Despicable Me

(2010)

Dir: Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud

I suppose it was inevitable that the enormously popular Martians found their way into their own film? What, that’s not them you say? Oh.

Yes, yes, yes, the little minions from Despicable Me are clearly ‘influenced’ by the legendary Toy Story aliens, but that isn’t the only problem with Universal’s latest animated outing. It focuses on Gru, voiced by Steve Carell with a, like, really funny Eastern European accent! He is a Blofeld-like supervillain, and a bad one. His plan to steal the moon needs money and a shrink ray, so he adopts three little orphan girls to work as a distraction. Can you guess what happens? Will Gru’s heart like one great marshmallow when he sees just how great it is being a dad to these lovely little sprogs? Well, I won’t spoil anything.

Okay, it’s not quite that bad. It just feels like we’ve seen all this before. Gru feels like Shrek; his nemesis, Jason Segel’s nerdy Vector feels like Jason Lee’s Syndrome from The Incredibles, and the ‘cute’ little kids feel like every wise-cracking, strangely adult child we’re supposed to fall in love with every year.

The lack of originality is a serious problem, but that doesn’t mean Despicable Me is without charm. Like most animations, it looks lovely. The voice cast, which also includes Julie Andrews, Russell Brand and Kristen Wiig, is all perfectly fine, although the great and almighty Will Arnett is completely underused as the Bank of Evil President. And yes, the alie- sorry, minions are very entertaining. I’m sure every kid who sees this film will want one of those for Christmas.

I suppose I just have high standards for animation this year after seeing one of the greatest films ever made in Toy Story 3. Were there any grown men sobbing at the end of Despicable Me? I think not.

** ¾ / *****

“It’s bad to be… uh… bad.”