Day 51: Light Bulb!

DESPICABLE ME (2010)
Directed by Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Starring the voices of: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Will Arnett, Julie Andrews, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fisher

The nefarious Gru (Carell) is the world's greatest villain.  His laundry list of high-profile heists includes the Times Square jumbo-tron, the Statue of Liberty (the small one, from Vegas) and the Eiffel Tower (again, from Vegas).  But when a mysterious new villain hijacks the Great Pyramid of Giza, Gru sets his sights a little higher.  He will steal....THE MOON.  But his funding is cut when a up-and-coming villain named Vector (Segel) is revealed to be the one who pulled off the Pyramid scheme (hahaha).  Vector is smart, young and technologically savvy.  But he does have one weakness: cookies.  And when three orphan girls - Margo, Edith and Agnes (Cosgrove, Gaier and Fisher) - easily wander into Vector's impenetrable lair to sell him cookies (he's got to have his Coco-nutties), Gru adopts the girls and uses them to get in and steal a shrink ray.  But now that he has what he wants, he can just return the girls to the orphanage, right?  But the girls have become attached to Gru, and even though he won't admit it, he's pretty fond of them as well.

Blending superhero action and family-friendly fluff into the same film can be a daunting task, but this film does it pretty well.  Not as well as The Incredibles, but still, well enough for itself.  It's genuinely funny and heartwarming, and Steve Carell is a hoot as Gru. 

But there is one major problem; the movie doesn't really give any reason for the girls' fondness for Gru, and vice-versa.  All of a sudden, the time they've spent together forms a bond between them.  Gru also has several "mommy issues" - his mother is played wonderfully by Julie Andrews, who is never not wonderful - dealing mostly with her indifference to her son's genius.  It could be argued that this lack of compassion in his youth could lead him to bonding with the girls, as real parental love is something he never experienced.  But it's never made exactly clear that this is the case, and drawing that conclusion is a bit of a stretch.  At first, he hates the girls, but later on, he comes to love them.  And it's just taken for granted that this is the case.  Because of this oversight, the real emotional moments don't have much resonance.

Also, the film was made for 3D, and I didn't see it in 3D.  Throughout most of the film, this isn't an issue.  But the end credits don't make any sense in 2D.  See, Gru's little mutant minions go through a series of gags meant for a 3D audience, but since I didn't have the glasses, they didn't make any sense.  I know that sounds like nitpicking, but you've got to keep in mind that the home video release may not have the 3D capabilities.  now we're stuck with an end credits sequence that's just odd more than anything.

But all in all, Despicable Me was pretty good.  But with a bit of story tweaking, it could have been great.  Still, not a bad first try for a fledgling animation studio.

ADDENDUM - I work at Universal Studios Hollywood, and the next project from the group responsible for this film - HOP - is being advertised to death all around the park.  I've seen the trailer about 5,000 times by now (give or take a few), and let's just say...I don't have very high hopes for it.  Of course, I could be wrong, and there's really only one way to find out whether or not it's any good.  I guess I just hate having ads shoved in my face all the time.  End rant.