Changing Lanes

Chris Melandandri, the executive producer who bought us Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Horton hears a Who, brings us a new animated movie in the form of Despicable Me. I hadn't heard of this movie until I saw the trailer when I'd gone to watch Toy Story 3 (Review here). It looked interesting but didn't tickle my curiosity enough to make me want to go to the theater to watch it. Then on one lazy Friday night, me and my siblings decided to go watch a movie and Despicable Me was the only one that fit the bill as my 4 year old niece was to accompany us. A late night show, the theater was full of easily tickled idiots which meant it wasn't the best environment to watch an average movie.

Stealing the moon, the greatest heist ever destined to make Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), with the help an aging scientist Dr. Nefario (voiced by Russel Brand), and an army of minions (voiced by directors Peiere Coffin and Chris Reneud, and Jermain Clement), the world's greatest villain. But before all of that, he needs a loan from the 'Bank of Evil' (formerly known as Lehman Brothers) run by Mr. Perkins(voiced by Will Arnett) who happens to be Vector's (voiced by Jason Segel) father, the new villain on the block and Gru's arch nemesis who had stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza to become the world's current greatest villain. In order to achieve his goal, Gru adopts three orphans, Margo (voiced by Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (voiced by Elsie Fisher) who after an initial edgy period falls in love with them. I won't go more in detail and spoil the fun for the readers so that's enough of a spoiler.

The story was humdrum in most places which is generally the case with animated movies but the problem with Despicable Me is the lack of any stand out characters. Apart from Gru, the minions and Agnes, the rest of the characters were a little *done to death*. Some of the human gags fell flat while the emotional moments were cute in patches (basically Agnes was the only one who shined). The minions were by far the best element/s of the movie which made it an almost above average movie. Their almost gibberish talk, funny antics and innocence was refreshing.

Possibly a movie I wouldn't have preferred watching in the theater but I wouldn't call it a waste of money either. It was a feel good movie that doesn't leave a bad taste in your mouth later (if that makes any sense).