Megamind" registers as a routine feature rather than something amazing. The computer-generated animation from the DreamWorks crew is top-notch, crisp and full of lots of little details.
But this super-villain tale just doesn't have the storytelling sophistication of "Toy Story 3," "The Illusionist" or "How to Train Your Dragon" — which explains why those three films got Oscar nominations while "Megamind" didn't.
Will Ferrell sassily voices the main character, a blue-skinned evil scientist type with a giant head and even bigger plans for conquering Metro City (which he mispronounces badly, like many other common words). His nemesis is Metro Man (Brad Pitt), a fellow traveler; they both were rocketed off their respective dying planets as infants, Superman-like, to find greatness on Earth.
Metro Man is the white-costumed defender of the city while Megamind decks himself out in studded black leather and builds robots and other gizmos to do his bidding. He secretly adores Roxanne Ritchie, the plucky female reporter (Tina Fey) whom he continually kidnaps.
It's good clean fun aimed at children under 10, though their parents might long for something a little less doofy. "Megamind" hits video stores Friday, Feb. 25.
Extras are quite plentiful and are heavy on interactive games and such aimed at kids.
The single-disc DVD comes with a solitary deleted scene, commentary track by the filmmakers and a meet-the-cast feature. It's notable, like the rest of the video features, for the complete lack of participation by Brad Pitt. Too good for goodies, Brad?
The double-disc DVD adds a bunch more featurettes, including a look inside Megamind's lair and the animation process. The highlight is "Megamind: The Button of Doom," a new 16-minute short that's an amusing look at Megamind's post-movie life.
The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack includes all these features, plus four more featurettes and interactive stuff.
Film: 3.5 Yaps Extras: 4.5 Yaps