Gru does for super villains what Mr. Incredible did for super heroes!
- Who's going to like it: Great movie for children and adults alike. At least parents won't feel like falling asleep.
It’s easy to lose count on
how many 3D animated features have hit theaters in the last year. “Despicable
Me” is just another CG animated film released in theaters with 3D attached to
lure kids into begging their parents to go because “3D is like, so cool!” It
really is a shame that the focus of the marketing for ‘Despicable Me’ is on the
3D rather than on the actual funny and at times touching story. Even the near
masterpiece, “Toy Story 3” has been mired down in a bunch of 3D ads that make
it look like 3D is what makes it a good movie. Isn’t it about time movie
studios stop advertising 3D as the big selling point, and focus on how good the
movie actually is?
Okay, enough of my 3D
ranting. It’s just that, a movie as well done as “Despicable Me” shouldn’t be
sold to the public solely on the fact that you get to wear glasses during its
presentation. There’s so much more to this movie than just gimmicky effects
where objects fly off the screen.
Gru (Steve Carrell) is an
evil genius mastermind who lives in a quaint suburb. Seriously, wouldn’t the
suburbs be the best birthplace for evil? Tom Hanks, and “The Burbs” taught us
as much. On a row of pristinely kept, cookie-cutter houses, Gru’s looming dark
mansion sticks out like a sore thumb. Gru is sulking. He’s supposed to be the
most evil super-villian in the world, but somebody out there has bested him by
stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Who could pull off such a
feat? Only Gru’s nemesis, Vector (Jason Segel). After Vector steals Gru’s
shrinking ray, all out super-villian warfare is declared. Vector has a soft
spot for cookies, and after ordering a load of cookies from three cute orphans,
Gru decides to adopt the orphans as a way to get into Vector’s lair when they
deliver the cookies.
“Despicable Me,” is a lot of
fun. There’s just no other way to say it. It is a playful, surprising little
film that may catch parents off guard, kind of like “Cloudy with a Chance of
Meatballs,” did. It’s clever. It does for super villains what “The Incredibles”
did for super heroes. Though “Despicable Me” lacks that emotional tug that most
Pixar movies contain, it still greets us with a warm spirit and a storyline
that will please both adults and children.
The movie does follow the
age-old formula of acceptance, love, betrayal, then love again, but it does it
in such an endearing and surprising way that we forget we’ve seen this type of
stuff before. Gru’s army of little yellow minions are one of the high points of
the movie providing great humor for the kids. The three orphans: Margo, Agnes,
and Edith, warm to Gru and his evil ways, providing much needed affection in a
world of mayhem.
“Despicable Me” is charming,
clever, and funny without trying too hard. Sure it doesn’t measure up to the
Pixar masterpieces we’ve seen over the years, but it stands its own ground
among the onslaught of CG animation.
(3 1/2 out of 5)
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