A Despicable Mind

For some reason you often find that the Hollywood system manages to produce similarly themed films within months of each other, so you get Ants and A Bugs Life, Armageddon and Deep Impact, Capote and Infamous amongst many other examples.

The last one two comes in the form of two animated films that take the Supervillain of comic book lore the central focus. Dreamworks brings us 'Megamind' not long after Universal bought us 'Despicable Me'

And is often the case they both take the same initial idea and work it in differing ways. The Steve Carell starring Despicable Me is the gentler of the two efforts, yes, it does have outlandish moments but generally is the lower key of the two.

Following Carell's Gru as he struggles to mount the greatest crime of all time it sees him slowly but surely grow fond of the three orphans he's forced to take in as part of his plan.

The film works largely because thankfully the orphaned girls are as charming as they need to be for it to work and this is backed up by the comedic efforts of Gru's minions. It's also something a bit different from what you'd expect to see from a Hollywood studio thanks to the European sensibilities of directors Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud.

MegaMind is the brasher of the two and plays much like, well, a Will Ferall film as we follow his titular Megamind as he finally defeats his lifelong nemesis and finds himself falling for the reporter always caught between the two.

So lively gags here keep the film ticking over and much like Despicable Me Megamind's minion is a comic star. Elsewhere this plays out much like a rom-com and a strong one at that with a sparky to and from between Ferrell's blue headed villain and Tina Fey's Lois Lane type.

Both efforts are worth watching, but if I had to pick a favourite I'd go for Megamind but it's a close run thing.