The Queer and Neurodivergent Subtext of Megamind 

There is no easter bunny,there is no tooth fairy and there is no queen of England

I love that this movie didn't try to glorify incels or try to get us to sympathize with them. A lot of movies make "friendzone" out to be relatable and pitiful, and push the message of "keep trying", when it comes to pursuing someone who isn't even interested in you. Hal is an amazing villain, not because he's likeable or sympathetic, but simply because he is terrifyingly realistic. There are some very disturbing implications to the scene where he invited Roxanne over to a party with "just the two of them" and apparently hired a photographer. Incels irl can also be dangerous, without superpowers or any physical strength. There have been plenty of cases of women being stalked, threatened, abused, sexually harassed or murdered by the man they rejected. And I'm glad that this movie didn't shy away from showing the true evil here.

One of Dream Works’ best. I love how they point out toxic masculinity, incels, and “no I’m not interested” means “no” very well in a way kids can understand and isn’t heavy handed.

"The strongest bi for bi energy I have ever seen" Jessie and James from Pokemon: "interesting"

One of the things that I love so much about metroman is that he’s not the villain and/or an asshole (homelander style), I think that it’s a character subversion that not many people talk about, because he appeared to be very narcissistic and a jerk in the begging, robbing megamind of a good household but he’s also just a guy who wanted to be normal and because he knew that megamind was not actually evil (or at least a menace) is believable that he wanted to stop being a hero, him passing the torch to him and appearing at the end praising him and calling him a friend is honestly very wholesome and I’m really glad that’s the direction of his character.

Ah yes, a look at Metro-city. I like Megamind, because while he does do bad things, mostly people don't get hurt. Sure- stuff gets stolen, and things get broken, but it's all just... fun for him. It's not about doing evil, it's about doing bad. Which is weird, but it's like the difference between stealing a puppy and kicking one.

Ever since I was a kid I've always seen metroman and megamind as soulmates, people who go beyond friendship, rivalry, familiar love or even romantic love, like you could fit them in all of those terms but neither of them at the same time, like if they would've ended on either of those levels it would have felt right, I have absolutely no idea how tf a literal 12 year old could have such deep thoughts at the moment but I still feel the same way about them as I did then :3 PD: megamind gives me so much raging biromantic asexual vibes its not even funny

i watched this movie all throught my childhood and as a wee lad people around me and myself included never really understood why i liked megamind so much. even why i discovered i was a goth it still felt like something was missing, now as a gay trans man realising that guys like MM are literally my exact type i can fully say i understand now

Finally someone else who hates the white cape as much as I do! Loved this and for my own personal reading I always saw the fact Roxanne kisses Megamind on the cheek rather than the mouth at the end to be a clever nod to how they would still be working through the whole Bernard thing despite not actually showing the full conversation it deserved

In conclusion, I am totally justified in my enduring childhood love of this movie

Megamind is such a cult classic. I loved it as a kid, still as a grown adult. ! P R E S E N T A T I O N !

I do love Megamind and Roxanne's relationship and I hope they get together, but, to be entirely fair, they don't technically get together at the end. They clearly care for each other and have forgiven each other but they never officially get back together, they just sort of imply they will get back together eventually.

Yeeeessssss!!!! I f***ing love Megamind. He was everything little disabled queer me wanted to be. Admittedly, perhaps not the best roll model, but he was strange and dramatic and I loved it from the jump

I feel like what you said about him being able to express himself freely can also fall under the logic I've seen a lot of queer/disabled alt people use, which is "I'm going to get singled out either way so I might as well embrace it" or "they're going to notice something is "off" either way so I might as well make myself aestetically odd" Which also lands itself well with everything else you said. I might be reaching here but I also feel like him having the classic orange prisoner uniform (something that clashes with him being blue) could be read as him having to mask while in prison and later on embracing what's natural to him

ur videos never seem to amaze me on how many queer coded and disabled characters are in media and how much media fails to portray queer and disabled characters well, a lot of these flew over my head when i was younger and even now

I'm autistic too. My autism manifested in a way that made me the weird kid who quietly sat in the corner reading a book while the other kids were talking about sports.

Megamind is one of the first movies I studied to the point of seeing hidden thing and easter eggs all on my own I loved it and was amazed at the fact they made a female character not a damsel in distress BUT also not "Look LOOK LOOOK SHE CAN FIGHT THAT WILL BE HER PERSONALITY from now on and forever" She's the perfect middle for me also the fact the movie took it's time to show us the interactions between those two instead of showing a 20 second montage of them being lovely dovely LADS GENTS AND EVERYONE ELSE when a queer loves a het couple and accualy hopes they will end up together (either as friends or lovers They ended up being both withch made me even more happy) you know it's a good couple and you wrote shi right That movie didn't do anything good it did everything FANTASTIC! Live laugh megamind 💙

I have ADHD (and Autistic traits) and it is so interesting looking at Megamind from a neurodivergent lens. In school I was practically bullied by my teachers for not behaving and learning like everyone else. This type of teaching doesn’t encourage children who are struggling to try, and as a result some don’t ever try. It was clear that Megamind had a talent for inventing. A good teacher would find a way to nurture it in a safe environment. Instead of shaming and ostracising him. If his teacher expressed to the students that his uniqueness was positive then the students may have been more receptive of him.

I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad that there’s no sequel to this. It’s such a good movie. I think more movies would just sort of destroy the nuance.

I like to think that Roxanne and MM just stayed friends, they're very close and compliment each other a lot so some ppl think they're dating but nope! Just besties

I have been a Christian my whole life. I was taught to be homophobic for a few years once my parents couldn’t shelter me from the idea of LGBT+ any longer, and immediately told me it was a top tier sin. But since then, I have become a queer Christian. Megamind said “Then it hit me: If I was the bad boy, then I was going to be the baddest boy of them all.” I told myself that if loving other people unconditionally, like God does, is a sin in the eyes of my family, I’m going to be the biggest heretic my family has ever seen. 9:40 “In taking on the role of the villain, in a backwards sort of way, Megamind actually gains some freedom from the restrictions society usually puts on men to conform. He’s the villain so of course he can wear skin tight leather, platform boots, and eyeliner. He doesn’t have to conform to society’s standards because he’s already outside of them.” Before, I was terrified of being not good enough for my family, but now knowing I am already a heretic to my family because of what Jesus actually preached, then I’m finally free to be as imperfect as God made me, instead of hiding behind masks of a perfect daughter, a perfect sister, a perfect student, a perfect Christian, a perfect pastors kid. I listened to genres of music that weren’t Christian and some that (oh no) cussed a little. I painted my nails the colors of Pride flags. I wore a black ring on my right middle finger. I wore makeup besides just mascara. I finally didn’t hate who I saw in the mirror. I finally allowed myself to cry about stuff that seriously hurt me emotionally, instead of hiding it, like my dad taught me when I was 4. If being queer, loving myself, asking for help, being allowed to cry, and finally understanding I don’t have to be perfect for someone to love me, is what defines being a “hermitic” to my family, I’m gonna be one heck of a queer Christian heretic. More backstory of me, a queer Christian pastor’s kid: When I finally overcame my fear of what might happen if I was queer in my homophobic Christian family, I did my own research on “Is LGBT+ a sin?” and realized the Bible (in context and without obvious mistranslations) never said anything close to that. Then I realized I barely knew anything about the Bible. Then I realized I was told my whole life “God loves you unconditionally, so long as you’re perfect in every part of your life,” but since I was little when it was first ingrained in my mind, I didn’t understand how hypocritical it was, but I never would have questioned it until I questioned why being gay was seen as not good enough for “unconditional love”.

Yes, glad you're doing a megamind analysis. I have a question. Are you ever going to do an analysis on the neurodivergent subtext + disability aid metaphor in The Owl house, particularly regarding Luz, her adhd, her reputation, her use of glyphs. Also Hunter, his autism and magicless disability, how Belos used that disability to make him dependent on Belos to live, and his half-allegorical portrayal of the abuse autistic kids go through, particularly those that are subjected to "therapy" in order to force them into the role their parents want them in. (spoilers for late season 2 here) Especially in regards to how Caleb and the Grimwalkers before Hunter fit into that allegory. I just think there is a lot to discuss there, and you've already done a video on Eda's curse.

Actually, Dreamworks made a short after the plot of the Megamind movie with him trying to sell his evil stuff and be more like Metroman, but eventually keeps sticking to his original black and blue. Idk, thought you’d like to know since he does end up staying his true self :)

I remember rewatching this film in 2018 with a friend who had never seen it and she said “wow Roxanne has bi wife energy” and I haven’t been the same since

I remember watching Megamind in a group chat once and just straight up saying "She is so going to peg him" in the exact scene that you show when you say "Bi for Bi energy" .

You can interpret this movie in a billion ways really. Something Interesting is Metro-Man's character kinda echos Objectivist Theories of Selfishness. They even have a statue of him as Atlas. ALSO I like that his fortress is under the School. That is Symbolic of how he never really grew past that boyhood praise. ALSO I love the part where Titan is talking about how there are no real Heroes and says: "There is no Tooth Fair there is no Easter Bunny and there is no Queen of England" Not only is that hilarious, It also displays a massive hole in his Logic. In order to reinforce his argument he ignores evidence to the contrary. Because good people do exist (I know the queen died but still other examples of good people exist) and he is ignoring that to make himself feel better, that is super REAL. ALSO the scene of "My Death was Greatly Exaggerated" was a Reference to Mark Twain. The Great American Author. Superman Spoof "TRUTH JUSTICE AND THE AMERICAN WAY". And that Ending with the Dehydration Gun and Invisible Car and Disguise Watch. It is a Trinity of Chekhov's guns. MEGAMIND IS JUST ART.

Oakwyrm, in Button of Doom, Megamind discards the cape decides "No style changes! I look great!" I know it's not the same as the movie ending with him in the black outfit, but I thought I might mention it

amazing transition into "PRESENTATION!" I laughed out loud!!

Wish megamind got more, I'm so glad i grew up with it and other movies like it cause i realise just how well it affected me, I will definitely make my little cousins watch it if i get the chance

There is a very smart theory that mega mind was put in jail purposefully and the school with one class was created near jail also purposefully so the immortal alien with superpowers could be artificially raised as a superhero to the obviously less powerful "villain". If there was no powerful villain (but of course less powerful than a hero) then Metro man could grow up as a bad guy, and no one would be able to stop him. They thought that they had to sacrifice Mega mind for it

I too was the autistic teacher's pet who was the easy, gullible target for bullying aha. That part really made me remember my preschool days i had buried lmao. I love you and i love Megamind

I'm literally in the middle of Megamind as you posted this - and it's not even a movie I commonly watch lol.

People in these comments need to take a step back from the internet and go to therapy if they are getting full on angry about a *movie* in which someone interpreted how *they* saw a character. Calm down.

Wait there was queercoding in this movie? I never noticed. Though to be fair, it took me 20+ years to figure out I was bi, so my gaydar may just be extremely broken. Lol Anyways, Megamind. Great movie. Deserves all the love it gets and then some.

I wish my auditory processing problems didn't make it so hard to watch movies. This sounds like something I would enjoy

If u ever get to watch the Megamind short, The Button Of Doom, u will see that after the movie, he tries to be a hero like metroman, but he fails in doing things the way metro did, so he accepts that he is the kind of hero that is gonna still use the same clothing and symbolism, and that was a hella cute

Megamind is one of my favorites. I never got any queer vibes or Neuro divergent vibes from the movie but that could be because I was not to deep into the LGBTQIA’s type of content and learning more about my autism or other people with autism and other mental disabilities. I found out or realize that I was asexual around late into my senior year of high school in 2019

Thank you for sharing, I too love this movie dearly! I hope it gets better on your personal front, sorry to hear it's hard for you right now 💔

Love your videos I always liked megamind as a positive twist on superhero narratives. In which both Metroman and Megamind are similar to superman.

From rewatching the movie and looking into behind the scenes stuff megamind was supposed to be surrounded by other villains (some being reused for video game spin-offs) I really hope the animated series he’s getting can include those characters and build on the foundation the movie made. Just so we’ll done and you could literally have a deep dive on every main character (though I’m sure RU-vid’s already done those twice over)

Another point I like is that megamind wants to be a good guy deep down, and of course takes the supervillain role to allow himself space for expression outside of social norms. But this contrast of personality and his rivalry with Metroman (the jock in a midlife crisis who until then just liked the attention) is really the perfect combination for Megamind because it means neither of them have to kill each other because they're worth more to each other alive. It's a charade, as Metroman admits. And Megamind admits it even more readily, being prepared to call timeout and calling the battles a "game" several times. This also feeds brilliantly into the tension as the plot develops because Tighten is not like either of them, but rather a true creep who is more than ready to kill and destroy on a whim. Hence, Megamind is completely unprepared for this genuine battle against a true threat.

I always feel so caught off guard when one creator I watch references a different creator I watch

I’m glad you recognized Megamind as a masterpiece 🎉 I recognized the nuerodivergent angle of the story but I appreciate the story from the queer lense. The main take I got from the film is what it says about Intelligence. In society, being conventionally strong or attractive makes you like able but all of Megamind’s gifts are discarded since he does not fit the mold. Roxanne is conveniently pretty but we see that there is so much more to her since we see her intelligence and curiosity in action when she tries to discover the plot with Megamind. Megamind and Roxanne are possibly my favorite movie couple for the fact they find solace in each other for their Intellect and who they are as people. Hal on the other hand, believes that your worth is only indicative of your looks since he sees Roxanne as an object and the only way of possessing her is if he were conventionally attractive like Metroman. When he does become super powered, he feels a right to Roxanne’s affections since he has now gained an inflated sense of self worth and does not understand what Roxanne truly values. The reason Roxanne never dated Metroman is because she values people’s intelligence and kindness, not who they are on the outside. So when Roxanne finds out who Megamind truly is, it is heartbreaking since you can sympathize for both sides. Anyways, This is an amazing movie and I recommend it to everyone.

I think its more about nurture vs nature rather than neurodivergence

I'm glad you made that little comment about how queer baiting and queer coding are not the same, and I agree that the Internet needs a suspension from saying it. I've seen people use queer baiting, when referring to a REAL LIFE public figure, not wanting to disclose their sexuality. And they try to frame it like the public figure is in the wrong. Like, no queen, your obsession with knowing people's sexualities and demanding they out themselves on a public forum or else you'll make them look bad, is wrong.

I started loving this movie around the pandemic, I'm glad you uploaded your thoughts and analysis on Megamind!

If you find the white cape part of the last scene out of place, i'd recommended you watch Megamind: The Button of Doom

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels on RU-vid.

The thing that got me is that the warden let Megamind grow up in prison.

1:10 Be careful that Megamind never becomes as distorted and commercialized like the Minions. Glad, I am not the only teacher's pet.

I didn't notice any neurodivergent subtext, but I did find it interesting that the movie acknowledged the idea of different types of intelligence, where so many people are used to seeing intelligence as a scalar value. Megamind can pretty much whip up advanced technology in his sleep, but he still needed help from Roxanne with her investigative skills.

"Dispicable me got 3 sequels so y'all have no taste" - well riddle me this: when does Megamind punch a shark unconcious? Hal is a villian. Megamind is a supervillian. Gru is a hypervillian

Megamind is so very critically underrated and underappreciated. It doesn't even get a nod in the Dreamworks new opening. 😠

I feel this video didn't last quite long enough. Definitely could have listened to you talk about this movie for much longer! Still glad you covered it, Megamind is in my top 5 favourite movies.

It is fun to watch the Button of Doom short and see them some what tackle the idea that Megamind needs to do hero things his own way and not just try to be Metroman.

I feel with the recent growing attention on how damaging the golden child vs scapegoat dynamic is to both parties it’s for this movie just works for this time. Like it isn’t as focused on it as something like Encanto because they’re not literal family in this but it still has good rep of why other dynamic are unhealthy like nice guy vs the woman on his pedestal and packmule vs the people who take them for granted.

It's like one over on my side of this dirtball, and I should be sleeping... BUT THIS IS GALAXIES MORE IMPORTANT.

funny space guy really did say bi rights tbh

You are my new favourite creator, every movie/show you talk about are my favourites

I discovered Megamind not too long ago and I deeply regret that I hadn't heard about it in the past. It's one of my favorite movies now.

I grinned big when you mentioned Cinema Therapy's video in this. It's a great video that provides great insights into the relationship dynamics of this movie!

You have such a soothing voice

I didn’t even realise how young I was when this came out, I was like 1-5 years old

You were waiting to find the perfect place to put that 'PRESENTATION' bit in, I can feel it.

Megamind intoduced me to fanfic and for that I'll be forever greatful. Not to mention, top tear movie. BTW I don't like the white either it messes with his complextion

Hey thanks for send the link for Disc, New suscriptor, you're damn right. Megamind amazing move, I love the subtext that it have and the new little details you notice when watching the movie again. I hope you feel better emotionally

Loved your video, and also, it was a pleasant surprise to hear you mention Cinema Therapy and their take on the movie (as you and them are two of my favorite RU-vid channels)

9:10 Lowkey, when you said this, it made me think how this felt more a racism metaphor, not a queerphobia one. As a black person, when you said how he was criminalized the moment he landed one the planet as an infant I thought to myself, "damn, I relate to this so much as a black man." Not as a queer one. And yeah, I'm queer too! But lowkey I feel like Megamind is a very good racism allegory too.

I have never seen a peice of media demonstrate the descent of an incel so well. Megamind deserves heaps of praise for that alone.

Genuinely always been one of my all time favorites. Never to be forgotten by me.

i saw this in my recs and immediately knew i HAD to watch it and that i would agree with every word. megamind is just such a gem and im so glad its finally getting the appreciation it deserved all along

As usual, you bring up very relevant points that made me reflect on some aspects of the story I hadn’t really noticed before. When I first saw the movie, I was agreeably surprised with its treatment of the characters as they kept breaking potentially harmful stereotypes. For instance, I was sure that the privileged Metro-Man would predictably be revealed as the "real" villain, while Hal would turn out to be an okay guy if given a chance. I also wasn’t sure how I felt about a "good at heart" Megamind tricking Roxanne into dates, or ordering around a sentient creature predestined to be his personal servant... But none of those elements unfolded the way I feared they might. Metro-Man wasn’t vilified for his circumstances and went through his own interesting crisis. Hal didn’t get any pity or excuses for being a dangerous creep. And although very devoted to his "boss" indeed, Minion was very much his own fish and actively chose to stay at his side, where he was actually treated like an equal. I find it interesting that despite having nobody else, Megamind enabled Minion quite early on to function independently from him and to make his own decisions by giving him an autonomous robotic body. Honestly, half of the reason why I enjoy watching this movie so much is really just how wholesome their friendship is and how much fun they have causing trouble together. To add to the queer vibe you addressed, I think that something about that particular relationship strongly appealed to my aro-aceness, since the two totally act like and basically could be considered platonic life partners. As for Megamind getting Roxanne to develop a genuine affection for him under a false identity (presenting as Bernard), the act in itself initially struck me as a pretty horrible treachery, but as someone who is also autistic, I came to see it more as a surprisingly accurate depiction of masking. I can definitely relate to Megamind’s experience of growing up with the feeling that he could never fit in or be liked for who he really was, and that his only chance to be accepted was to continue hiding his true self behind a facade of "normal" appearance and behavior.

*people mistake me and my rival for dating* oh yeah that’s because our souls are intertwined in this life and the next, so the confusion is understandable

i absolutely love these videos, mostly bc a; A+ takes, gotta say b; you see tge thumbnail and i know exactly what this is gonna be about- the most clear exanole was the tinkerbell vudeo, i just went “its gonna be about the wing repair isnt it?” and bam-! there is was- i absolutely lobe your stuff and every like 1-2 months have enough spoons saved up to binge through the new batch of videos and its very good content- hope you have a good day

for the point you made about the white cape at the end of the movie, DreamWorks actually covers this in "The Button of Doom." It's pretty much him trying to conform to what he thinks a hero is (aka metro man) and eventually accepting that he can be a hero while still being himself :]

Oh man, you are always on point with your videos.

Let’s be honest, if Megamind WANTED to cause a lot of damage, he could. He’s a super genius. If he wanted to hurt people? He definitely could. He just chooses not to because he’s a genuinely nice guy.

I’m glad this movie is actually recently starting to get more attention I love MM

oakwyrm: comes out with a megamind video me: stops breathing

I KNEW a Hal in high school. He thought that women owed him love and attention. He stalked girl, would randomly give girls things, and would act “nice” until they inevitably shut him down then he would get P I S S E D. He got kicked out for sneaking into the girls locker room after school.

Did anyone else have a crush on Megamind as a kid or was it just me. There was something about his playful yet clever personality, knowledge in advance tech & maybe chemistry, along with his style of clothing to even him being blue with purple tipped ears that really appealed to me ☺️

I rediscovered the movie this yeah, after enjoying it as a child. So I watched and then watched it around 4 more times and omg I love it the story the characters and most importantly the massage.

Cinema Therapy's nice vs good analysis of Megamind is an excellent complement to this video.

You’ll be pleased to know that in the 15 minute short of Meganind, he returns to his old outfit, cape included.

One of my favourite things about Megamind (Which I did not see till my Sophomore year of HS) was that it shows the reality and danger of "nice guys" and how much of a threat they pose to women and girls.

Then great things about mega mind is that a) I am queer, b) I’m autistic and this movie is legit just a reference to that. The line “there is no Easter bunny, there is no tooth fairy and there is no queen of England” Will forever be my favourite, especially since the queen died on my birthday. On a real note, I always related to megamind. He was weird, just like me. Other kids didn’t like me and the kids in megamind didn’t like him. I wasn’t weird, I was just different from them and that didn’t make me a bad person. I gave up on trying to act normal to them, I knew I could never satisfy them. I think it’s the same thing for Megamind

You're not wrong about this film speaking well to stuff like neurodivergence (among so many other things) I was in my early 20s when this first came out, and I genuinely hadn't seen a better film that represented my reasoning as a kid. By high school I was so consistently being labaelled as uninterested, lazy, and/or stupid that I hit my teens and just went "ok sure, I am. now what?". I'd spent so much time and effort TRYING to be better and not understanding why it wasn;t working and why i always felt depressed and angry and stressed out. Turns out I'm now in my late 30s and just got diagnosed with adhd. mkaes a lot more sense now and really easy to see looking back now. Megamind was not only a great representation of this idea of giving into what people label you as, but also it showed his character with such compassion that it was impossible not to understand where he was coming from. Also still one of the best displays of Nice Guy behaviour, and didn't dumb down the villainy of it at all.

The Queen of England joke aged like fine wine.

Unrelated to anything, just needed to tell you you're my rabbit's favourite RU-vidr. She often gets jumpy with different voices while she does settle down quickly, but when I'm listening to you she joins for cuddles and pets immediately and does happy ears not anxious ears.

megamind yes yes yes yes yes

I wached the film this morning jusf so I can see yout video, the animation style didn't drawn me at first and I knew about this movie for a preatty long time, I regret not giving it a shot by now

Thank you for this video, I really like it, and it's really well made!

One of our spider plants is named "Arachis deathicus", another is "Spee-ider"

PRESENTATION!

not me hearing a youtube guy tell me to watch Megamind (again) and just going "okay" and hitting up netflix

I watched Megamind the first time thinking it was going to be another super hero animation with a ton of cliches and no value. And I'm so happy I was wrong.

Just watched it for the first time, have been wanting to watch it for a few years now and it's finally on Netflix, so that was cool. Also, gotta say, I like Metroman, like he was a jerk as a kid, but as an adult, he's a pretty cool dude. Don't blame him for faking his death, he deserves to retire.

I personally never saw Megamind as a queer character, however, I enjoyed it both as a kid and as an adult to see a character who wasn't that stereotypical manly man character, who ... you know the drill, basically eats gravel for breakfast, is all no-feelings and kind of dresses like an off duty marine (we all know an abundance of male characters like that, especially in old media, and they're still prevalent in action movies). It's nice to show boys that they don't have to be like Indiana Jones, Dwayne Johnson or Vin Diesel to be considered real men (may they be queer or not), because toxic masculinity is a burden to all of us equally. (Not that any of these actors and characters were an issue, they're just examples.) PS: I am a woman myself, but I love Megaminds Goth shoes and I want them for myself.

I once said, when I first saw Megamind back when it came out, that it's the most perfectly movie movie I've ever seen. I stand by that, but it's hard to interpret. It's a lot of good symbolism and plot, without being heavy-handed.

good news! there's a sequel series scheduled to come out next year!