It’s hard to understand what’s so appealing about yellow Tic Tac-shaped things that speak gibberish. The Minions are back. Love them or hate them, they’re central to the premise of the Despicable Me series. The first Despicable Me animated film was released in 2010.
Chris Renaud, who co-directed the first film, will return to direct alongside Patrick DeLange, and the film will feature new villains voiced by Will Ferrell and Sofia Vergara.
Gru (Steve Carell) and Lucy’s (Kristen Wiig) adorable daughters have welcomed a new baby brother into their family: Baby Gru Jr.
At the heart of this comedy is a central premise: family love.
Gru may be a master supervillain, but he’s a father first and foremost. His character’s interactions with his son are some of the funniest and most touching scenes. The movie is full of action scenes and the minions’ zany adventures. Without the central relationships — Gru and his minions, the three central minions, and Gru’s wife and kids — this colorful, silly animation would lack heart.
I love watching these movies with an audience full of kids and seeing what makes them laugh.
In Despicable Me, this was the case with any scene featuring the minions or kids. The kids giggled when the baby gave Gru a hard time. The kids loved the Honey Badger scene and the scene where the minions get locked in the vending machine. There were too many characters, and the whole Super Minion subplot could have been removed. It was a lot of fun to see Gru on a mission with a lisping pre-teen wannabe villain. Joey King does a great job voicing Poppy Prescott. Unfortunately, like many recent animated movies, there are too many famous voice actors in the supporting roles. Poppy’s parents are voiced by comedic stars Stephen Colbert and Chloe Fineman. This means that extra scenes featuring these characters were worked into the film. Instead of moving the story forward or adding nuance to the central characters, it slows down the pacing of the film.
What really makes this movie stand out is the soundtrack.
A hilarious subplot involving Gru and Maxime Le Mal as teenagers performing at a talent show leads to a sing-along of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears, and the opening theme by Pharrell is the catchy “Double Life,” both of which embody the themes of the film.
The Despicable Me series is a family-friendly film. The violence is in the same vein as Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner. Everyone recovers from the physical mayhem. Maxime Le Mal gets his comeuppance by being dropped from a great height, beaten, punched and crushed. He turns into a cockroach but makes a full recovery. Even in prison, he is happy to have a rematch with Gru in a singing contest. All the supervillains join in the singing and dancing. The film makes prison seem like a fun place.
Despicable Me is the first movie to fail in its portrayal of the Minions. The super-minions are distracting, unfunny, and rather awful. The best moment here is the scene between Baby Gru and his dad; the banana scene had me laughing out loud. Gru sinking into the beanbag chair, the fun design of the treehouse and Hogwarts-like school, and the usefulness of the diaper bag items are highlights.
It’s a fun movie, with silly characters and a strong emphasis on the importance of family. It may not be the best of the series, but kids will enjoy it, and if you can handle a certain amount of silliness, you might enjoy it too.
Drink with Movie Rating: Crack open two shaken sodas and squirt them all over yourself (out of 5)