Talking Pictures

Rich Bonaduce reviews “Megamind”

Rich’s Quickie: Megafun!

Mega! Despite a LOT of stuff you’ve seen before and some sophisticated humor that will probably sail right over the heads of most kids, a wonderful voice-cast and popping animation helps “Megamind” succeed. The script offers many an opportunity for the animation to tell the story, with colorful characters (that characters that are actually different colors!), crazy costumes, comic-book action, and all manner of inventions and robots. Jonah Hill gets a surprising amount of lines (especially considering the rest of the cast), while the comedic talents of David Cross and Tina Fey cannot be quashed by not actually being onscreen. Will Ferell finally has another hit (and no, I don’t count “The Other Guys”), and if this had come out sooner, you’d likely have seen a bunch of kids dressed up as the title character for Halloween.

Micro: But you probably won’t see much of them next Halloween, since – although a good time at the movies – “Megamind” doesn’t seem to rate with the best of them, and probably doesn’t have that kind of staying power. That may be because one of its main stars – Brad Pitt – is regulated to almost a supporting character role (supplemented by Jonah Hill, no less), and even when his character is onscreen, I think his performance falls short of the over-the-top and out-of-this world courageous hero it was supposed to be. That is still surprising; although Pitt has done little by way of strict voice work, his recent, other characters (like Lt. Aldo Raine in “Inglorious Basterds”), were almost ALL voice; the performance hinged on his every inflection. Ferrell I bought; Pitt I didn’t; and since he was the Yin to the yang, that’s half of the movie, even though he was only in maybe a quarter of it.

Movie Grade: B

Director: Tom McGrath

Writers: Alan J. Schoolcraft, Brent Simons

Rated PG for action and some language.

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