Despicably awesome
by Mara S. Miano on September 7, 2010
It’s quite daring to use superlatives in movie reviews, but Despicable Me is this year’s funniest film by far. It’s witty, light, innovative and— I bet you didn’t know this— it’s not even from Pixar.
This movie provides us a fresh perspective on animated film. In conventional cartoons, villains and bad guys usually die or get beaten up, but in Despicable Me, we get to indulge in a villain’s charm, schemes and evil plans. The plot focuses on a villain protagonist, Gru (voiced by Steve Carrell) — a wacky, dark-humored, heavily-accented baddie who wants to regain his super villain reputation by pulling off the biggest heist in history.
He adopts three young orphan girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes (of the most quoted line, “It’s so fluffy!”) to help him carry out his plans, along with a thousand Minions (the yellow potato-looking creatures on the poster) and a mad scientist who all live in his basement.
In the movie, Gru, a big, scary-looking grouch who lives in a creepy house, is cordially greeted by his neighbors. When he —along with the other villains in the story— needs to execute an evil plan, he has to borrow money from the “Bank of Evil” (formerly the Lehman Brothers, says the sign).
These kinds of quirks entertain the not-so-young audience of Despicable Me, because Gru’s character gave people something to relate with. He’s terribly neurotic, and disarmingly cute at the same time.
This movie sells itself on pretty much the cute factor. The film used the little yellow Minions to show little snippets of antics— a move that provided instant comedy, and excellent good transitions from one part of the plot to another.
Now don’t feign shock, but I actually laughed harder in Despicable Me than in Toy Story 3. Toy Story 3 followed the usual Pixar convention— it’s going to make you laugh because the movie’s cute, it’s going to make you cry because something sad happens, and at the end of it all it’s going to make you laugh because the ending’s beautiful and happy.
Despicable Me’s script, however, was very feel-good. With a plot that’s very natural and light, this movie is something you’ll enjoy watching over and over again.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
