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Despicable Me - Theatrical Review

Well that was relatively painless.

Despicable Me has the unfortunate timing to follow in the wake of Toy Story 3’s release a couple of week earlier and will undoubtedly make for a less engrossing experience for adults. The kids? They will eat it up of course.

Think Ice Age instead of Toy Story and you will be in a better ball park as to the aspirations of Despicable Me. It stars Steve Carell, ‘The Office,’ doing voice work here that makes his presence all but unrecognizable (If I had been told Mike Myers had done the voice I would have believed it). His character of Gru is a villain. Or at least he believes that he is. Trouble is that he is not very successful at it. His crimes of stealing the Statue of Liberty; the smaller replica from Las Vegas and an even more dimunitive reproduction of the Eiffel Tower show us that Gru’s ambitions exceed his abilities.

So when someone pulls off a theft of an actual pyramid from Egypt and all the media attention switches to this new villain, Gru concocts a new plan to steal the moon. Going to the moon is something that Gru has been fascinated with as a child but his dreams about it were constantly quashed by his mother, played with great glee by Julie Andrews.

This thread is woven through the rest of the film as Gru works to advance his master plan via the use of three orphaned girls to infilitrate the lair of a new and up and coming villain, Vector voiced by Jason Segel. Vector has stolen a Shrink Ray gun from Gru that is vital to his moon stealing plans. During the course of the remainder of the film Gru finds himself torn between his villainy and his new found talents as a parent.

Helping Gru out is a secret lair full of self-described ‘Minions’ who look like ambulatory yellow pills with either one or two eyes. Think Scrat of Ice Age and you have a whole horde of characters created to provide sight gags punctuated by unintelligible but cute sounding gibberish. The Minions will be a big hit with the kids. Directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud know a good thing when they see it, even to the point of doing the ‘voice’ work for them. Rounding out Gru’s team is his version of James Bond ‘Q’, the gnomish in appearance, Dr. Nefarious. Dr. Nefarious, turns Gru’s plans into reality by creating the necessary tech,  He is voiced with suitable British sounded seriousness by Russell Brand of recent Get Him To The Greek fame.

Technically the film employs a stylized approach much like that of the Addams Family comics. Gru comes across like a distorted version of Austen Powers Dr. Evil and James Bond, Blofeld. I took in the 3D version and must give props for utilizing the technology to enhance the experience without resorting to the standard in your face type of tricks. At least they had the good grace to rein that back until the closing credits where the film then goes all out with the stereotypical 3D shots as the Minions try to escape the screen and get into the audience.

Despicable Me is more grin than guffaw inducing. For a first effort from Illumination Entertainment this is a respectable premiere effort. Subtext may be minimal but at least the film delivers its message without being cloying about it. Small fry will have a good time and adults will emerge without feeling like they have been doing work. Which is all any family can ask.

Expect to see ‘Minions’ branch out into the media in various forms. You may even see them in costume form come next Halloween.

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Despicable Me - Theatrical Review

A man who delights in all things wicked, supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) hatches a plan to steal the moon. Surrounded by an army of little yellow minions and his impenetrable arsenal of weapons and wa
7
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Lou is the site dinosaur - and like many kids in recent generations grew up loving dinosaurs - born and raised during the Golden Age of TV.He saw a puppet show about space and spaceships and robots and rayguns named Fireball XL-5 and his geek/nerdom was cemented. A steady diet of Lost In Space, Star Trek - his alltime fav series, and movies like Doctor Doo-Little, 2001, Planet of The Apes, Star Wars, Alien(s), LOTR etc have led to where he is now.Here at EyeCrave Net sharing his passion for cool and, unashamedly proud to do so in these oft cyncial times, honestly told touching stories.

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