Sunday, July 18, 2010

Despicable Me

For whatever reason I expected Despicable Me to be the best animated movie I’ve ever seen. It most likely had something to do with the colossal marketing campaign that begin last summer and the voice talents of three of the biggest comedic stars in the world right now, Steve Carell, Jason Segal, and Russell Brand. However, the result was a situation where I saw the majority of the film’s best jokes in the trailers. They were still funny in context but not as fresh.

The story follows a super-villain named Gru, voiced by Carell, as he attempts to steal the moon and win back the respect of his evil community. He has to battle a new villain in town and adopts three innocent children to unwillingly break through his enemy’s defenses with their charm.

Gru is, as one would expect from a children’s film, not that evil and in reality just misunderstood. Though what the audience does not usually get is an explanation that delves into abandonment issues from childhood and a fear of failure. Children (and probably a lot of adults) would overlook those details, as they are masked in humor, but they do provide some depth to the story.

The dozens of “minions” are probably the most memorable aspect of the film as they were used in advertising and feature prominently on screen. They provide quite a few laughs as well. The humor combined with the overall story structure and likability of the characters makes Despicable Me a hit, although I don’t think it was the best animated movie ever.

Another interesting characteristic is how the voice actors mask their voices with accents and different dialects. There is not the usual realization of who the voice belongs to when they come on screen that tends to happen in other animated pictures. This instance takes a bit longer. Brand plays an elderly scientist and Carell’s Gru has an Eastern European accent. I can’t remember either of them playing parts like that anywhere else so that should be enough to get you into the theater. Well that’s if the billions of commercials fail to do so. (7.6 out of 10)

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