I went to an advanced screening of Despicable Me in 3D today, and once again an animated film aimed kids is one of the better films of the summer. Like Toy Story 3, the 3D effects are utilized well and add to the film, rather than show how bad it it. The closing credits include around one long 3D joke.
This film is about despicable villains doing despicable things, such as stealing pyramids, the Statue of Liberty (the little one), cutting in line at the coffee shop and the main villain, Gru, has a grandiose plan to steal the moon. As long as he can get the financing from the Evil Bank (formerly Lehman Bros.)
Gru is the central bad guy, a once great villain who has been usurped by his nemesis Vector. In order to regain his reputation he plans, with his not quite able mad scientist partner Dr. Nefario and his crew of minions, to commit lunar larceny. Steve Carrell plays Gru with a strange mix of eastern European accents and and unbridled joy at his evilness . Gru is rotten to the core and his villainy can be traced directly to his complex relationship with his disapproving mother, played by Julie Andrews.
When Vector interferes with the moon stealing scheme, Gru adopts three cookie selling orphan girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes, to secretly enlist their aid to thwart him. But Gru is not prepared for the consequences of letting these three little girls into his life. Their irresistible charms soon wreck havoc on his secret lair and his criminal enterprise.
The movie is aimed squarely at kids, but there are there are plenty of jokes and sight gags to tickle the funny bone inside the adult kid in all of us. The countless mischievous minions steal the film from the main villains and you can be sure they will be back in many more adventures. The story itself is derivative of countless other stories about finding the good in all of us, but the animators and director makes it work.
At the Movie House rating *** stars (if you are under 12 add a star)
3 comments:
I've tried the movie cartoon thing a few times, it just never worked for me. No matter how much they tried the "latest animation", famous voice-overs, the cutest or funniest characters etc etc blah blah...In the end, they are just cartoons and as such, should be restricted to Saturday mornings. The Hollywood moguls must hear cha-ching all day when they produce this drivel and people claim its a movie. Reminds me of a famous line from somewhere..."That Barney Rubble is quite an actor"
By the way, I question whether your streak has been maintained since this was a cartoon and not a movie
Dear Anonymous,
Thanks for your comments. Many unsophisticated movie goers think like you do. Yet the feature length animated film has been around since the 1930's and has long been recognized as a uniquely American art form. From Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to this year's Toy Story 3, Disney has pioneered this art form and pushed it to new story telling heights. The fact that you limit yourself with your narrow minded view of this type of movie is truly sad.
It would be like someone saying that pencil scketches are just drawings and only oil paintings are real art.
a feature length animated cartoon is a movie so I am still in good standing.
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