DESPICABLE ME (USA 2010***Chris
Directed by Renaud and Sergio Pablos

Everyone loves a good villain.  In the computer animated 3D feature from Illumination Studios’ DESPICABLE ME, the filmmakers take the villain one step further to show his sensitive side when he is forced to take care of three cute orphan girls in order to complete his quest for ruling the world.

The plot is simple enough.  The hero or villain of the story is Gru (Steve Carrell sporting an outrageous Russian accent) who needs to steal a shrink ray in order to steal the moon and re-position himself as the greatest villain ever.  Simple!  Fly to moon; shrink moon; steal moon; return and ransom earth.  But Gru needs the three girls to steal the shrink ray.

Fortunately, the cutesy factor, especially with a story concerning three orphan girls, not to mention the minions, is kept in check.  No embarrassing moments exist either when characters break into song.  Ironically, the film’s funniest part is when Gru reads the 3 kids a bedtime story (a really cute and imaginative) one about thee colourful worms.  Sentiment is also wisely kept at a minimum.

The voice characterizations are recognisable from Julie Andrews as Dru’s mother to Steve Carell as Dru himself.

The directors love to play with irony from the evil villain looking after children to his enormous underground lair hidden in a neighbourhood of homes with flowers and white picket fences.  Lots of little details such as these enhance the entertainment of this feature.  One problem with this film though is the lack of a true bad guy (here the villain is the good guy) and lack of impending danger.  TOY STORY 3, in contrast, had situations when it seemed impossible for the toys to survive their current predicaments.

For a film with an highly probability for inventiveness, DESPICABLE ME is noticeably plain compared to the other two animation features TOY STORY 3 and SHREK FOREVER AFTER that are currently playing.  This is not to say that DESPICABLE ME is not worth a look.  For one, the 3-D effects here are by far the best.  Directors Renaud and Pablos have gone all out with this movie from the start with the Universal Pictures logo coming right out at the screen to the end credits when the minions try harder and harder to spring out closer and closer to the audience.

DESPICABLE ME is a cute delight!  Who can dislike a film with wobbly yellow creatures with one eye speaking rapidly like little kids just learning to speak?