Megamind

In the opening of this highly touted, Superman-inspired animated adventure, two spaceships—each carrying an infant—are dispatched from a distant, dying planet to Earth. One of the tots grows up in a loving, affluent foster home and becomes beloved, square-jawed superhero Metro Man (voiced by Brad Pitt). But the other—bulbous-headed, misunderstood Megamind (Will Ferrell)—is raised by inmates in a maximum-security prison for the criminally gifted, growing up to resent and loathe his virtuous, vain counterpart. After a series of battles between geeky Megamind and smug Metro Man, the superhero is accidentally vanquished, creating a crisis for the supervillain, since his existence as an evil force depends on a countervailing good. And so Megamind uses alien DNA to transform geeky cameraman Hal (Jonah Hill) into Titan, a dastardly new menace. Filling the Lois Lane slot is savvy, sexy TV reporter Roxanne Ritchie (Tina Fey). Megamind suffers from its convoluted, overly derivative spoof and its underdeveloped characters, but DreamWorks' computer animation is characteristically superb, while director Tom McGrath keeps the pace appropriately brisk. Filled with pop culture references, Megamind is a splashy and mildly amusing—if not very memorable—family film. A strong optional purchase. (S. Granger)