Review - Despicable Me

(Disclaimer: If you haven’t seen this movie, there may be information in this review that might be considered a “spoiler” - although I consciously try not to put major spoiler info in my reviews. Proceed with caution.)

Note: I wrote this in July of 2010 and for some reason did not "Publish" it. Don't know why, but the sentiments contained within are still valid - and the DVD did come out last month, so...

Mom and I went to go see Despicable Me over the weekend. I wanted to see it for a variety of reasons – 1) in the preview, I adored the part where the little girl tries to win the stuffed unicorn and fails and then when Dr. Gru basically blows the carnival game up in order to win her the unicorn, she is so excited and screams “It’s so FLUFFY!”; 2) I enjoy Steve Carrell – especially last week when he was a guest on The Colbert Report and the interview session degenerated into an “Even Steph(v)en” segment like from in the good ol’days of the Daily Show… where was I?; 3) but let’s face it, the main reason I wanted to go see this movie was the minions.

Long time readers (Shout out to the fans!) know of my lifelong (or at least for the past few years) desire to have minions. So obviously, this movie was perfect research for later in life when I finally realize my dream and have me some minions. I could sit here and rant about why I want minions… short minions, tall minions, filet minions… hahahahaha!! Er… back to the movie…

The hero of Despicable Me is the spindly-legged, pointy-nosed Dr. Gru. He also had a lifelong dream… to go to the moon. His mother did her best to squish the young boy’s dreams, but they stayed with him. So as a grown man, Dr. Gru becomes a villain – his successes include stealing the Times Square Jumbo-tron, the Statue of Liberty, and the Eiffel Tower (the Las Vegas versions of the last two). But now a young evil villain upstart is trying to outshine him, so Dr. Gru comes up with his plan to go to the moon, shrink the moon, and then steal the moon, making him the world’s greatest villain.

But first, he has to get a loan from the Bank of Evil (formerly Lehman Brothers) to build the rocket; but in order to get that loan, he must first steal the shrink ray from another band of evil doers.

Meanwhile, three young orphan sisters are out trying to sell cookies for the woman running the orphanage and their path crosses that of Dr. Gru. He gets the idea of using them to help him steal the shrink ray from his arch enemy. So he adopts them.

Yes, it’s sort of predictable that the “evil” Dr. Gru is going to fall in love with these kids (and vice versa) but the way it plays out is very heart-warming and fun. Especially the aforementioned scene with the carnival game and the little girl and the FLUFFY! stuffed unicorn.

I think it is sort of telling (both about me and the movies) that I enjoy going to so-called “kids” movies. Of the 6 or 7 movie previews shown before Despicable Me, I want to go see at least 4 of them – a much higher percentage than for your average “adult” previews. The best kids movies have the inside jokes/gags that make them fun for adults too, and well, I’ve always been a child at heart. As it was, Despicable Me was thoroughly enjoyed by both my inner child and my outer adult – which is a good thing because the adult doesn’t like paying for crappy movies… and the inner child suckers her into going to quite a few! (Did anyone else go see Hoodwinked? If so, you get my point.) Four thumbs up for Despicable Me!