Despicable Me | Review
The premise of ‘Despicable Me’ isn’t totally original, but it’s something new during a summer filled with sequels, remakes, and barely any animated films, surprisingly. In ‘Despicable Me’, the main character goes by the name ‘Gru’ (voiced by Steve Carell). Gru is the world’s number one villain – well, he was the number one villain, until another villain upstaged him by stealing the Pyramid of Giza. Now Gru’s plan is to take the number one spot back by stealing the Moon.
The plot for ‘Despicable Me’ is simple, but the way the filmmakers created this film makes the film more than just simple. Gru is a very lovable character, oddly enough. His antics are hilarious, and we want to root for him. The cheering department, though, has already been taken – by Gru’s adorable little Minions! The filmmakers were smart to include these naive, adorable, and lovable characters in the film; the Minions are a really important aspect tothe film. Without the Minions, I don’t think the film would have been as great as it is – it wouldn’t have been as cute, nor as funny. These Minions are almost exactly like the Raving Rabbids from the ‘Rayman’ video games. They talk gibberish, they’re hyper-active, childish, and adorable! The three little girls that Gru adopt also add another side to the film that makes it work. The youngest sibling, Agnes, is also adorable and cute. These little girls appeal to the younger audiences, with the help of the Minions.
The way the filmmakers used the characters of the three siblings was smart, in my opinion. From the trailers, I figured Gru would be on a successful path to stealing the moon, but then somehow he inherited three little girls, or had to babysit them for, like, another one of his relatives or something. I’m glad that the filmmakers had Gru adopt the siblings in order to use them as part of his diabolical plan to steal the Moon. Although it’s extremely obvious that these girls would get to Gru and change his heart, which then makes that aspect of the film predictable, it didn’t really affect the film.
What I disliked about ‘Despicable Me’, besides its predictability, is the fact that the trailers and commercials for it have shown way too much of the film! Many of the funniest jokes or cutest scenes have already been shown in the trailers and commercials. So when these jokes and/or scenes appeared in the movie, they weren’t as effective as they could have been, though they were still really good or really funny. Also, the third act of the film was very average. The last act just wasn’t as clever nor fun as the rest of the film. Other than those two small issues, there’s really nothing else to complain about.
I love how smartly written the film was. Even though the plot was predictable, the variety of characters and antics kept the film entertaining. When three of the Minions went to go shopping, it was just hilarious! That scene didn’t even need to be shown – it was obviously shown to make us laugh, which I’m glad. The scenes with Vector, Gru’s rival, were funny, and Jason Segal does a great job with Vector’s voice-work. I loved the dialogue and the jokes the film had where you couldn’t really notice that they were jokes. For example, in the scene were Gru goes to the bank to get a loan, we briefly see “Formerly the Lehman Brothers”. It’s funny because the Lehman Brothers bank recently went bankrupt. No child would have understood the joke, which is why I’m glad the filmmakers implemented some smart, adult jokes into the film. Another example would be Gru’s reply to Agnes’ “Pretty please”. Gru’s smart-ass remark to Agnes’ “Pretty please” made me laugh-out-loud. I also laughed-out-loud when Gru introduced to the Minions the NBC Jumbotron that he stole – little things like that were just downright funny to me. I think the one thing that had me laughing the most in the film was the “Glow-Stick” joke. Those who haven’t seen the film yet probably won’t know what I’m talking about, but those who have will, and I’m pretty sure they thought it was hilarious as well! I’m glad the film had many, many of these small jokes!
‘Despicable Me’, to me, is like a ray of sunshine in a world where the animation department is ruled by Pixar and Dreamworks – though, that technically isn’t a bad thing. Pixar’s famous motto has always been “Quality over Quantity”, whereas Dreamworks‘ motto has always been “Quantity over Quality”, which is evident in the ‘Shrek’ and ‘Madagascar’ sequel(s). ‘Despicable Me’ is from a totally new animation company, called Illumination Entertainment, which plans to create every one of its films in 3D (though I’m not a fan of 3d, at least their films will actually be created in 3D, not converted). Illumination Entertainment’s debut film, ‘Despicable Me’, has me hoping for the best, and wanting for me. Although they’ve only released one film, Illumination Entertainment’sstyle seems to be somewhere in-between Pixar’s and Dreamworks‘. ‘Despicable Me’ wasn’t an artful, masterpiece-like film that Pixar usually creates, but it also wasn’t a cheaply made, and possibly rushed, animated film that Dreamworks sometimes creates..
‘Despicable Me’ is a beautifully animated film. It’s smartly written, creative, hilarious, and adorable. A sequel has been greenlit, and let’s hope that this new animation company doesn’t mess up the great status that this film currently has.
PS: ‘Megamind’ is another film being released this year that focuses on a villain as the central character. Why do films with similar premises always get released so close to one another? I mean, an animated film about the life of a villain wasn’t used last year (at least, not that I can remember), so why, all of a sudden, are two films being released this year and based on that? Curious.
