July 16, 2010: Despicable Me
I had seen advertisements for Despicable Me in the weeks leading up to the film’s release, and hadn’t figured that I would see it. The little yellow guys appearing on the posters suggested a movie which would be very much for younger children. An opportunity came up for me to see it with my family, so I went.
As it turned out, while the little yellow Doozer-looking guys (Fraggle Rock, anyone?) were very much an integral part of the movie, they are hardly the focus. Thinking back on the setup, the characters, and the way things play out in Despicable Me, I find myself impressed by the originality and creativity of the idea, but less than enthusiastic about the overall execution.
A world is established in which villains are plentiful and famous and try to outdo each other with incredible feats of destruction and theft. They are merely professionals doing their jobs. Gru, the lead character and a struggling villain, has gone for a number of years without a major success, but he is planning a job which will catapult him back into the limelight: stealing the moon. Needing to steal a shrink ray gun from a younger and more arrogant super-villain, Gru realizes that a set of three young girls selling cookies to this competitor can get into his fortress, so he promptly adopts them. Plenty of mileage is derived from the challenges the three spunky orphans provide for Gru, as he initially finds them an annoyance but eventually comes to care for them. In the end, Gru discovers that maybe his lack of success as a villain is related to him not actually being villainous at all by his nature.
I saw this in digital 3D, which was nice but didn’t make much of a difference. I liked the concept of villainy being a profession just like any other, and accepted as part of society. The heartwarming development of the relationship between Gru and the girls is the main strength of the film. However, everything else had the feeling of something which has been done before. There’s clearly more complex psychological pain in Gru than is explored, though it is hinted at with flashbacks to his childhood and references to his mother’s constant disappointment. This could have been explored more. Despicable Me is perfectly fine animated entertainment, but it isn’t really anything special.
I’m still undecided about this one.
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