Mildly Amusing Me Hardly Despicable
After he is upstaged by cocky newcomer Vector (voiced by Jason Segel), bad guy Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) sets upon fulfilling his lifelong dream of stealing the Moon thus making him the greatest villain the world has ever known. But Vector vexes his every move, going so far as to abscond with the key tool – a shrink ray – the criminal mastermind needs in order for his plan to meet with success.
Gru, Agnes, Margo and Edith in Despicable Me © Universal Pictures
Now, with the unlikely aid of three orphan girls, Margo (voiced by Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (voiced by Dana Gaier) and Agnes (voiced by Elsie Fisher), he has nefariously brought into his care, Gru conspires to thwart Vector and make off with the Moon as he originally planned. What he never prepared for, however, was how parenthood, even criminally inclined parenthood, good change him, the villain’s heart starting to soften to jelly the closer he and his minions get to this jovial trio of youngsters.
In many respects, Despicable Me is much like I would imagine a feature length episode of “Family Guy” would be. While the humor is obviously less adult and more aimed at the adolescent set, the two have much more in common than you would probably think. Neither have much in the way of fully fleshed-out plots or three-dimensional characters, both relying upon impromptu bits of left field humor to produce pretty much all of their laughs. It’s hodgepodge rock’em sock’em animated comedy, the basic connective tissues straining mightily to hold together gags and jokes coming from every which direction and then some.
For kids this sort of thing works fairly beautifully. The laughter filling my preview audience was solid from start to finish, the youngsters eating up all the weirdness as if it were going out of style. They adored the three orphans, loved Gru’s yellow minions and got a continual kick at many of the more adolescent and juvenile sight gags. As far as they were concerned this films was the bee’s knees, and as such I can’t help but feel like it’s going to be something of a modest summertime hit.
While I can’t say I wasn’t as effusive in my enjoyment as all the adolescents around me were I did surprisingly a great deal of the movie. That early teaser trailer featuring an inflatable Egyptian Pyramid was so horrible I admit to going into this expecting the worst, and while Despicable Me is certainly no Pixar effort to say it has some genial easygoing laughs would be a little bit of an understatement. While I wanted a better and more cohesive story there was plenty to be entertained by here, the final product filled with enough visual ingenuity and vocal excellence I left the theatre feeling relatively happy.
So the 3D (other than a pretty solid rollercoaster sequence and some skits during the closing credits) is a bit of a waste, while the plot itself is so unconcerned with making sense or fleshing out its characters you’d be forgiven for thinking both were nothing more than afterthoughts. The final destination is as forgone as the answer to two plus two, and if you’re expecting any sort of tension to exist between rivals Gru and Vector then prepare for nothing short of disappointment.
But the minions, little yellow figures, some with two eyes, others with one, are consistently hilarious. The way they make their way into the world constantly had me giggling, and once they begin interacting with the three orphans these diminutive pipsqueaks take on a Chaplin-esque quality that’s absolutely sublime. Also, as mentioned above the vocal work is simply stellar, the all-star cast of voiceover artists (including Carell, Segel, Russell Brand, Kristin Wiig and Julie Andrews) consistently going the unexpected route with their line readings.
In the end Despicable Me is a kids film that adults aren’t necessarily going to love but at the same time aren’t going to feel at all bad having to sit through. There are plenty of enjoyable moments and sequences, the morals it ultimately puts forth are strong ones and the animation is pretty darn inventive considering this isn’t a DreamWorks or Pixar production. Did I love it? No. Did I still have a good time? Yes. Other than that, what else is there left for me to say?
Film Rating: êê1/2 (out of 4)
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