Megamind

In its manic effort to not be viewed as a complete rip-off of The Incredibles, Despicable Me et al, Megamind has a plethora of assumed, stolen, lost and confused identities. Keeping up with them is child's play for children, frustrating for adults when the born-good gone-bad ET (Megamind, voiced by Will Ferrell) and his piranha-like lifelong Minion, encased in a fish tank, (David Cross) kills arch-rival born-good ET, Metro Man (Brad Pitt).

Having gained control of Metrocity (cutely mispronounced), having no foe or purpose in life, Megamind is encouraged to cheer himself up by a female TV news reporter (Tina Fey) who loved Metro Man. He transforms himself into a humble city librarian, Bernard (Ben Stiller, who co-exec-prodded the movie), who then becomes a new evil character, Titan aka cutely as Tighten (Jonah Hill), formed from the body of Hal, Roxanne's cameraman and unrequited lover. Meantime, Minion has become warden of the prison (JK Simmons) where Megamind was raised, while Metro Man hadn't died, merely retiring from the unfulfilling task of doing good, compelling Megamind to take on the role himself. I have no recollection of any morsel of screenplay that explained when and how the two ETs went to school together.

The first credited co-writer, Alan Schoolcraft, had been a production executive (1998-2001) for three Coen brothers comic movies - The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou and The Man Who Wasn't There. His next credit, and first for writing, is this film. His co-writer, Brent Simons, is also a first-timer, which is no excuse for the screenplay's lack of originality.

Nevertheless, the film is frothy fun, probably exciting fun in 3D, and much credit must go presumably to director Tom McGrath, who made the two Madagascar cartoon comedies and learned his craft on TV's Ren & Stimpy Show in the mid-90s. Another experienced pair of hands brought on board was that of composer Hans Zimmer. Justin Theroux (an actor/writer who'd worked with Stiller on Tropic Thunder) is one credited "creative consultant"; director Guillermo (Pan's Labyrinth) del Toro is the other (and he's now working on a handful of other Dreamworks Animation projects).

Major credit, as for any animated movie, goes to the hundreds of specialist talents who managed to make this Dreamworks copycat effort fun to watch. One hopes they got their fair share of its mega-mind-numbing US$130 million budget.