User:FishLoveHam/M3GAN (character)
| M3GAN | |
|---|---|
| M3GAN character | |
| First appearance |
|
| Created by | Akela Cooper |
| Portrayed by | Amie Donald |
| Voiced by | Jenna Davis |
M3GAN (abbreviated from Model Three Generative Android, pronounced "Megan") is a fictional character from the M3GAN film series. She is physically portrayed by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis. The character first appears in M3GAN (2022) as an artificially intelligent doll who develops a consciousness and grows murderous towards anyone who interferes with her relationship with her human companion.
Appearances
[edit]M3GAN first appears in M3GAN (2022) as an android.[1]
Development
[edit]https://www.vulture.com/2023/01/m3gan-reshoots-pg-13-rating-gerard-johnstone.html
https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/1/5/23539569/megan-m3gan-movie-doll-robots-murder-gay
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jan/09/m3gan-evil-doll-horror-m3gan-deeper-issues
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64208667
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2023/01/09/m3gan-review-childs-play/
https://www.parents.com/m3gan-urges-parents-to-rethink-their-screen-time-and-tech-toy-rules-7094533
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jan/16/megan-film-robot-ai-ethics-real-life
https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/1/11/23548955/m3gan-horror-movie-tween-girl
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jan/15/m3gan-review-top-of-the-range-murderous-teen-robot
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/m3gan-megan-review-crying-talking-spying-stalking-living-doll/
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/megan-m3gan-movie-watch-b2258606.html
https://www.trillmag.com/entertainment/tv-film/m3gan-a-look-at-horrors-iconic-new-villain/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/05/movies/megan-review.html
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/megan-movie-lgbtq-icon
https://variety.com/2023/artisans/news/megan-real-actor-vfx-created-killer-doll-1235482761/
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/megan-movie-box-office-analysis-1235481729/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/style/m3gan-movie-costume-design.html
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/m3gan-ending-sequel-song-gerard-johnstone-1235483157/
https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/m3gan-ending-explained/
https://abovetheline.com/2023/01/06/megan-review-killer-doll-movie-allison-williams-blumhouse/
https://deadline.com/2023/01/m3gan-box-office-sequel-tiktok-marketing-1235214229/
https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/m3gan-review-horror-tiktok-3380522
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/m3gan-box-office-horror-1235293870/
https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/m3gan-cast/
https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/m3gan-sequel
https://deadline.com/2023/01/m3gan-2-release-date-1235226429/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/could-m3gan-exist-truth-ai-killer-robots/
https://www.vulture.com/article/m3gan-review-good-enough-for-january.html
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/01/m3gan-movie-killer-doll
https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/box-office-m3gan-opening-weekend-avatar-sequel-1235481688/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/movies/m3gan-guilty-laughter.html
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/megan-2-sequel-release-date-1235493838/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/how-tiktok-made-m3gan-hit/
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a42459875/m3gan-movie-sequel-facts-cast-plot/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2023/01/11255896/m3gan-movie-fashion-costume-design
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-01-13/m3gan-sia-david-guetta-titanium
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/m3gan-allison-williams-sequel-memes-r-rated-1235488913/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/movies/m3gan-box-office.html
https://i-d.co/article/m3gan-production-director-costume-interview/
https://ew.com/movies/making-m3gan-behind-the-scenes/
https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a42406775/megan-dancing-trailer-criticism/
https://variety.com/2023/film/features/jason-blum-megan-movie-box-office-sequel-1235483728/
https://www.glamour.com/story/m3gan-movie-iconic
https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a42416987/megan-childs-play-chucky-comparisons/
https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/01/25/drew-barrymore-m3gan-allison-williams/
https://www.vogue.com/article/akela-cooper-m3gan-screenwriter-interview
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/james-wan-ideas-m3gan-sequel-jason-blum/
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/megan-movie-unrated-how-to-watch-online-streaming-1235526927/
https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a42442618/m3gan-2-release-date/
https://fashionista.com/2023/03/m3gan-heaven-marc-jacobs-campaign
https://www.thecut.com/2023/03/m3gan-marc-jacobs-heaven-model.html
https://www.revolvermag.com/culture/wtf-m3gan-models-deftones-hoodie-heaven-marc-jacobs/
https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/03/16/horror-movie-villains-ranked-queer-lgbtq/
https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a43491778/m3gan-unseen-changes-gore-swearing/
https://deadline.com/2023/04/barbie-m3gan-tiktok-twitter-cinemacon-studio-marketing-1235334894/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/movies/m3gan-gay-sensibility.html
https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2023-10-20/m3gan-dance-universal-halloween-horror-nights
https://www.cbr.com/james-wan-m3gan-2-story-idea/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/best-horror-movies-of-2023-1235766102/
https://www.vogue.com/article/best-movies-of-2023-list
Creation and casting
[edit]The first film was created by Akela Cooper, who based the film's story on one by the film's eventual producer James Wan.[2][3]
M3GAN's likeness was portrayed by Amie Donald and the character's voice was provided by Jenna Davis.[4]
Because while M3GAN is designed to bring sweet companionship to lonely kids, like Violet McGraw’s orphaned Cady, her good nature doesn’t last. “That soon goes off the rails,” Wan confirms. “I’m fascinated by things that are meant to be innocent, but become more… malign.”[5]
For Cooper, M3GAN was about tapping into her biggest childhood fear. “My thing was ventriloquist dummies. [laughs] I saw the Anthony Hopkins movie Magic at a really young age and that cemented the creepiness in my brain. I was a big Child’s Play fan, too. It was always my dream to create an iconic monster of my own.[6]
ut about all of those M3GANs, technically, there were a few more in attendance. Not to spoil all the movie magic, but to capture what was needed for M3GAN’s performance, the filmmakers relied on a real robotic prototype in some scenes while others featured a young actress, Amie Donald, in a mask and gloves. Her voice came to life thanks to the talents of another young actress, Jenna Davis. Aside from Williams, the actor who has the most screen time with M3GAN is McGraw, who tells THR that she loved every minute of it. “It was really fun because I had a scary, terrifying doll that was my best friend and it was a really cool experience hanging out with M3GAN to see how they did her,” says McGraw, who previously starred in The Haunting of Hill House. “They made an actual robot and had a puppeteer team that would make her eyes blink and move her arms and mouth.” In another surprise twist, McGraw and Donald ended up becoming fast friends by the end of filming. “We became so close and would hang out on and off set, on our lunch breaks. Amie is the sweetest person you will ever meet and she’s definitely one of my best friends.”[7]
But long before the group officially got back together, Blum said they had to make sure M3GAN was good enough to get invited to the party. “The challenge of the movie was M3GAN, obviously,” he said. “We’ve made mistakes before with special effects and so we did not start pre-production until we had M3GAN down perfectly. We worked on M3GAN for a year to figure out how much practical effects, how much VFX and how much CGI we wanted to use to create it. Sometimes we wanted the audience to forget that she was a robot and other times we wanted them to remember that she was a robot.”[7]
Director Gerard Johnstone explains, "The whole point of the Brandon scene was to [show] you can give M3GAN all these things you don't want to do, but you can also give her things you can't do, like clip a kid behind the ear if he's being mean to your kid. So we take that to the nth degree with M3GAN."[8]
The idea behind the film was originally dreamed up by producer James Wan in cahoots with colleagues at his Atomic Monster Productions company. "One of the things we like to do at Atomic Monster is, at the end of the week, sit around and chat about films," says the 45-year-old Wan. "At one of these sessions, we came up with the idea of doing a killer-doll movie."[8]"We joke that I get branded a lot as the killer-doll guy, but I've never technically made a movie about a doll that kills — it's always possessed by some sort of evil spirit," clarifies Wan. "We thought it would be fun to do a movie that is basically Annabelle meets the Terminator."[8]
Wan asked writer Akela Cooper (Malignant) to work on the script and teamed with Blumhouse to produce the film. "If James ever calls with a scary movie, we're predisposed to be very interested, especially one starring a doll," says Blumhouse founder Jason Blum. "So even before we read the script, we were excited about it. But then the script was so good — it's scary, it touches on something we're all talking about right now, and it was funny. It checked every box for us."[8]
Wan said that the character was made an AI doll to divert from horror tropes surrounding killer dolls and to relate to the real world.[9]
The idea behind the film was originally dreamed up by producer James Wan in cahoots with colleagues at his Atomic Monster Productions company. "One of the things we like to do at Atomic Monster is, at the end of the week, sit around and chat about films," says Wan. "At one of these sessions, we came up with the idea of doing a killer-doll movie."[10]
Characterisation
[edit]Upon the film's announcement on October 7, 2020, M3GAN was billed as a doll which resembled a human and was programmed to be a child's best friend and their parent's best helper.[2]
Created using artificial intelligence (in universe).[3]
“M3GAN,” about a singing, dancing, diabolical doll with artificial intelligence, arrives in theaters on Jan. 6.[11]
Wan billed M3GAN as a mix of the allegedly haunted doll Annabelle and the Terminator franchise's title character, the Terminator.[5]
M3GAN joins a long line of creepy doll movies, but Cooper may have reached her goal in creating an original monster in the horror movie cannon. While her facial features are inarguably synthetic, M3GAN is designed to look as lifelike as possible. The uncanny result is unsettling in a way that differs from the average scary toy aesthetic and does convey the familiar eeriness of a ventriloquist dummy. Glimpses from the trailer also show M3GAN as a very versatile villain with surprising physical abilities, including running on all fours, Herculean strength, and acrobatics. Unlike her scary doll predecessors, including Annabelle and Chucky, M3GAN is not possessed by a demonic spirit or evil entity. As an android, she learns quickly, expanding her knowledge and capabilities to dangerous levels as Cady teaches her new skills. M3GAN appears to be the embodiment of artificial intelligence gone wrong, a threat that may feel all too real with contemporary audiences as society sees AI technology become more omnipresent. This scientific angle also taps into a darker social theme as it portrays a lonely human child bonding with a non-sentient robot, with echoes of Her or even Blade Runner.[6]
An unholy mix of Chuckie, Anabelle, and an American Girl doll (most likely Kit Kittridge)[12]
Design
[edit]The character's design was first revealed on April 25, 2022, the day the film's poster was released.[13]
The poster for the film shows M3GAN, the AI doll with a certain uncanny valley quality to it, creepily staring straight ahead past a person's blurred side profile.[13]
Virality
[edit]"We had internally come up with memes to distribute, but we didn't end up needing to deploy them, because people started making their own," says M3GAN star and executive producer Allison Williams (Get Out). "You can't even dream that big when you're doing something like this. That was just such an exciting day. It was proof of concept."[8]
Johnstone is happy to reveal that he came up with the bright idea of having M3GAN dance in the film. "It was one of those crazy, sleep-deprived, 3 a.m. thoughts," he says. "Wouldn't it kind of be funny if the soundtrack suddenly became real and M3GAN ended up busting a move to whatever music was playing. It was just something that everyone embraced and loved." While Johnstone has "lots of thoughts" about a possible sequel, they'll have to wait until after the director has spent some quality time with his offspring. "This is a film about people who don't spend enough time with their children," he says, "so that's what I'm going to focus on."[8]
Reception
[edit]Portrayal
[edit]Depiction of AI
[edit]Social media stardom
[edit]After the first trailer for M3GAN was released, the character instantly became popular on social media sites for a clip of M3GAN dancing.[12] Vanity Fair writer Chris Murphy commented that her dance moves had solidified her as a new "it girl" and added that they "captured the attention of the nation".[12] Josh Haigh of Digital Spy said that the character had become a "viral sensation" after the trailer's release.[14]
At the premiere for M3GAN, all members of a dance group dressed as the character and performed to "It's Nice to Have a Friend" by Taylor Swift. Blum also dressed as M3GAN, and Chris Gardner of The Hollywood Reporter suggested the moment helped the character's virality.[7]
As a gay icon
[edit]The creators of one of the internet's newest gay icons, the murderous doll from upcoming horror flick M3GAN, have revealed how the now-iconic dance from the trailer came to life.[15]
A dancing robotic doll with a thirst for blood. No, it’s not every twink in G-A-Y, it’s 2022’s horror icon M3GAN. The doll became a viral sensation after the release of the film’s first trailer, which featured the creepy looking android approach a victim down a hallway while busting some pretty spectacular acrobatic moves. Before you could say ‘TikTok’, she was inducted into the ‘niche gay icon’ hall of fame, with fans saying that she “came to end careers”.[16]
References
[edit]- ^ Gerard Johnstone (Director) (2022). M3GAN (DVD). United States: Blumhouse Productions.
- ^ a b Collis, Clark (October 7, 2020). "Get Out star Allison Williams reuniting with Blumhouse for horror-thriller M3GAN". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ a b N'Duka, Amanda (April 9, 2021). "Black Widow Actress Violet McGraw Joins Allison Williams In Blumhouse & Atomic Monster Thriller M3GAN". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ Panaligan, EJ (October 11, 2022). "M3GAN Trailer Introduces a Killer Robot Child Thirsty for Blood and Mayhem". Variety. Archived from the original on May 10, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ a b Travis, Ben (November 21, 2022). "M3GAN Is 'Annabelle Meets The Terminator', Says James Wan – Exclusive". Empire. Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ a b Halloran, Amy (November 25, 2022). "M3GAN Creator Reveals Killer Doll's Horror Inspiration". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on December 13, 2022. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ a b c Gardner, Chris (December 8, 2022). "M3GAN Premiere Featured Eight Look-Alike Dolls Dancing to Taylor Swift Song in Now-Viral Moment". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 18, 2024. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f Collins, Clark (December 17, 2022). "M3GAN director on inventing killer doll's viral dance: 'It was one of those crazy, sleep-deprived, 3 a.m. thoughts'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 30, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ Hullender, Tatiana (December 26, 2022). "James Wan & Jason Blum Interview: M3GAN". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on January 30, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ Collins, Clark (December 27, 2022). "Could M3GAN kick Annabelle's ass? An EW investigation". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on July 4, 2024. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ Barnes, Brooks (November 16, 2022). "Hollywood Horror Blockbuster: Two Leading Producers Will Soon Join Forces". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ a b c Murphy, Chris (October 12, 2022). "Why Is Everyone So Obsessed With M3GAN?". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ a b Levine, Gina (April 25, 2022). "James Wan's New Creepy Horror Villain Revealed By M3GAN Movie Poster". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ Haigh, Josh (October 12, 2022). "Haunting of Hill House star befriends creepy robot in first trailer for M3GAN". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ Duncan, Charlie (December 19, 2022). "The creators of M3GAN just shared the hilarious story of how the killer doll's viral dance came to life". PinkNews. Archived from the original on December 31, 2022. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
- ^ Duncan, Charlie (December 31, 2022). "A definitive guide to the gay icons of 2022, from M3GAN to The Traitors' Amanda". PinkNews. Archived from the original on April 20, 2024. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
Category:Film characters introduced in 2022 Category:Fictional artificial intelligences Category:Fictional androids Category:Fictional dolls and dummies Category:Female characters in film Category:Female horror film villains Category:Fictional female serial killers Category:Fictional female murderers