Darkmatters Review: Despicable Me

Despicable Me (U)


Dir. Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

‘One big unicorn, strong and free, thought he was happy as he could be. Then three little kittens came around and turned his whole life upside down. They made him laugh, they made him cry. He never should have said goodbye. And now he knows he can never part from those three little kittens that changed his heart…’

This is the plot of a children’s book written by despicable super villain ‘Gru’ (Steve Carrell) but it serves as a snapshot of the whole film. Despicable Me is a pleasing new dark comedy animation which has a gooey heart. We get to join Gru as he launches his most evil plan ever – to shrink and steal the moon… but along the way he comes across a trio of adorable orphans – the eldest who acts as their surrogate mother is Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), next is blonde rebel tom boy Edith (Dana Gaier) and finally cute little Agnes (Elsie Fisher). These girls have the power to give him a way to get one up on his nemesis rival villain ‘Vector’ (Jason Segel) – so decides to become their adoptive father.

Think The Incredibles mixed with Lemony Snicket and you’ll have some idea of this tale of rival super villains which packs plenty of humour, action, and heart-warming parenting moments. What more could you want from an animated film?

What’s that you say? 3D technology? You got it – yes Despicable Me rocks out in some lovely 3D which is put to memorable effect in sequences like where Gru takes the girls on a hyper-kinetic roller coaster and the audience get to see it directly from a breath-taking white knuckle the first-person viewpoint. It shames other films that have jumped on the 3D bandwagon without any real rhyme or reason other than to try and sell their weak movies.

So Despicable Me has a fun plot with enough twists and turns, laugh out loud quips and scenes, and very nicely delivered voice acting from the stellar cast – even Russell Brand delivers some memorable lines. But good as the human elements are, they are wildly upstaged by Gru’s ‘minions’ – the tic-tac looking creatures (belwo) who do all the super villain’s dirty work.

"The Jason Statham look-alike contest got fierce"

This year is turning out to be a good one for lovers of animated movies - How to Train Your Dragon was great, Toy Story 3 set a new standard of excellence and even Shrek regained his form. Now you should go get Despicable in a cinema near you as soon as possible!!

UNSEEN DELETED SCENE:


The Despicable Me minions are transported to the planet of Toy Story 3's Aliens who worship the 'claw'... chaos ensues when the cross breeding kicks off!

Darkmatters rating: öööööööö (8 dastardly plans out of 10)

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