Gru (Steve Carell) is the worlds greatest supervillain, until newcomer Vector (Jason Segel) comes into the scene and steals the world famous pyramids. Gru has to find a way to one up Vector and decides to steal the moon. There is one small complication though. Gru has found himself in possesion of three small orphan girls who all become quite keenly attached to him.
This is the first animated feature from Illumination Entertainment and it hits nowhere near the benchmark Pixar and Dreamworks have set for the genre. Although the film has its funny moments and several celebrity cameo voices it lacked the story and the heart of films from rival studios. The animation, however, is very good and incredibly well though out. What distracted me a little was that a lot of the characters looked as if they were ripped from other places, with Vector looking very much like Mandark from the old Cartoon Network series "Dexter's Laboratory" and the bank owner is the spitting image of the boss from "Dilbert".
Steve Carell forces out an almost passable Russian accent, but you have to figure, if the celebrity voice is un recognisable why bother getting a celebrity in in the first place? Other voice talent includes Russell Brand as the elderly and senile Dr Nefario, Will Arnett from TVs "Arrested Development" as a disgruntled bank worker and most strangely Julie Andrews with an equally forced Russian accent as Gru's Mother. The voice cast stand out for me was a brief cameo by Jack McBrayer from TVs "30 Rock" as an unfair carney.
All in all, the film isn't horrible and will definitely be enjoyed by children and I'm sure parents will like the sentiment that comes in with the orphnn girls and Gru's new parental struggles.
Rating: 3/5
Max
I found it way too predictable. You're right- it didn't have the slick charm of Disney or Pixar. I knew what was going to happen before it happened. I feel the plot let down what was otherwise a good movie.
ReplyDeleteAlso all those little yellow minions just struck me as a 'Jar Jar Binks' style character inserted to sell merchandise.
Strongly disagree with both of you!
ReplyDelete(which is funny cause I knew you were looking forward to it and I was slightly skeptical)
I thought it was better than Toy Story 3 and Up.
The animation was a breath of fresh air and yes I did notice that pretty much every animator was from the French Animation Company "Gobelins"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-GPEi-24ek
The seven principles of animation have not been used so professionally since the original Disney short animations in the 1930s. No joke I predict parts of "Despicable Me" shall be used in animation class as soon as next year.
The story was indeed simple, but who was expecting Inception 2?
The transformation of Gru was satisfying, he learn a fundamental human lesson and became a better person.
4.5/5 from me :D
I don't care who voices the characters but quite obviously the celebrity cameos are there for the poster and the marketing.
the run time was nice and short too!
ReplyDelete