A good animated film can be enjoyed by a person of any age. It can talk to the young, and the young at heart. I’ve seen every film Pixar has done with Disney and I can say they are better than most of the live action films I see today. Meanwhile Dreamwork’s Shrek franchise is full of adult themes and references that are no suitable for kids. I walked into Despicable Me hoping to find another animated film for the whole family, but I realized I had already seen all this film before I got my ticket.
Steve Carell is the voice of Gru, who has plans to become the greatest villain of all time; he’s going to steal the moon. But up-and-coming villain, Vector, is out to take the moon as well. Before Gru can start his heist he must get his shrink ray back from Vector, voiced by Jason Segel. To help pull of his plan Gru has adopted three young girls, but they bring him more trouble than assistance. A tough guy finds his heart of gold in a bunch of rambunctious kids. I’ve seen this film at least ten times, and skipped the last twenty films just like it.
Carell pulls off his accent quite nice, but I have trouble believing Segel’s voice was coming out of the small, nerdy, Vector. Will Arnett added his voice to this cast of characters, as well as iCarly’s Miranda Cosgrove. What surprised me the most was when I found out that Gru’s assistant, Dr. Nefario was voiced by Get Him to the Greek's Russell Brand. Obviously they did some audio work to make him sound old, but I couldn’t even recognize him.
Before you put this in your Netflix’s que just hop on over and find the trailer. Have you watched it yet? Ok, then you’ve just seen the best parts of the film. The kids were cute, and I’ll admit, for some reason I can’t help but laugh every time I see Agnes hold up her giant unicorn and in a deep voice say, “it’s so fluffy.” However Gru lives in a common neighborhood, but his house and car look creepy, and nobody calls the cops when he freezes every person in a coffe shop? This film had all the usual predicaments you would expect from a quirky villain trying to raise three kids. There were no surprises, and no real giant laughs like when I saw Toy Story 3 last month.
Despicable Me tries to have heart, but I can’t see it past this factory-made kids movie. Although I’ll give Carell and Brand kudos on their voices, the rest of the cast just didn’t seem to fit their character. Gru’s minions may make you laugh a little, but only if your under twelve-years-old.
Rating: C-
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