Megamind was released in 2010 (God, I feel old) by Dreamworks, and while its scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic showed that it was…decent, the movie is still held as a cult classic to this day (partly thanks to the memes). With no sequel setup in sight, it was believed that Megamind would be a one-time thing, until now. At the beginning of February, a trailer was dropped for a new Megamind project: Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate, and you want to know what the reception was? People trashed it.

Now, I usually like to keep an open mind about things that have yet to be released, and even media that is considered “bad” can manage to get a good laugh out of me. Like the Winnie the Pooh slasher movie. Yes, it was bad, but hey, I got to at least have fun with how bad it was. I was also skeptical about the way people on the internet talked about it, considering I would rather not gather information about entertainment from a toxic cesspool like Twitter (or X, whatever you wanna call it). 

Back to the actual trailer, my thoughts on it are rather…mixed, even with an open mind. The trailer tells us that this takes place right after the events of the first movie, with Megamind now having to adjust to being Metro City’s new hero. That might be hard to grasp though, since your first thoughts might be “This isn’t Will Ferrel,” and you’d be right because the person playing him is Keith Ferguson. NoHo student Luis Bernal responded to this, stating, “When I first watched the trailer, I went in expecting to hear the voice of our beloved Will Farrel, but to my surprise, none of the cast returned. It feels like a cheap knock-off of the original”.

The animation looks pretty choppy and downgraded, with the movement of the characters not being as smooth or vibrant as the first movie. And, what’s likely to happen based on the trailer is that Megamind’s old crew, the Doom Syndicate, is coming to take over Metro City, and Megamind has to pretend to be a hero while finding a way to stop them. Seems simple enough, right? Wrong, because introducing the idea of a Doom Syndicate completely throws off the timeline of the original movie. 

Megamind’s backstory makes note of the fact that he was always alone, that it was just him and Minion. That’s why he was always so awkward and afraid of getting close with Roxanne, because he never had anyone he could truly call a friend, except Minion. Oh wait, I’m sorry, did I say Minion? I meant Ol’ Chum. For some reason, whoever worked on the movie and the upcoming show, Megamind Rules!, decided it’d be a good idea to change the name of one of the most important characters in the movie. It might not be a big deal, but it does feel weird.

Oh yeah, along with the release of the movie, there’s a TV show called “Megamind Rules!” that will be dropping on Peacock. In this show, “as he begins this new journey, Megamind’s trusty brainbots record everything, making him the world’s first hero influencer.” I don’t know if there’ll be a twist on the situation or if someone on the team tried way too hard to relate to the kiddos. When both Alessandro and Erica Sherkin were asked, they gave disapproving responses. “I hated it”, and “I’m……disappointed” is what they said. 

I know I’ve been pretty harsh on this movie and show, but I can’t help but feel that way when this franchise was something that I grew up with, and I’m sure many others can relate. Still, I’ll try to remain as neutral as possible until it releases so I can form a proper opinion. Now all I have to do is decide whether I want to get another streaming service or whether I should put on my pirate hat and set sail towards the great beyond of the internet.