Movie Info
Movie Name: Despicable Me
Studio: Illumination Entertainment
Genre(s): Animated/Comedy/Family
Release Date(s): July 9, 2010
MPAA Rating: PG
I shall steal the moon!!!!
Gru is a supervillain out to prove his evilness to the world and his mother by stealing the moon. When he finds he can’t find funding at the Bank of Evil, Gru needs to find a way to infiltrate the up-and-coming supervillain Victor “Vector” Perkins’ home to capture his shrink ray. Gru discovers Vector has a sweet tooth for cookies and adopts three orphan children named Margo, Edith, and Agnes to get into Vector’s base. Being a father (even an evil father) is harder than Gru expected, and Gru might have to put his plans to steal the moon on hold when the moonshot could interfere with a dance recital…and Vector gets involved.
Winner of the mom’s of dance competition…Gru!!!
Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, Despicable Me was released to mostly positive reviews and a strong box office draw. The movie was one of the biggest films of 2010 and nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature (losing to Toy Story 3).
I found Despicable Me rather entertaining. It felt a bit like a mix between A Series of Unfortunate Events and Punky Brewster (I know weird combination, but that how I see it). Dru is the grumpy bachelor who takes in the orphan kids, but he’s also EVIL…or he’d like to be. Through the course of the movie however, he finds that he’s happy being a father, but doesn’t change his evil ways.
Ride that coaster!
The plot is rather typical. Anyone who has seen a movie like Annie knows that Gru is going to fall in love with kids and choose them over being horrible. It is a rather tough tightrope for a movie like this which ultimately wants to keep its character evil. The story does a pretty good job and I can see Gru continuing to be a super-villain (despite being labeled a superhero at the end of the movie).
The movie has a lot of great voices. Steve Carell plays Gru with his nemesis Vector played by Jason Segel. Gru’s assistant Dr. Nefario is Russell Brand and Gru’s nagging mother is Julie Andrews. Will Arnet plays the father of Vector (and Bank of Evil manager). Other voices are provided by Jermain Clement (of Flight of the Conchords), Jack McBrayer, Danny McBride, Kristen Wiig, and Mindy Kaling. All these actors manage to put some life into characters that might even have smaller roles.
Get down! Get down!
I do enjoy the Minions. They are the comic relief for the film, but they aren’t horribly distracting like many sidekick cartoon characters. They really remind me of the evil invaders from INKT Corporation in the video game de Blob (from 2008) and I kind of feel that they ripped them off both in style and dialogue. Despite this, they are rather enjoyable both for kids and adults.
Despicable Me was fun. It was a rather lighthearted story where children “are in danger” but never having any real threat to them (like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). Gru’s home isn’t kid friendly, but you know that the kids are going to be ok, so even younger kids can enjoy the movie. Despicable Me is followed by Despicable Me 2 in 2013 and a spin-off film for Gru’s Minions in 2015.
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