I’m curious, has anyone else ever commented on this?
I know the character designers for Megamind talk about how they wanted his tech to seem junkyard, scrabbled together, second hand, second stringer. And the brainbots fit with this aesthetic with their irregular jaws.
But I really think in-universe this choice is deliberate? With the super huge underbite and irregular triangular teeth??
It is canon that many of Megamind’s inventions were designed by Dreamworks to look as if they’d been cobbled together from junk. At the same time, it is common (although not universal) fanon that Megamind is rich because how could somebody that brilliant not figure out how to get rich? These two are not contradictory.
IRL many illegal mind-altering drugs with high street value are actually quite easy to make. Any third year undergraduate chemistry major can do it. All they need is the right equipment and ingredients, all of which also have legal uses and are sold on the open market. So the law requires that sellers of that equipment and those ingredients report all sales to the relevant government agency, along with the identity of the buyers. When they see one buyer accumulating everything necessary to make one of those drugs, they figure this person is in the process of setting up as a dealer and they put that person under surveillance.
In the Megaverse, where supervillains exist, the government of course has a similar policy regarding the equipment and supplies needed to build basic evil inventions. So Megamind has to get those by stealth. I imagine him and Minion disabling the security cameras at junkyards and scrap metal buyers, helping themselves to what they need, then leaving cash on the counter to pay for it all because he want those businesses to survive so he can go to them repeatedly. Later, after he makes his connection in Romania and can get all his equipment and supplies new, he still hangs onto the old stuff because he has become sentimentally attached to it. Also, because he finds maintenance boring, he doesn’t bother fixing damage unless it directly impacts either functionality or presentation. You know that dent on the chest plate of Minion’s gorilla suit? Megamind could fix that in an hour or two, but he doesn’t because he always has something more important or at least more interesting to do. (Although now that I think about it, it could be that Minion wants a scar because it makes him feel tough and dangerous.)
Can we talk about this adorable motherfucker though
Minion is a masterclass of design.
The first time we see him, he is the definition of ugly cute.
Look at those eyes, those teeth… Our brains get conflicting information but the big smile and the engaging eyes make us settle on “cute.”
And then we see him in his suit.
Again, such a great balance of familiar and alien, grotesque and adorable. He’s now HUMANOID without being the slightest bit HUMAN, you see his biological body as just the head but you can also parse out his suit and just focus on the fish elements thanks to the lighting in the glass dome.
We can SEE how this would be an “evil minion” while also embracing all the good our brains have developed seeing his younger form.
He is the cutest (adult) character in the whole movie, hands down, and yet he really should also be the most terrifying and alien. A lot of this comes from David Cross’s brilliant performance, so much from the insane animation, but also from the meticulous design that constantly challenges us to RECOGNIZE he’s an angler fish from space with terrifying teeth who is obviously 100% carnivore.
Watching Megamind bantering with the Mega Megamind (ie, his “evil” self) in ‘The Button of Doom’ always makes me feel a certain kind of way.
LOOK at this goof xD
“Fancy a slice of Hero Pie?”
“Only if it comes… a la ‘explode’!”
(He’s having the time of his life xD)
“Do you feel the taunting power of my eyebrow?” (also his expression here? Yum…)
“How DARE you brow me!”
He’s TAUNTING the big scary robot! The robot who’s casually chucking CARS at him, for heaven’s sake! xDD
“That’s right, metal face… Follow me to your doom…” (Also, yum again…)
“Prepare for a crushing defeat!”
“Ugh, the old evil me is so annoying!”
“Marco!”
“Polo!”
The dream team indeed ❤
He looks so happy! Even when he’s arguing with himself xP How can you not adore this goofball ^^
Bonus – I have NO idea why Megamind sticks his cute li’l butt in Minion’s face in this scene (neither apparently does Minion xD) but I just about die laughing every time xDD
setepenre-set 