David Cross

CHICAGO – DreamWorks’ “Megamind” features a fantastic voice cast (one of the best of 2010) and will play very well to legions of rugrats over the next few years, but it’s a film that might leave their parents shrugging their shoulders in disappointment. With three of the best animated films ever made hitting theaters last year (“Toy Story 3,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “The Illusionist”) along with quality alternatives (“Despicable Me,” “Tangled”), it’s likely that “Megamind” will appropriately get lost in the mix of history when people talk about this era of the medium.

CHICAGO – Both games based on video games and a large majority of children’s games often have issues with creativity and when the two merge it can result in products that are truly bankrupt artistically. Such is the case with “Megamind: Ultimate Showdown,” a massive disappointment that is so clearly designed to pull dollars from parents of kids who love Dreamworks’ #1 movie “Megamind” but offers nothing to entertain them in return.

CHICAGO – Being a super-villain is apparently going out of style as “Megamind” follows relatively quickly on the heels of “Despicable Me” and both tell the story of a bad guy realizing that it’s more fun to be good. The title character of “Megamind” (Will Ferrell) is a nefarious super-powered fellow who has just barely lost every fight he’s had with the beloved Metroman (Brad Pitt). It seems appropriate that the film about them is also a marginal affair in which the good just barely outweighs the bad.

CHICAGO – Massive giveaway! In our latest edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 25 admit-two advance-screening movie tickets up for grabs to the new film “Megamind” along with five Xbox 360, five Nintendo Wii and five Nintendo DS video games!

CHICAGO – I love Will Arnett, Keri Russell, David Cross, and Mitchell Hurwitz. And yet, I don’t love “Running Wilde.” If you need any proof that quality television takes something more intangible than just getting talented people together, look no further than this sporadically-entertaining FOX sitcom, a show with more-than-enough talent to get over the common growing pains of the first few episodes of a sitcom if the ratings are strong enough to give it time to do so but is undeniably disappointing at the start.

CHICAGO – Here’s a thoroughly detestable comedy from some of the most appealing people in Hollywood. It could easily be mistaken for one of the fake movies advertised before “Tropic Thunder,” which cleverly spoofed the creative bankruptcy that befalls so many mainstream studio products.

CHICAGO – In this summer movie season of old men with whips, gals in stilettos and superheroes a go-go, you may ask: “Where’s the cartoon?” (“Speed Racer” doesn’t count.) Indeed, the most highly anticipated animation event of the summer is “Kung Fu Panda”.

CHICAGO – On the other end of the phone, Mary Lynn Rajskub (best known to most Americans as Chloe O’Brian on the hit television show “24”) tells me her Thanksgiving plans.

Even though her voice is sweet and humble as we discuss the logistics and square footage needed to properly deep fry a turkey, something in my mind can’t separate her from the government agent she plays.