Christmas 2010
Genre: Animation/Family-Comedy/Spoof.
Starring: (the voices of): Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, David Cross, Ben Stiller and Brad Pitt.
Running Time: 95 mins. approx.
Certificate: PG. (Contains mild, comic, action-fantasy-violence).
Seen At: Parrs Wood Cinemas, Didsbury.
On: Sunday, 5th December, 2010.
Thankfully, over the past few months there’ve been a brilliant cluster of computer-generated animations presented in glorious 3D, such as Toy Story 3 and the final Shrek installment. A lot of these films though, have either underused this fantastic tool, or, if it’s possible, even bombarded its audience with too much.
Here however, refreshingly filmmakers have the restrained balance exactly right – pulling back with only occasional, subtle flourishes of brilliance that really make a difference – whether it be a droplet of rain, the flash of a ray-gun or the peerlessly dazzling cityscape of the comic book-inspired setting, MetroCity.
The combination of superheroes and animation is nothing new, the most notable examples being of course Pixar’s The Incredibles and more recently, Despicable Me. But what sets this apart, is a catalogue of very cleverly understated references taken from many sci-fi, or superhero movies. From Star Wars to Superman, there’s hardly a film in the genre that isn’t either parodied or spoofed ingeniously...
Will Ferrell voices Megamind our bright blue dome-headed antagonist who once delighted in being bad but now strives to be a reformed character.
But not before he’s kidnapped the beautiful hotshot news reporter Roxanne Ritchie voiced by Tina Fey...
Enter Brad Pitt’s Metroman, my favourite character: an arrogant, vain, quaffed high-flyer adored by his public in the Clark Kent/Superman mould...
Complete with a hugely upbeat soundtrack with hits including Michael Jackson’s Bad, AC/DC and Elvis’s A Little Less Conversation, this is the best, most enjoyable animation of the year. Vividly colourful and endlessly inventive, this is also the first computerized feature to use 3D technology to its full potential, due to a beautifully crafted, even tactile, attention to detail.
Hugely entertaining!
Rating: ****
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