Megamind 3D

Story

Megamind (voice of Will Ferrell) arrives on earth as a baby in a capsule at exactly the same time as Goody Two Shoes (Brad Pitt), both endowed with super powers. Goody Two Shoes has a privileged upbringing, but Megamind is brought up by convicts. He discovers that the only thing he is any good at is being bad, so he becomes a supervillain and ends up in prison. Goody Two Shoes grows up to become Metro Man, the super hero of Metro City, and Megamind’s chief enemy.

Megamind is released from prison on the same day that Metro City has organised to dedicate a museum to Metro Man. Assisted by his fish companion, Minion (David Cross), Megamind disrupts the celebrations by kidnapping popular television reporter Roxanne Ritchie (Tina Fey). When Metro Man comes to her rescue, Megamind succeeds in killing him, much to his surprise.

Megamind finds life rather boring without a good influence to oppose his badness. He therefore decides to create another superhero, Titan (Jonah Hill), who unfortunately decides he would rather be bad. Megamind now has a dilemma. He has to decide whether to oppose Titan by becoming a hero or to remain a supervillain.

Themes

Superheroes; good versus evil

Violence

This movie contains some violence. For example:

There is frequent fighting, punching, objects being thrown, explosions and so on.
Roxanne is tied up, has a bag put over her head, and is dangled over a pool with alligators in it.
Megamind blows up the observatory, apparently killing Metro Man.
Hal (Jonah Hill) beats himself up because Roxanne won’t go out with him.
Titan melts Megamind with his laser eyes.
Titan ties Roxanne to the top of a tower, which he then cuts down.

Sexual references

This movie contains some sexual references. For example:

Roxanne is presented as a woman who needs to be rescued all the time.
All the characters (except Metro Man) are in love with Roxanne.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

This movie contains some use of substances. For example, characters drink alcohol at dinner sometimes.

Nudity and sexual activity

This movie contains some sexual activity. For example, Roxanne and Bernard (actually Megamind) kiss.

Product placement

None of concern

Coarse language

This movie contains some mild coarse language.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Megamind 3D is an animated superhero comedy. There are some very funny lines in this movie, but younger children are unlikely to understand the humour or the philosophical elements. It is aimed at older children, adolescent children and adults.

The main messages from this movie are that good cannot exist without evil and vice versa, and that sometimes people are bad because of their circumstances.

Values in this movie that you might want to reinforce with your children include the idea that good can overcome evil, and that people can choose to be good or bad.

This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues such as the following:

At one point Megamind asks, ‘What’s the point of being bad if there’s no-one good to stop you?’ This could be quite a good issue to raise with children. You could also talk about whether people should be good only because of the expectations of others or because they choose to be good.
Titan is given all the gifts to become a superhero but squanders them all for his own personal gain. Could Titan have made better choices?