#button of doom

If there's one tiny little pet peeve I have with the end of the movie, it's that Megamind wears the white cape (from Metroman) for the statue ceremony which is the last scene. It's only this specific occasion and works perfectly fine as a metaphor in this instance (donning the cape of the previous hero meaning that he officially takes up the hero mantle for the city) so it doesn't have to mean that Megamind would permanently switch to white as a hero but I still don't like the accompanying implication that his usual black attire is somehow unfitting for his new role. It might not be the "usual" kind of outfit for a hero but it's Megamind's own style and he doesn't need to change that only because he switched sides. And lo and behold, that's exactly what this short is about!

Megamind doesn't think that his evil gadgets are fitting for a proper hero so he sells almost all of them to the people of Metro City. For crime fighting he fashions himself a white suit (including this very cape) that copies Metroman's most notable powers with technology. Only the first time he tries to use it against an actual danger it doesn't work. Megamind thinks this is his "new self" already failing but Minion convinces him to go back to being himself and fighting like himself instead of trying to copy Metroman - which is how they end up winning. Megamind takes all his stuff back from the people he sold it to and at the end, when they go on their first official patrol as heroes, he wears his black outfit again including his usual cape!

This is pretty much exactly what I imagine Megamind would struggle with in the aftermath of the movie. He's one of the good guys now but he's still used to people's old perception of him and the stuff he can do. I'm 100% sure he would, initially, jump to abandoning his old approach (because that's how supervillains operate, not heroes) and try to imitate Metroman's skillset because that's what a hero is supposed to be like, in his view. He's still very insecure, which the short shows really well, about his own, his true self having the capabilities of being a proper hero. (Heck, a big part of his initial plan to beat Titan in the movie is almost the same thing, pretend to be Metroman!) You could easily make a much longer story with this kind of arc but I really like the way BoD handles this with its limited time. Megamind gains more confidence in his "old self" through his win and while he is still insecure about it in the end (he's not sure that they would actually accept their hero being like this) he's also reassured by the city showing their support (projecting his logo into the sky). It's something he's still going to struggle with for the foreseeable future but it's another major step in the right direction in addition to what he already realized in the movie proper. (It also makes sense that Minion is the one who can tell him this because he knows better than most that the approach isn't the problem.) I also love how well Megamind fighting against his own gigantic robot self from when he was evil and defeating it works so well as a metaphor.

And, this joke is hilarious.

"This is the last time you make a fool out of me!"

Thinking: invisible car is right theeeeeere, if he punches me, I'll be closer!

"You did the fool thing all by yourself!"

*pUnCh*

*lands exactly where he wanted to*

*next to invisi-car*

~.~.~.~

Megamind made a similar move in Button of Doom.

The giant robot has a thing on his arm that he can load up with heavy objects (like cars and trucks) and a red button that shoots those objects out. Weapon.

Megamind, here, was just about to get roasted by the same death ray that "killed" Metro Man. It's meant to destroy the robot but, as you can see, Megamind is ON the robot (spee-ider bot). So Megamind needs to get out of there ASAP or he's gonna get blown up along with the robot.

Fortunately, the robot is tryna squish him. Where ever Mega goes, he hits with his robotic hand, tryna smoosh him.

So Megamind jumps on the red button, as seen above...

Then positions himself so that he'll be shot out once the button is pressed.

It works and he lives.

~.~.~.~.~.~