After spilling into Hall H, the first panel of Comic-Con 2010 saw director Todd McGrath presenting a short featurette for Megamind that completely spoiled the opening of the movie.
It was spoiled, but it’s an interesting concept, one that takes a bit of courage to go all the way with, and it finally made the film stand out amongst the rabel of other 3D, animated family films.
The rest of the panel was an improv practice class with Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Jonah Hill passing the comedy baton around, trying to pour as much dry wit on every answer they gave. Of course, this was juxtaposed by Ferrell wearing a home-made Megamind costume that looked more like he was dressing up as Tobias Funke on his way to a Blue Man Group audition.
Ferrell made the entrance to a roar of applause after McGrath spoke about the attraction to the film, saying that “people enjoy wearing the villain costumes because villains are fun.”
Ferrell was nice enough to bring breakfast for 1/1,000th of the crowd, a joke that kept rolling when Tina Fey hit the stage with a half-eaten bag of mini-donuts from 7–11.
Jonah Hill didn’t get the memo on bringing a balanced breakfast, but he did bring compliments for Ferrell, joking that he always “radiates sexuality” even when he’s wearing a painted bike helmet on his head.
Then, the footage played.
In spoilerific fashion, some smooth 3D animation ‐ the kind that we’ve become comfortable with since Shrek ‐ revealed that Megamind does what no other villain has been able to do: succeed in killing his superhero arch-nemesis. With a blast of the sun, Metro Man is reduced to a pile of bones and spandex.
What followed was a montage of shots showing MegaMind taking over the city, completely devoid of a plan, and slowly growing bored from his victory. Evil needs Good after all.
The rest of the film and the directions it will head are mysteries, but the bits involving David Cross as Megamind’s fish-in-a-bowl-faced sidekick and Megamind doing his best Superman Brando got huge positive response from the crowd.
“We wanted an action comedy that would take the story and turn it on its ear. We wanted to invert the characters. The villain becomes a villain through circumstance and finds out that maybe he’s playing for the wrong side. The hero that is a façade of a hero, and the reporter, the damsel that turns out to be strong and doesn’t need anyone to save her,” said McGrath
However, the spoilers weren’t over. McGrath also revealed that there is a monster twist involving Jonah Hill’s character. Although they wouldn’t elaborate, and even though it might be misleading, crowds will most likely be looking for and anticipating a twist from the mild-mannered character who has the hots for Tina Fey’s reporter.
Moderator Drew McWeeny was bold enough to ask the actors who their personal nemeses were, and it got some surprising responses:
- Tina Fey: Betty White is my nemesis and one day I will fight her in a ball of fire. She will win, but it will be a glorious battle.
- Will Ferrell: Oddly enough, my nesesis is Charlize Theron. I can’t get into it, but there’s a lot of bad blood there.
- Jonah Hil: Mel Gibson’s girlfriend. I just wanna come out officially and support Mel.
Hill followed the statement by dropping his mic and walking briskly off the stage in mockish support of Gibson. After a discussion about why huffing blue costume paint makes 3D ten times more intense, Hill returned, claimed he had read what Gibson actually said backstage, and then retracted his comment.
“I only support a quarter of the things Mel said. Just kidding. I don’t support him. I agree that the Jews killed Jesus, but that’s a fact. That’s a Goddamned fact. We all know it, so let’s just continue with the panel and move on with it.”
They did. The panel turned to questions from the audience which consisted of a crazed fan ripping his shirt and pants off to reveal “MegaMind” painted on his chest and tightie-whities; Bob Stencil ripping off his 3D glasses to reveal his trademark aviators in order to ask whether blue characters were here to stay; and a young woman asking the actors what their most memorable moment in acting was.
- Tina Fey answering for Ferrell: “Will’s was in a high school production of Our Town when he pissed himself.”
- Ferrell answering for Fey: “The first time that you went into that Ferrari dealership and said, “I’ll take the red one,” threw down that Baby Mama money and drove off.”
- Hill answering for himself: “During Superbad, during the sleeping bag scene, [Michael Cera] was masturbating the entire time we were shooting. And we shot for a whole day, so you to keep that in mind.”
The panel officially went completely off track (at least in discussing Megamind) when Hill refused to reveal the twist for a third time, but hushed the crowd to announce that he was the highly anticipated replacement for Edward Norton as The Hulk.
“It’s gonna be me and Downey Jr up there. We’re gonna make this one right.”
The Comic-Con crowd will look forward to seeing Hill officially announced at the Marvel panel and joining his Avengers co-stars, and will most likely look forward to Megamind after some strong footage and a little more information about what makes it special.
Check out more Comic-Con 2010 coverage!
Related Topics: Animation, Brad Pitt
