 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** Get ready for a minion laughs in the funniest blockbuster hit of the year! Vying for the title of World's Greatest Villain, Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) along with his hilarious crew of mischievous minions plots to pull off the craziest crime of the century: steal the moon! But when Gru enlists the help of three little girls, they see something in him nobody else has ever seen: the perfect dad. From executive producer Chris Meledandri (Horton Hears a Who, Ice Age), and featuring the voices of an all-star comedic cast, including Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove and Julie Andrews, Despicable Me is "rousingly funny, heartfelt and imaginative" (Pete Hammond, Boxoffice Magazine). Storyline: In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst to the neighbors, hidden beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by a small army of minions, we discover Gru, planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon. (Yes, the moon!) Gru delights in all things wicked. Armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays, and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, he vanquishes all who stand in his way. Until the day he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad. The world's greatest villain has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes. Written by Universal Pictures Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, December 15, 2010 -- When we got adopted by a bald guy, I thought this would be more like Annie. Ever wonder what the biggest challenge facing Hollywood is these days? There are probably dozens of "correct" answers, but near the top of the list must be, "how to keep the digitally animated film fresh and profitable?" It's amazing how studios keep finding ways to fill theater seats with films created completely in the digital realm and in the recording studio. It's been 15 years since Toy Story redefined the cinematic landscape, and since then there's been no shortage of good-to-great-to-brilliant digital adventures that manage to not only one-up their predecessors in terms of visual delights -- that's to be expected as technology improves by leaps and bounds with every flip of the calendar -- but continue to tell inventive stories that keep these sorts of films at the top of the charts, earning nearly universal critical praise while raking in untold billions of dollars and warming the hearts of young and old alike around the world. It seems like most of the great ideas are going to digital films, and why not? Not only are they still surefire profit-makers, but the modern-day magicians -- the digital artists who make it all possible -- are capable of doing anything and everything in the digital domain, including shrinking the moon to the size of a softball. With that in mind, there's no longer such as thing as a plot line that's too outlandish, a special effect that's too hard, or a character that's too difficult to bring to life. The digital era might mark the second Golden Age in Hollywood, for it's now possible to do anything and everything and put it on-screen with graphics that are as colorful and detailed and as lifelike -- or as fantastically make-believe -- as the imagination of the artists will allow. The digital realm, then, was the perfect breeding ground for another in what is becoming an incredibly long list of fine animated films. Despicable Me takes full advantage of all the bells and whistles of the 21st century -- including 3D -- to dazzle audiences with a unique story that takes place in a carefully and colorfully realized world that's populated by lovably diverse and distinctive characters involved in a plot that, yes, deals with the shrinking of the moon. In other words, it's the perfect example of what digital filmmaking is all about. Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) is the world's top Super Villain -- or so he thinks. When word reaches the airwaves that one of Egypt's prized pyramids has been stolen and replaced by an inflatable imitation, Gru assembles his troops -- an army of disposable little yellow one- and two-eyed creatures who are at his beck and call -- and laments his status as the world's second-best villain, even if he did manage to steal the Times Square jumbotron not too long ago. Gru has a plan, though; with the help of his ingenious mad scientist sidekick Dr. Nefario (voiced by Russell Brand), he's going to develop a shrink ray that he's going to use to reduce the size of the moon and steal it to prove his superiority, but there's a catch: Gru doesn't have the cash to get the job done. He heads to the Bank of Evil to take out another loan, but for the first time in a long time, he's turned down by its proprietor, Mr. Perkins (voiced by Will Arnett), who is tired of waiting for Gru to capitalize on his promises and big dreams. Instead, Perkins favors younger and smarter would-be Super Villains like Vector (voiced by Jason Segel), the man responsible for stealing the pyramid. Gru may be dejected, but he doesn't give up. He steals a shrink ray from an Asian military outfit, but Vector is right there to claim the prize from Gru's clutches. All hope of ever regaining his status as world's top villain seems to be gone when he finds Vector's secure home too tough a nut to crack, but when he spies three little orphan girls -- Margo (voiced Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (voiced by Dana Gaier), and Agnes (voiced by Elsie Fisher) -- effortlessly infiltrate Vector's lair by offering him the opportunity to purchase cookies, he schemes up a way to use the girls to his advantage. Gru convinces orphanage director Miss Hattie (voiced by Kristen Wiig) that he would be a perfect father figure and adopts the girls. All they want is to be loved, and all Gru wants is to use them to break into Vector's heavily-guarded mansion and snatch back his weapon. What he didn't count on was something he had forgotten he possessed: his heart. Will Gru follow through with his plan and discard the girls, or will he learn that love and family come before shrink rays, publicity, and even the moon? It would be hard to argue against Despicable Me as a poster child of sorts for the digital film. It might not be the best, it's not made by Pixar, and its voice cast isn't as impressive as most, but it's an incredibly balanced feature that has everything going for it and no real drawbacks to speak of. The film excels as a masterpiece of exaggeration, and it's that off-kilter sensation, those larger-than-life visuals, an absurd plot line, wholly unrealistic characters, and all of the sheer goofiness that comes with the territory that makes Despicable Me both stand out from the crowd and represent the norm for what makes a digital film great. In a roundabout way, Despicable Me is like a 21st century Fantasy film of sorts; a hero who doesn't know he's a hero saves the damsel(s) in distress and vanquishes his foe using magical abilities to help his cause while also coming to terms with who he is and where his destiny lies. With the digital film and modern technology, Fantasy no longer needs to be exclusively at home in tales with swords and dragons and castles and knights in shining armor and an army of loyal subjects; thanks to smart scriptwriting and computer horsepower, all of that can be replaced by keyboards and freeze guns and jet-powered cars and subterranean lairs and rocket ships and little yellow Minions and still engender the same base emotions but at the same time play as an uproariously funny and family-appropriate picture that emphasizes valuable lessons that espouse doing right even in the face of wrong, amending past mistakes, and growing all the better for having conquered not only the enemy but the demons from within. Not only is the film like a modern-day Fantasy, it's built on technology that even 20 years ago seemed like nothing but fantasy, but here it is, a movie that's wholesomely fun and painstakingly crafted from the top on down; the script is ingenious, the digital production seamless, and the end result is a film that's sheer digital bliss that, no matter how one approaches it, is just a joy to behold on some many obvious and several not-so-obvious levels. Generally speaking, then, Despicable Me does a fine job of crafting a modern Fantasy while also representing what the digitally animated film is all about. But the truth of the matter is, the target audience cares nothing about that. So long as the screen is littered with cuddly characters and bright colors, the young ones will come in droves and finance the next great thing, coming summer 2012 and beyond. Despicable Me has "hit" written all over it, and it did so from the first time someone drew up a schematic for the Minions. Gru's little yellow helpers seem like a cross between Pokemon and Doozers, those little green workers from that old TV show Fraggle Rock. They don't even have to really do anything but jump around and look cute, and that's really all they do; they're supportive characters that exist only to be slathered on the poster, bounce around on the screen, and build half a disc's worth of supplements around. For as cute and commercially important as they are -- they're the faces of the movie, even if they play no major role in it -- there still must be more than 90 minutes of sweet yellow nothing hopping all over the screen, and that's where Despicable Me really works. The plot is ingenious, really; a bad guy who wants to be the ultimate bad guy manages to find his humanity along the way as he deals with a rival arch-villain, suddenly thrusting him into the role of not-so-reluctant hero and learning that stealing hearts goes a lot further than stealing moons and headlines. Despicable Me might be a little late to the whole superhero thing, but at least it gives it a completely different spin while offering incessant laughs, big action pieces, and an underlying heart that becomes the film's center, supplanting even the countless little yellow Minions that cheerfully go about doing nothing though the entirety of the movie. As for the other characters, Despicable Me offers up a memorable roster made possible by both a great script and solid voice acting. The three little girls are dramatically critical to the movie but are more or less replaceable entities; their respective voice actors do a fine job breathing life into them, and the youngest of three -- the naïve and optimistic little girl who immediately sees in Gru only a father figure to plug a gaping hole in her and her sisters' lives -- is the best of the bunch. Julie Andrews is superb as Gru's unsupportive mother, but Despicable Me is all about Gru and Vector. As to the "real" villain first, Jason Segel gives Vector a diabolical yet overconfident and perhaps even naïve and certainly pretentious demeanor. The character is vividly drawn and well conceived; he's ridiculously over-the-top with his weapons that shoot out various forms of undersea creatures, but for as absurd as he is with his fish fetish, he still proves quite the match for the film's makeshift hero. Gru is a wonderful villain who certainly looks and acts the part -- he's like a bigger and more sanitary version of The Penguin from Batman Returns -- and he's blessed with a wonderful dynamic that sees him as a man who never earned the love he needed from his mother but found success despite her negativity, only to himself use children as props rather than give them the love they demand and deserve and want only to reciprocate in kind. Steve Carell nails the part with his dynamic but slightly jumbled accent that seems like something meshed together from French and German (which might be deliberate given the character's good guy-bad guy dual personas that present themselves through the film, the character caught in the middle between Ally and Axis, to take the comparison to its logical conclusion). Best of all, the characters are imaginative and endearing -- both hero and villain alike -- and, along with Despicable Me's wonderful story, fantastic visuals, and, yes, the little yellow Minions, makes the movie a fantastic animated flick and, sure enough, one that could easily be given the banner as most representative of what these sorts of films are all about from visual, structural, and emotional perspectives. Despicable Me is a joyous little film that represents the new wave of digital features about as well as any other of the now varied and approaching countless entries that have dazzled viewers wile warming hearts and tickling funny bones since Toy Story started a trend and set in motion a seemingly unstoppable freight train carrying limitless profits, ever-expanding potential, and some of the best stories of the past 15 years. Despicable Me is filled with memorable characters inserted into a fresh and exciting plot line that certainly pays homage to other films throughout -- watch for a scene in the final act that's right out of the end of The Empire Strikes Back -- but is nevertheless one of the more creative and exciting movies of its kind. Great voice acting and what passes for perfect animation in 2010 round out, surprisingly, one of the year's best films. Universal's Blu-ray 3D release of Despicable Me features a fantastic technical presentation and a slew of extra content. Highly recommended as a disc that may have very well cracked the top ten releases of the year had it come out a few weeks sooner. Trivia:
Cast Notes: Steve Carell (Gru [voice]), Jason Segel (Vector [voice]), Russell Brand (Dr. Nefario [voice]), Julie Andrews (Gru's Mom [voice]), Will Arnett (Mr. Perkins [voice]), Kristen Wiig (Miss Hattie [voice]), Miranda Cosgrove (Margo [voice]), Dana Gaier (Edith [voice]), Elsie Fisher (Agnes [voice]), Pierre Coffin (Tim the Minion / Bob the Minion / Mark the Minion / Phil the Minion / Stuart the Minion [voice]), Chris Renaud (Dave the Minion [voice]), Jemaine Clement (Jerry the Minion [voice]), Jack McBrayer (Carnival Barker / Tourist Dad [voice]), Danny McBride (Fred McDade [voice]), Mindy Kaling (Tourist Mom [voice]). IMDb Rating (02/01/11): 7.5/10 from 35,091 users
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