MOVIE NEWS: Despicable Me

What do you get when you cross The Incredibles with How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Anyone? No? You get Despicable Me, a new movie that hits theatres today. I caught a preview of the flick, and I’m here to share some thoughts.

The movie is about a supervillain named Gru (pictured above). He’s all about freeze rays, and he has both a mad scientist and a huge group of little yellow minions (also pictured above) in his employ. Only, he’s not the best villain on the block anymore. That title belongs to Vector, an evil mastermind who plans on stealing Gru’s idea of… stealing the Moon.

So, in order to make his Moon-mooching dream a reality, Gru adopts three adorable little girls who can get him into Vector’s stronghold. But can he stay bad with such good kids around him? You’ll have to see the flick to find out!

Here are a few observations about the movie:

1) It looks great. It’s bright, fun, and the characters are drawn in strangely interesting ways (broad shoulders, big heads, small legs, and so on). Also, unlike a lot of movies we’ve talked about recently, the 3-D here actually adds to the experience! The roller coaster scene will have you gripping the arm rests on your seat. Seriously.

2) It starts slow. Fifteen minutes into the movie I was getting a little restless, thinking, “What is this movie about?” Gru isn’t very likeable early on, and the only story seems to be that he wants to do evil. Since when is cheering for an unlikeable bad guy trying to do evil things a good story?

3) It finishes strong. Once Gru adopts Margo, Agnes, and Edith, everything comes together — the story, the different characters, the laughs, etc. And the more we see of Gru’s minions, the better. They don’t often mind their manners, but they’re consistently hilarious.

Overall, I liked this movie. I mean, it’s no Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (what is?!), but in terms of goofy, zany, over-the-top animated comedies, it’s right up there (especially after it picks up steam).

What’s most interesting is that this isn’t the only movie coming out this year about the hard lives of misunderstood supervillains. Another movie, called Megamind, hits theatres in November. I’m totally interested to see how they handle the idea.

Talk to you next week!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com