YMMV / Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate

• Ass Pull:
  • What many people call the inclusion of the Doom Syndicate, where Megamind happens to be the founding member. The first movie strongly indicates that Megamind has been alone his entire life, except for Minion, and the implication that Megamind and Metroman were the only superhumans in Metro City.
  • The idea that Megamind had a mentor that taught him villainy before the events of the first film blatantly contradicts his backstory from said film, where he never interacted with any other villains, went to a regular school with other kids, and only learned to be a villain due to bad influences and a troubled childhood.
• Bile Fascination: Perhaps the only reason a few Megamind fans decided to watch the film is to see just how bad DreamWorks Animation Television could screw up the sequel to a beloved 14-year-old movie.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The fans of the original movie, which had amassed a massive following in the late 2010s, almost immediately wrote this sequel off as non-canon, due to a number of factors: Retconning Megamind's backstory and him grabbing the idiot and jerkass balls, changing Minion's name to "Ol' Chum" which was seemingly done to not overshadow Despicable Me's Minions, how the animation looks worse than other DreamWorks Animation Television works despite the 14-year gap between the movies, and the fact that the movie simply is not very good or funny as the original.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Some fans criticized the subplot of Megamind and Minion/Chum having a Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure because of Megamind not appreciating him enough, given Megamind learning to appreciate Minion was already part of his Character Development in the first movie and being only two days in-universe since he became defender of Metro City.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • You're Welcome.^ExplanationThe first official trailer addresses to the audience that Megamind is indeed back and that you're welcome for that. It's meant to grab the attention of the fans who saw the original and have been longing for a follow-up for years. It became very quickly apparent, however, that the sequel movie and TV series are nothing of what fans really wanted and that "you're welcome" was essentially a middle finger to them.
  • Megamind vs.^ExplanationWhen the full poster for the movie was revealed, fan edits replacing the Doom Syndicate with other things became popular.
  • From Megamind to Nevermind^ExplanationA very common reaction from people who were hyped when a sequel to the heavily acclaimed original was announced, only to be swiftly turned away upon seeing the trailers.
  • SHOOT THEM WITH THE DEHYDRATION GUN!^ExplanationWhen ranting about the movie, internet reviewer Schaffrillas' sheer anger at Megamind not just shooting the Doom Syndicate with the Dehydration Gun, among other things he ranted about in his extremely critical review of the Pilot Movie, has been making the rounds on Twitter, with many people turning it into a copypasta towards other incidents of Stating the Simple Solution or Forgot About His Powers.
  • "All the budget went to the theme song."^Explanation Despite the extremely poor reception the movie ended up having, more that a few fans noted that the theme song was actually a pretty catchy and fun song, leading to some fans jokingly proclaim that the movie and show's quality was a direct consequence of spending too much money on making the song. Certainly helped by how that they got Queen singer Adam Lambert to do said theme song.
• Mis-blamed: A common point of bafflement regarding the movie is how DreamWorks Animation's movie division could go from the likes of The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish to this movie... only it wasn't actually developed by DreamWorks' movie division, but rather their lesser-known television division (best known for various DreamWorks animated series based on their movies).
• Older Than They Think:
  • A lot of criticism was hurled at the film recasting Megamind... except said recasting is Keith Ferguson, who's been voicing Megamind in the games since 2010 (apart from Nolan North darrin'ing Ferguson in DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing).
  • The Doom Syndicate isn't an original creation made for this movie. They were created for the tie-in video games Megamind: Ultimate Showdown and Megamind: Mega Team Unite and the overall concept was a cut idea from the original movie. With that said, this iteration consists of mostly new characters (except for Behemoth), and they weren't founded by Megamind in the video games but by Titan instead.
  • This isn't the first non-theatrically released DreamWorks sequel ever made. That would be Joseph: King of Dreams, a vaguely related Direct to Video follow-up/prequel to The Prince of Egypt.
• Special Effect Failure: A common criticism of the animation outside of how outdated it looks even compared to DreamWorks' other TV productions, is that there are a great many instances of clipping.
• Stock Footage Failure: The film opens up with flashbacks to the first movie's events. While not a bad idea in concept, they also go out of their way to use footage from the first movie, which includes Megamind’s older design. In addition, aside from the current Megamind’s recap, all the dialogue in the footage proper is removed^note likely to avoid paying royalties to the original celebrity VA’s, with not even an attempt at a Flashback with the Other Darrin^note while Titan doesn’t have a stand-in actor since Jonah Hill reprised his role for the Mega-Team Unite! tie-in game, Metro Man does with Rick Pasqualone. As a result, the cheapness of the sequel's animation and presentation is exposed right from the gate.
• Strawman Has a Point: The Mayor is meant to be incompetent and ungrateful towards Megamind's superhero services, but it is very hard to deny that Megamind's handling of the Doom Syndicate's situation is extremely flawed, to say the least, and that he has every right to complain he's causing more destruction than he's fixing. It doesn't help that it has barely been two days since Megamind was considered a villain in-universe.
• Tainted by the Preview: The initial trailer was very poorly received, with many critics pointing out the poor animation compared to the original and how all of the voice actors got replaced.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Fans weren't fond of Minion changing his name to "Ol' Chum" to avert association with certain yellow creatures. Most fans believe the Grandfather Clause should have applied, given both movies were released the same year and Minion is far from an uncommon word.
  • Those who remember the Doom Syndicate from the video games tend to dislike how they were changed from being formed by Titan/Tighten to being old friends of Megamind, thus creating a major Retcon in the latter's backstory, along with the members being almost entirely different.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Minion changing his name could have fallen into a Meaningful Rename very easily, given that he stated at the beginning of the movie that he wants to stop being a simple "minion" to become a sidekick, so it would have been a much more satisfactory pay-off if his name was changed for something that made him sound like an equal to Megamind. Instead, Minion's rename is nothing more than a meta joke and he already went through it by the time the movie began.
    • To a lesser degree, some fans thought it would have been funnier if the "cease and desist order" came from an Expy of Gru or the Minions.
  • The movie happening barely two days after the events of the original movie is seen as a wasted opportunity. A major plot point of the original movie revolves around how there was nothing like Megamind and Metro Man, leading to their personal isolation. Exploring how Megamind would feel after a period of peace as a superhero with nothing to fight with, could have been an interesting starting point. Instead, Megamind gains his own Rogues Gallery barely two days after becoming a superhero.
• Uncertain Audience: The movie was marketed towards fans of the original, but its writing and humor is more aimed at children, who would likely be unfamiliar with the original because it's far from one of DreamWorks' most well known films and, as a result, isn't as ingrained in popular culture as their other franchises like Shrek, Madagascar, or Kung Fu Panda. Not helping its case is that it was released far too late for those who grew up with the original to still be children, unlike other television spin-offs by DreamWorks. The result is a movie that tries to cater to two very different audiences at the same time (quite literally — one of the first lines of the movie has Megamind address both "old friends" and "new friends" in the audience), and has fallen under intense scrutiny for failing to capture the wit and charm of the original or sell the character (who requires the context of the original movie to sell his gimmick) to new audiences.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Though not to the same extent as Monsters vs. Aliens (2013), the weaker CGI animation makes most of the characters (especially Megamind) look weird and creepy.

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