Despicable Me

Despicable Me

At first, I didn’t think I’d like the movie because of the cute nature of the story.  Plus, it is a movie aimed more to the child demo, but I actually liked the movie a great deal.  Surprisingly, the movie is a well-put together story.  It isn’t deep or that compelling, but there are some funny and cute moments throughout the story.

The movie is about a super villain named Gru.  He’s the top villain on the planet until another younger villain comes along and takes his thunder.  Gru needs a shrink ray to shrink the moon in order to help bring him back to being the world’s number one villain.  He decides to use a trio of orphan girls as a method of obtaining the ray.  He starts actually like being a parent to the children.  The conflict is that he has balance being a super villain and being a parent to these three girls.

I actually like Gru because he’s an asshole in the first few minutes of the film.  He truly is a bad guy.  He’s design and mannerism are certainly a throwback to the old James Bond villains of the 60s era.  There’s even a bit of Cobra Commander thrown in for good measure.  Steve Carell does a stand up job voicing Gru, thus making him a standout character.  Again, I love anti-heroes. 

The three girls are also cool.  They are cute but in distinct ways.  One girl is older smart girl and knows everything that’s going on.  The youngest girl likes everything cute and fluffy.  The middle girl seems to be a tomboy and likes gruesome stuff.  She is my favorite of the three.  Instead of being bland children characters, you actually get to witness why Gru might warm up to them.

I enjoyed watching Gru warm up to them.  The bed time story scenes are nicely done, and are the best written moments. 

I also like the little yellow henchmen under Gru’s command.  Each one has its own personality and you can tell the animators had fun designing and drawing them.  They were another aspect I didn’t think I would enjoy because of their overuse in promotional material.

The animation isn’t as good as Pixar’s team, but it is very good.  They are certainly taking a more stylized vision of the world, and that’s fine. 

There are a couple of problems with the movie that keep it from being great instead being very good.  The main rival for Gru is a little weak.  Meaning, the guy is supposed to be a nerd evil bad guy, but the story has very little for him to do, as he literally spends most of his time sitting on the couch and watching TV. 

The other problem I have is the stilted third act conflict between Gru and the three kids.  It comes out of left field and I felt wasn’t necessary to forward the plot.  Basically, someone orders the kids back to orphanage and this is supposed to be character arc tension.  It doesn’t work or fit with the rest of the movie.

Despite these flaws, the movie is cute and a lot of fun.  It truly surprised me how much fun I had with this movie.  It is a very good movie.  All I got to say is “Squid Gun”

Grade: B

 Just don’t let Michael Vick see that dog…

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