Despicable Me

Good lord. I’ve already seen this movie three times, and it’s not necessarily because I wanted to or that it's that good either. The first time, yeah, it looked cute and funny. Definitely worth a viewing. After that it was all a matter or circumstance, however.

I suppose that to my credit each time was in a different sort of setting: first was with my wife and dad on opening weekend. (Afterwards my wife startled the mood when she pronounced that she thought it was better than Toy Story 3. This is still somewhat of a sore subject around the house, and also, unfortunately for her, information others will use when mapping out her preferences for movies); second time was with my two brothers-in-law (ages ten and 13). For what it’s worth, this is the only viewing I was actually bored to watch. (On the plus side, during the car ride there, before we even stepped foot in the theater, they worked on perfecting their “Gru” voice. Needless to say this meant that afterwards they left with an arsenal of new lines to try it out on.); the last time I saw it was with my wife and her sister at the drive-in. No, none of the preconceived notions of a drive-in were a part of the night except that we sneaked in some snacks… Sick-Os.

To my wife’s credit, this was the first of a double-feature, and she redeemed herself by wanting to leave before making me sit through the new Twilight movie.

… That being the case, I’m still not sure how she could’ve left the theater thinking it was better than Toy Story 3? Enjoyed it more? Sure, I guess. But not better. I would say it’s kinda like the difference between Dr. Pepper and Diet Dr. Pepper – they say you can’t taste the difference, but true connoisseurs can without question. Yet, Despicable Me, from what I can tell, is the first movie released by Illumination Entertainment. And to that point, they seem to be on a pretty decent pace. Much more Pixar-ish than DreamWorks-y.

(Follow-up: DreamWorks animation – in this Dr. Pepper metaphor – is dangerously close to assuming store brand Dr. X status. Thank goodness for How To Train Your Dragon and the hopefully good upcoming sequel to Kung Fu Panda. That plus the fact that the Shriek series is finally being put to rest bodes well for DreamWorks’ immediate future.)

Despicable Me’s story was fine with plenty of cute, endearing moments that made you feel OK in terms of the price you paid for full admission. (Second time I’ve used the word “cute.” Let’s keep track.) And even though Illumination Entertainment copied DreamWorks animation’s playbook page where the movie has a more promising idea and trailer than the product itself, Illumination is light-years (get it?) ahead of where DreamWorks is in terms of their overall story telling and incorporation of celebrity talent.

Steve Carell did a really nice job with the main character, Gru. Gru (for those who aren’t aware) is an evil villain comfortable with his given, perceived status in the realm of “bad-guys” until it becomes apparent that his job market is quickly becoming infested with younger villains that utilize more spunk and ingenuity in their schemes. So, in an effort to stay relevant, Gru tries to pull off an enormous heist. But, of course, the twist is that while Gru makes his living executing diabolical plans, once he is introduced to the true idea of love from three unassuming, adorable girls whom he adopts, he quickly proves that he is actually a fairly nice guy under it all with a heart made of gold.

Ahh, “Full House” moment…

The best parts of the movie (besides Carell’s delivery and adoption of Gru’s persona, or the obviously cool and stylized animation) were Gru’s tic-tac-shaped minion workers. These little guys are plenty happy living out each day of their lives dedicated to supporting Gru and creating havoc amongst themselves. Sure, they had their own language (or perhaps merely a sever speech impediment), worked for minimal wage and offered themselves up for random experiments and errands, but isn’t that the job of a minion?

They also provided me with my personal favorite moment of the movie. It happens when the girls blame them for a messy room in the house. Their reaction, while it doesn’t translate well to words, is genuinely funny when taking the whole scene into consideration.

The breakout character definitely belonged to the absolutely precious young orphan girl, Agnes (Elsie Fisher). She delivers a few of the film’s most memorable lines that, because of her undeniable innocence, don’t just tug at your heart strings, they tie them together and yank until you can't take it anymore.

What will be interesting is what the company does with her character when the sequel is undoubtedly made because of the success of this movie? Let’s all just hope she doesn’t become the Jonathan Lipnicki of the animated movie world.

Lastly, and this was something that this movie did seem to share with a Pixar creation: the overwhelming feeling I got when listening to the voice work was that each person had a blast recording their lines. Every celebrity – besides maybe Will Arnett who continues to just be awesome playing carbon copies of “G.O.B” from “Arrested Development" – played a character that required some sort of range and voice manipulation instead of merely lending their original voice. Carell had the most screen time, but Kristen Wiig, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Jason Segel, and Mindy Kaling all did such a wonderful job that unless you knew going into the movie which character they were, there’s no real reason for you to have guessed they weren’t simply paid character actors. Hell, Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) played the voice of one of the minions, and even after seeing it three times, I’m still not sure which one he was.

In the end, Despicable Me is definitely its own engaging, cute (three) movie that doesn’t deserve me comparing it to TS3 because that’s not what their goal seemed to be. And since it’s only an hour and a half long, it’s at least worth seeing once. If you have kids, even better. (Especially for your own sake since it looks a lot less creepy than going into a dark theater alone for a kid’s movie.)