Movie Review: Despicable Me

Minions! Steve Carell returns to the animated film industry this time as a gentle yet still evil protagonist. After voicing a few characters from movies such as Over the Hedge and Horton Hears a Who, this time around he is cast as Gru, a super-villian who formulates a plan to utilize three small cookie-scout selling girls in order to infiltrate his nemesis's fortress. His plan? To use a shrink ray in order to steal the moon! However, after adopting the three children and living with them for a while, Gru must make a major decision: villainy or parenthood.

Although the only comedic scenes/laughable jokes in most of the comedies I have seen recently are bunched together in the preview so that if you actually buy a ticket you get to sit through the boring parts in-between gags, Despicable Me doesn't have that problem. There are still a few emotional non-comedic scenes and the occasional "they're trying way to hard" joke, however, one word makes up for it all: minions! The oblong yellow one/two-eyed little guys made this movie. Without them and their comedic timing, I wouldn't have been in such a good mood after walking out of the theater. The nonsensicalness of such a creature and the weird yet humorous noises it could make with its mouth kept me and my friends laughing throughout the movie.

I realize that this movie is directed toward a younger audience, however after sitting through it, I felt that people of all ages could appreciate the humor found within this film. All of the middle-aged adults sitting in front of and around me were able to laugh and have a good time with this movie. In fact, if I remember correctly there were only a handful of younger-aged children in the audience (and of course with its wacky style they were very amused).

Even with the filming of Dinner for Schmucks and the ongoing hilarity of The Office, Carell was able to voice a main character in a family comedy while still giving it his all. (The Russian accent of Gru was, as it seemed to me, spot on). So far, Steve Carell has yet to disappoint me whether he appears in person or as a voice-over. Despicable Me is a fun-filled movie that everyone will enjoy, even the older audiences. And trust me....it was far better than the last movie I reviewed. I still want to get that hour and a half out of my mind.

Despicable Me gets a 3.5/5.