If you grew up with and fondly remember shows like Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck, etc, that's the sort of tone you can expect from this. It's overall very silly with off-the-wall plots, but then it also comes to an overarching plot with the main villain. This is definitely on the goofier side rather than being like "Gargoyles" or "Batman: The Animated Series". Expect things like evil cockroaches and kaiju rather than tragic character deaths.
While I do love shows like Gargoyles, I ended up feeling very nostalgic while watching this. A lot of things today feel like there is a demand for them to be grounded and serious without the cartoonishness of yesteryear. Megamind Rules! Unapologetically leans into the craziness. This is the Megamind that made an evil robot unicorn and then forgot to make sure it was actually working properly (comics) and made very mature smooching noises to goad Hal into a fight. He's childish, but he's learning to work with other people more and not just use them for what he wants.
The voice actors did a great job. Everyone feels like they enjoy being their characters. I know they get a lot of complaints for not being the original cast, but I didn't even notice them.
The animation is TV quality. Overall fine for kids, but you see a slip-up here and there. The models were basically just taken from the original movie and updated in new software. One of the biggest differences will show in things like color and lighting. The original movie is very dark (potentially to hide animation issues or software limitations, and many details are hard to see clearly. Which is fine! The original movie is great and they worked with what limitations they had at the time and did an AMAZING job). They also just had more time to play with lighting. The TV show is very bright, sharp, and clear. Just as an example, try to find a clear image of Minion's back in the original movie compared to finding a clear image of it in the show.
To note, I've seen people mistake screenshots from the show for the original movie and vice versa (although the lighting would be a good giveaway for people who really know them).
You can find different lessons for kids in the episodes about things like people being frauds on the internet, or how you have to balance giving people everything they want versus telling them "No" all the time.
Megamind is overall still a little gremlin of chaos, but he still shows up at the end to comfort Keiko instead of yelling at her for betraying him. There are also details like him stepping in front of Keiko protectively when there's a real threat around, and him trying to protect her from having to go through what he went through growing up.
Megamind isn't cynical about the world and goes into everything like it's a fun, fresh experience. He's also dealing with a lot of new things that he never had to before, like jealousy and giving other people credit. He's a pretty good character to aim towards kids because of his uniquely childlike personality despite being an adult, and because his lack of experience lets him learn new things.
This also takes place immediately after the first movie, so Roxanne and Megamind still seem to be working through the awkwardness of her finding out that he catfished her for the majority of the movie. They're still close, but it's a slow burn.
Also, it's perfectly appropriate for kids. Parents don't need to worry about anything weird being randomly shoved in there.
I can see spots where the writing needs a bit more editing or the animation needs some tweaking, but it's fine overall with a few good laughs and an amazing opening song.
3 out of 14 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
