Everybody loves a good superhero movie. Whether it’s the classic high-flying antics of Christopher Reeve’s 1971 Superman or the groundbreaking animated adventure of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, superheroes have been captivating audiences for decades with larger-than-life characters and jaw-dropping special effects. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Universe entries are among the most popular modern entries in the genre, Peacock is giving subscribers the opportunity to discover a criminally underrated superhero movie, and they won’t have to go searching for its sequel.
DreamWorks Animation’s 2010 animated superhero film Megamind is now streaming on Peacock. The movie, led by Will Ferrell as the titular villain-turned-hero, joined the NBCUniversal streamer on March 1st and is now streaming alongside its 2011 sequel, Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate, as well as the spinoff series Megamind Rules. For those unfamiliar with the 73%-critic-rated film, Megamind is about a brilliant but hapless alien supervillain who loses his purpose after he actually defeats his superhero nemesis. When the new hero he creates to fight decides that it’s more fun to be a bad guy, Megamind must transform into the city’s unlikely defender.
Megamind Is the Superhero Movie We Didn’t Know We Needed
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Megamind isn’t your typical superhero movie. In fact, the film is an incredibly brilliant and ahead-of-its-time subversion of the superhero genre that more closely resembles modern, deconstructive media like The Boys or Invincible than it does its contemporaries or other genre entries at the time. The movie effectively flipped the script on traditional hero-versus-villain dynamics, avoiding the traditional viewing of events through a hero’s lens in favor of following a sympathetic villain’s journey toward redemption and recentering the hero, a narcissistic, shallow celebrity, as the movie’s antagonist and the “nice guy,” Tighten, as the real monster.
It’s a movie that is just as much about self-acceptance and destiny and highlighting that good and evil are not always black and white as it is about action, and it continues to subvert genre tropes throughout its run, from the villain winning early to upending the damsel-in-distress narrative with Roxanne Ritchi. Even looking past the way Megamind fits into the superhero genre, the movie is a really solid film. All of those creative and well-choreographed are brought to life through the top-notch animation style you expect from a DreamWorks film, and the movie balances those high-octane stunts with more than enough laugh-out-loud humor to keep both kids and adults laughing. It’s also a film that has held up remarkably well and is highly rewatchable.
What’s New on Peacock?
If you’re looking for a movie for movie night, Peacock has you covered. The NBCUniversal streamer has already added tons of great additions to its content catalog in March, including Argo, Burn After Reading, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Friday the 13th, John Wick: Chapter 4, the DreamWorks franchise Madagascar, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Upcoming arrivals include Fast X on March 15th and the streaming debut of Wicked: For Good on March 20th.
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