DreamWorks Animation hosted a showcase at the Pacific Design Center Thursday morning for its three 2010 releases: “Shrek Forever After,” “How to Train Your Dragon” and “MegaMind.” Pursuant to CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg’s 2007 dictat, all will be 3D releases.

Director Tom McGrath (”Madagascar”) introduced ten minutes of (2D) footage from his superhero comedy “MegaMind,” executive produced by Ben Stiller, as a film about how “no matter how much you screw up in life it’s never too late to make the right choice.” He emphasized that the film is a work in progress (it doesn’t hit theaters until November), and indeed many of the shots were clearly in early stages of digital animation.

McGrath walked the 250 or so in attendance through the backstories of the characters and some of the storyline, which plays out from the point of view of the villain, whom McGrath suggests is perhaps “misunderstood.”

More after the jump…

MegaMind (voiced by Will Ferrell) was sent to Earth by his parents and had the misfortune to land in a prison yard, thus sealing his nefarious fate. The villain is in constant, losing battle with Metro Man (voiced by “Hollywood newcomer” Brad Pitt), unbeatable defender of Metro City — which MegaMind pointedly pronounces like “atrocity” — and persistent rescuer of newswoman Rozanne (voiced by Tina Fey). MegaMind’s right hand lackey, Minion (voiced by David Cross), aids and abets the evil mastermind’s plans, which suddenly and unexpectedly defeat Metro Man.

The film plays out the paradox: What’s a great villain to do when his nemesis is gone? When he’s a “yin with no yang,” as McGrath put it.

Well, he tries to create a new good-guy nemesis from Roxanne’s cameraman (voiced by Jonah Hill), who morphs into Titan — with unexpected results.

So we saw a sequence in the first act where Pitt as Metro Man wows the crowd at the opening of a museum in his honor as MegaMind and Minion kidnap Roxanne and draw him into a trap trying to save her. The dynamic between Roxanne and MegaMind is pretty funny, as they know each other so well at this point that she is bored with his machinations and he is constantly trying to impress her.

My only reservation is that in appearance and schtick, MegaMind recalls to some extent the bulbous-headed villain in DWA’s “Monsters vs. Aliens” from last year. But the movie will rest on the execution of the post-Metro Man portions as we essentially find ourselves spending lots of time with, and perhaps even rooting for, the villain.

Next up was “Shrek” director Mike Mitchell, who introduced the first thirty minutes of the new installment. All the regular cast has returned, but the franchise introduces a new villain: Rumpelstiltskin, a duplicitous deal-maker who grants Shrek his wish to go back to being a true, fearsome ogre for one day.

Princess Fiona voices the film’s theme as Shrek rebels against his comfortable life as a father, husband and local celebrity: “You have everything,” she says to him. “Why is it that you’re the only one who can’t see that?”

The film — which we watched with 3D glasses on — was intro’ed as the “final chapter” in the series (don’t bet on it) and unspooled with the familiar charm of the previous fairytale-tweaking films. Jon Hamm and Kathy Griffin are also on board to provide new voices.

I had to leave, but after the “Shrek” footage, audience members were treated to the very first showing of “Dragon,” “in its unfinished entirety,” as co-president of production Bill Damaschke described it.