Despicable Me (2010)

Genres

Animation | Comedy

Directors

Pierre Coffin | Chris Renaud

Country

USA

Voice Cast

Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fisher, Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, Jemaine Clement, Danny McBride, Jack McBrayer, Mindy Kaling, Ken Jeong

Storyline

When super-villain Gru (Steve Carell) learns that young criminal mastermind Vector (Jason Segel) has stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza, he plans an even greater heist: to steal the moon.

Opinion

The year 2010 has been a great year for animated films. Dreamworks rose from the ashes of numerous mediocre films with How to Train Your Dragon, Pixar struck again with Toy Story 3, and then Universal released this, that may be the weakest of the three, but it's still entertaining.

Visually beautiful, Despicable Me is a funny and touching, yet not too cheesy animation film.

The filmmakers were able to make a simple, quite predictable and not very original story become captivating and entertaining with the great idea of having a villain as a main character, and with never over the top, yet hilarious humour. 

The character of Gru is incredibly funny with his dark sense of humour, and although it was utterly predictable, it was enjoyable to see his growth from an evil, cold-hearted villain, to a warm and loving father. The three little orphan girls are probably the cutest I've ever seen, Agnes being the youngest and cutest. Then there are young villain Vector, who is silly and nearly wholly uninteresting, and crazy scientist Dr. Nefario. 

The several references are packed and delivered in a way that they can make laugh even children, who obviously won't understand it - like the Taxi Driver mirror scene.

Definetly worth of a mention - and of their own movie, as we have seen this year - are the Minions, those little yellow creatures working for Gru. They are delightful and kinda steals the show. 

Steve Carell does an admirable job in the lead role of Gru, and his Eastern Europe accent - Russian maybe - is quite good. Jason Segel does a wonderful job as villain Vector. However, the guy that really stands out is Russell Brand. Even though I like him, I find his voice quite annoying. The incredible thing is that he doesn't sound like himself at all as Dr. Nefario, and also plays a different character than usual. Very well done Russell! 

Quotes

Gru: Hello, Fred. FYI. Your dog has been leaving little bombs in my yard, and I do not appreciate it.

Fred: Oh you know dogs... they go where they want to go.

Gru: Unless they're dead. [laughs] I'm joking! Although it is true. Anyway, have a good one.