Well, SOMEBODY Had To Do It

[pitbulllady]

Might as well be me, right?

Anyway, I noticed that while some of us have been discussing Megamind in various sections on here, there was not ONE actual thread devoted to this movie, of which I've become obsessed, so I figured I'd start one with a couple of observations. Please feel free to join in.

First observation-and I have to wonder if this is a concious friendly little jab at Pixar or what-I found my first good online pic of the "Invisible Car" today. I'd seen bits and pieces of it in clips and screencaps, mostly of the windshield or door, but this was the first time I'd seen the entire car when it's NOT invisible. Y'all know what kind of car Megs is rockin'? It's a freakin' 1951 Fabulous Hudson Hornet, y'all, like ole' Doc, but with a few more, er....modifications(that and his is a sedan, not a Hollywood Coupe, like Doc is)! It is still very much recognizable as a Hudson Hornet, though. As I mentioned once way back on the PP forum, I had the opportunity to drive one of these beasts before and nearly bought it, but decided on a Studebaker instead. So, Randall drives a Stude, and Megs drives a Hudson...do my guys have awesome tastes in rides or what?

Second observation...and this one hit me like runaway train last night about bedtime...as can be observed from the satallite image shown from the "Death Ray", "Metro City"(or "Metrocity", lol) is in Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan(I had originally thought it would be on the west coast, not the case), in spite of the tv station's call letters starting with a "K". It's basically Detroit, plain and simple, just with a different name. Then suddenly something hit me(no, not literally, but same basic effect): one of my favorite recording artists is Kid Rock, a native of the Taylors suburb of Detroit.

Kid Rock's real name is Robert RITCHIE.

I'd bet a paycheck that there's at least one Kid Rock CD(probably "Devil Without a Cause" or "American Badass") in the Evil Lair and that Megs knows every last syllabel to "Bawitdaba" by heart and has probably used that song from the Invisible Car's stereo on more that one occasion to show up some little twerps cruisin' in a ugly-butt '86 Chevy Caprice with 32-inch spinner rims trying to blast out some Lil Wayne who the REAL Alpha Dog on the road was...'51 Hudson, Kid Rock at 93 million db's...next question!

You gotta love this "six degrees of separation" thing!

pitbulllady

[mentalguru]

All very interesting points!

Also points I wouldn't have had a chance in hell of getting without you pointing them out. So thanks!

A part of me kind of wonders on the Biology of Megamind himself. If we notice him as a baby when he opens his mouth- it looks red, which makes me think any blood he has is red like ours as well as Iron based.

A part of me wonders about nutrition in general for the guy too- I mean prisons aren't always known for nutrionally good food, let alone for a growing kid, so you have to wonder if that had an effect at all on him growing up. Plus would there be any type of foods he'd not be able to eat? Mmmmm.

Plus a part of me wonders if as a baby and young kid, he ever got very sick at all. Because of course here when as a baby, children at first get passive immunity through their mothers milk in a sense for a while before their own active immuntiy kicks in- but if ANYTHING like that happens. (But his mum does mammaries and all), but anything through that even for the little time it would have benefited him, well, she wouldn't have faced the same viruses/bacteria/etc on earth anyway. He was only 8 days old. Of course this is me assuming because his mother was human-female shaped that they also feed their young that way.

(He also has his mother's eyes. I wonder if you noticed... awww.)

I also wonder if the guy has a very fast metabolism and other things because he's pretty thin, or perhaps it's something to do with what he was eating. Though I think OUT of prison, Minion would have taken care of meals.

On another note I love Minion to pieces, but I also wonder a bit on the world they left and MM's parents- it seems that they call his 'his minion' of course when they're about to take off, which makes it sound like pretty much everyone has them at one stage- maybe it's something normal on their planet. Minion's job is to 'take care' of MM. He's sort of a servant in some respects, but also a friend. Of course it's hard to say whether Minion's and MM's friendship/brotherly thing would be normal on their planet.

Minion would look scary in some way possibly what with his fangs and all as well as being on top of a gorilla body. But he's such a sweetie-pie in reality too and I love him. He is also very polite it seems to Miss Ritchie and I think before she liked Megamind, she kind of got on well enough with 'the fantastic fish'. Maybe even because of him a little part of her would start to like MM. In private that is.

One slightly sad but touching note- it seems that the parents had planned for this, and I suspect they made his little rocket themselves. Perhaps they knew there wasn't going to be enough time for them to make a rocket to hold all three, there had maybe been warnings rather like in the original Superman backstory that Superman's own father predicted- but that everyone else ignored the idea and thought it rediculous- so instead of going to build a larger form of transport which they wouldn't finish they made one for their son and gave him his Minion who they knew would look after them. Give him a chance.

On a slightly funny note- it seems both Megamind and his parents didn't believe in seatbelts as we watch the movie. (He doesn't wear one in Roxie's ride and while I'd have to watch again, I wonder if he wears one at all in his own car. LOL. Probably thinks it makes him 'more bad' and it became a force of habit. )

[pitbulllady]

Jan 13, 2011 14:11:41 GMT -5 mentalguru said:

All very interesting points!

Also points I wouldn't have had a chance in hell of getting without you pointing them out. So thanks!

A part of me kind of wonders on the Biology of Megamind himself. If we notice him as a baby when he opens his mouth- it looks red, which makes me think any blood he has is red like ours as well as Iron based.

A part of me wonders about nutrition in general for the guy too- I mean prisons aren't always known for nutrionally good food, let alone for a growing kid, so you have to wonder if that had an effect at all on him growing up. Plus would there be any type of foods he'd not be able to eat? Mmmmm.

Plus a part of me wonders if as a baby and young kid, he ever got very sick at all. Because of course here when as a baby, children at first get passive immunity through their mothers milk in a sense for a while before their own active immuntiy kicks in- but if ANYTHING like that happens. (But his mum does mammaries and all), but anything through that even for the little time it would have benefited him, well, she wouldn't have faced the same viruses/bacteria/etc on earth anyway. He was only 8 days old. Of course this is me assuming because his mother was human-female shaped that they also feed their young that way.

(He also has his mother's eyes. I wonder if you noticed... awww.)

I also wonder if the guy has a very fast metabolism and other things because he's pretty thin, or perhaps it's something to do with what he was eating. Though I think OUT of prison, Minion would have taken care of meals.

On another note I love Minion to pieces, but I also wonder a bit on the world they left and MM's parents- it seems that they call his 'his minion' of course when they're about to take off, which makes it sound like pretty much everyone has them at one stage- maybe it's something normal on their planet. Minion's job is to 'take care' of MM. He's sort of a servant in some respects, but also a friend. Of course it's hard to say whether Minion's and MM's friendship/brotherly thing would be normal on their planet.

Minion would look scary in some way possibly what with his fangs and all as well as being on top of a gorilla body. But he's such a sweetie-pie in reality too and I love him. He is also very polite it seems to Miss Ritchie and I think before she liked Megamind, she kind of got on well enough with 'the fantastic fish'. Maybe even because of him a little part of her would start to like MM. In private that is.

One slightly sad but touching note- it seems that the parents had planned for this, and I suspect they made his little rocket themselves. Perhaps they knew there wasn't going to be enough time for them to make a rocket to hold all three, there had maybe been warnings rather like in the original Superman backstory that Superman's own father predicted- but that everyone else ignored the idea and thought it rediculous- so instead of going to build a larger form of transport which they wouldn't finish they made one for their son and gave him his Minion who they knew would look after them. Give him a chance.

On a slightly funny note- it seems both Megamind and his parents didn't believe in seatbelts as we watch the movie. (He doesn't wear one in Roxie's ride and while I'd have to watch again, I wonder if he wears one at all in his own car. LOL. Probably thinks it makes him 'more bad' and it became a force of habit. )

I'm thinking, from a Biology perspective, that MM is very much like us, physiologically. I know that many fanfic writers have speculated that he'd have very different blood and whatnot, but to be an (obvious) large, complex vertebrate and survive in our atmosphere, he'd HAVE to have hemoglobin-based blood and a cellular system that relied on atmospheric oxygen. You can't compare a large organism that is as complex as he-or us-is with something like a spider or other small invertebrate, insofar as blood, circulation, etc. I know that you're probably also very aware of the discussions on anatomy and what might nor might not be lacking over on LJ, where I've still been lurking(probably need to remember my darn password and join in). I'm really surprised that no one has brought up all the many cultural references, going back to the first written human history, of "gods" or beings of some sort coming down from the sky to mate with humans. Look at some of the ancient Egyptian art, and look at those people's heads, and tell me who they remind you of! Take a gander at some of the Mayan and Aztec art. Art historians insist that those huge craniums are the results of artistic stylization, inbreeding, etc., BUT, actual skulls have been found like that, and given that the Egyptians kept meticulous records of royal pedigrees, many of the children born with that large head were products of only first-generation or more distant inbreeding. That should not have produced that trait unless it was a recessive genetic trait that was already present in both parents, and if so, where did it come from? In other human populations where inbreeding is known to be rampant, it doesn't show up, so it's not just a defect resulting from inbreeding, nor was it a defect associated with hydrocephalus(water on the brain), since children born with that condition would have inevitably died back then. Even the Bible makes more than one reference to "sons of god"(lower case "g") "mating" with human females. Many ancient Indian Sanskrit texts mention people from "the sky" coming down to Earth(and in many of the paintings, they happen to have blue skin), waging war, taking prisoners, having their way with the women, etc. There's almost too much to dismiss, honestly, as just myth. And then, there's the Cro-Magnon people. They just suddenly appeared, quite literally out of nowhere, in the fossil record about 35, 000 years ago, leaving no fossil "trail" to link them to any earlier human/hominids, including the Neanderthals, with whom they obviously could interbreed and whom they eventually replaced. Most people think that when anthropologists refer to a "missing link", that it is a missing link between humans and apes, but that is not the case. There is a pretty clear fossil "trail" linking apes to Neanderthal man, but none connecting early Homo sapiens to anything, and now, there has been two more human species, believed extinct, that cannot as of yet be connected with either the Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon people. Where did they all come from? While a purely scientific person would scoff as the odds of a species evolving on a different planet, outside of this solar system, that is virtually identical to US, including being genetically compatible, when you take into account things like the concept of Multiverses(which we've discussed here with regards to the Monster World and Randall), it's not as implausible after all, and indeed, would seem very likely. If such a people knew that their planet in whatever universe it existed was doomed, and knew that in OUR Multiverse neck of the woods there existed a sapient race in which a certain percentage of the population already carried the genes of their species, from contact thousands of years ago, and knew that their one chance to keep their species alive was to send a child to live among us in the hopes that he/she would eventually find a compatible mate from among our populace, what recourse would they likely take? Maybe that choice of Earth(THIS Earth)was not just due to it having similar environmental characteristics that would support intelligent life.

Yes, that is the Biology geek in me, and as I've said before, I can't turn it off. The implications would be that MM might not be as "alien" and as different from us, biologically or genetically, as most fanfic writers assume, and as you pointed out, he can't be THAT different from basic mammalian physiology, or he could not have survived, tough or not(and you can't argue that the little dude ain't dead-game to the core). His mama was stacked, pardon the expression, and he had a very strong suckling reflex as an infant, just like our babies do, and there is only one logical explanation: mama's assets had the same original function that their counterparts in human females have, which is to nurse a baby. Only mammals have those, of course, or a suckling reflex. The fan theory that those, uh, particular assets served some other purpose and weren't really what they appeared to be to us simply doesn't fly. And of course, the "Great Nipple Debate" on LJ has pretty much established, via high-def screen clips, that our dear blue boy is indeed endowned thusly(funny as hell what people will argue about, isn't it?), which pretty much establishes his card-carrying mammalian, hominid status in my book. It's too much of an evolutionary coincidence for me to believe that the same basic body structure, even right down to having identical hands and feet that we do, didn't come about via some sort of genetic link in the past. The main difference here would be the vast cognitive development, and of course, a different skin pigment rather than melanin. Blue pigment, as someone did point out on LJ, is even more efficient at reflecting UVB rays, the ones that cause skin cancer, and a lean, sinewy build(I HATE it when people call MM "skinny" or "scrawny"; they so need to take a look at some of our top athletes, or a champion race horse, perhaps, or a racing Greyhound)is typical of highly active people from hot climates, since body fat holds in heat, and the tendency to store fat would be a detriment to a people from a hot climate. Look at some of those indigenous people in the Amazon rain forests; they are small-statured, wiry people, but I bet one could match the biggest football player in physical strength. Ask James P. Sullivan what those wiry little guys can do in a fight, lol! It's the same as with Randall-high metabolism, little body fat, all lean muscle. We have just gotten so used to seeing people who are overweight that anyone who isn't looks skinny to us, and most people can't distinguish between someone who really IS malnourished, and someone who just has that "game-bred" look(see this purebred APBT for reference: www.stillwaterkennelsupply.com/-%20New%20Folder%20(2)/Customer%20Pics/Lilbit23.jpg ; most folks would say, "what a scrawny little dog", lol).

MM DOES eat crappy food, though(donuts? I mean, yeah, THOSE are one of the major food groups), and combined with a diet of caffeine and intense focus on his work, he and Randall probably both have some potential hypoglycemia issues going on. Bad idea in either case to get between either of them and the last cup of coffee!

On the seatbelt thing, you would have thought MM's parents would have at least put SOMETHING in that pod! I can understand his lack of appreciation for them, though, since he's just so dang c o c k y that he probably doesn't think he'd ever need them(no helmet to protect that big head while riding that rocket-powered Harley, either). And no, Hudsons did not come equipped with seatbelts; no cars did "back in the day". Even my Studebaker doesn't have them. In most states, classic or antique cars can be driven without having to install seatbelts(NOT that MM would give a rat's ass about what the law says, anyway), so he would be used to not having them.

I did find it odd that his parents would choose a FISH, of all animals, as their son's protector/minion/mentor. THAT certainly was a first in movie history! I mean, I have to wonder how Minion's bowl didn't get shattered after all those years before the movie, especially in prison or in school, given how cruel people can be. I guess I can attribute that to Meg's having been every bit the badass that he wants everyone to think he is, only as Kid Rock would put, "it ain't braggin' Mutha-****er if you can back it up". When you stop and think about this guy having not only been raised in prison, but having actually been incarcerated there as an adult for considerable periods of time, he HAD to have been able to defend himself, or he'd have been killed early on, and poor little Minion, fangs or no fangs, would have been someone's grilled fish sandwich a long time ago. I guess that explains the origins of that gorilla-cyborg get-up-gives the little guy a means of defending himself as well as being ambulatory, since most sane folks would think twice about going up against that, and probably wouldn't even notice at first that the whole shebang was controlled by a talking fish in a bowl of water!

Oh, and uh, the seats in a '51 Hudson Hornet sedan? They fold down to make a double bed.
Just sayin'.

pitbulllady

[gs]

So, you saw Megamind! How did you like it? What were your favorite parts/characters?

[pitbulllady]

Jan 28, 2011 1:13:19 GMT -5 gs said:

So, you saw Megamind! How did you like it? What were your favorite parts/characters?

OK, not legally, lol, and there's still some parts that I have not seen yet, so I'm holding my breath for the DVD...might even have to splurge on a Blu-Ray player, and if I can find one that I can plug-and-play on the computer, I'm on it. Obviously, Megs is my favorite, but I really do like Roxanne as a tough, yet feminine, female lead. She's full of good ole' Scotch-Irish spirit, a perfect compliment for Meg's gameness. I totally love Minion as well; I mean, what's NOT to like about an intelligent talking mudfish who can make Martha Stewart look like an amateur? I have wound up with more and more respect-can't quite say "like" yet-for Metroman. At first, it's easy to dislike the guy as an arrogant, narcissistic jock who cares only about himself in the long run, but the more you look into his situation, the more you can understand where he's coming from, and in his own subtle way, he makes up for the mistakes of his past. I wound up thinking that he was actually a lot smarter than he let on, too.
His music still sucks, though, but if Miley Cyrus can land a recording contract, anything is possible!
Visually, especially as people go, the movie was superior to most of Pixar's. I mean, the anatomical detail, like seeing tendons and ligaments under skin, and the subtle gestures that most movie goers probably didn't notice, are very realistic. Ironically, the only Pixar movie that captures that realism and detail in things like eyes is not even about humans for the most part, but is none other than Monsters, Inc.!

I have ordered the "Art of..." book, and it shipped out yesterday, so hopefully it will arrive next week, and I can't wait to see it.

pitbulllady

[mentalguru]

I run into a fair few people who like both this movie and Avatar: TLA, I think a part of it is the crossover between wacky humour and redemption which means some crossover in interest has definitly resulted.

The voice of the 'Warden' is the famous JK Simmons who has also voiced Captain Atom in my favourite cartoon of all time Justice League Unlimited (superheroes and antagonists with actual depth are found there! . And Atom is interesting since for a short time he becomes and anatgonist too), and guess what? It appears as if in the sequel series for one of my favourite cartoon tv shows (Avatar: the last airbender, the new show being called the Legend of Korra), The guy has a very important role. He'll be mentor and airbending teacher for the next Avatar Korra as well as the son of the last shows main character (and previous Avatar) Aang. We're still unsure as to ages but the character will probably be at least 50 years old given the time skip of the sequel and people are pretty happy at the idea of him being in it as well as a Daniel Dae Kim for another character.

So yay for him!