Despicable Me (2010)

Having been a Disney devotee my whole life, I realized after watching DESPICABLE ME that 2010 might have been the year that finally broke me of my animation elitism. I was not a fan of the Shrek or Ice Age movies, and barring the occasional exceptions (such as “Happy Feet” and “Monster House”), I tended to dismiss most animated films that were not Disney or Pixar films. I had no rational reason to do so, of course; many of the Disney studio’s recent films (“Bolt,” “Meet the Robinsons”) were sub-par and certainly not as good as some of the animation happening outside of the mouse house.

This year, Disney hit the jackpot twice for me. Their Pixar entry, “Toy Story 3,” ranks among their best, and that’s saying a lot considering their unprecedented consistency of quality. But their traditional animation branch also returned to form with “Tangled,” which exceeded my expectations. And a non-Disney animated film, “How to Train Your Dragon,” was one of my favorite films of the year. How could there be four fantastic animated films this year?

Somehow, there were. DESPICABLE ME has sweetness and sass, not to mention all-star vocal talent. It’s the story of Gru, voiced by Steve Carrell. He’s an aging and out-of-practice super-villain, who has the ability to make people’s lives miserable in town, but he no longer seems able to pull off a significant heist or act of crime. His partner, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), creates weapons such as farting guns and robot cookies, and his “minions,” hundreds of mumbling yellow capsules in overalls and goggles who come in both one and two-eyed varieties, are too loveable to be sinister, as hard as they try to please Gru.

Gru’s villainous reputation is overshadowed by Vector (Jason Segal), a punky young upstart who managed to steal the pyramid of Gisa. So when Gru goes to the Evil Bank for a loan to finance his plan to steal the moon, he is told that unless he first hijacks a shrink ray gun to prove his worthiness, his request for money will be denied. Gru’s plan to steal the ray ends up including the use of three little orphan girls who travel door-to-door selling cookies for Miss Hattie (Kristin Wiig), the surprisingly evil orphanage matron. Gru adopts the girls and does everything in his power to keep them at arm’s length, planning to dump them off once he’s done with them. And while it’s predictable that he will grow attached to them and that the film will end with him softening his heart, the sequence of events to get there is entertaining and fresh.

The vocal talent in the film is stellar. In addition to the those already named here, the film features the voices of Julie Andrews, Jack McBrayer, Miranda Cosgrove and Will Arnett, just to name a few. A musical score and original songs by hip-hop producer Pharrell Williams ads a unique vibe to the film, and it works. And the minions? Well they are adorable.

DESPICABLE ME contains an ample amount of little visual homages to adult films, affording it the requisite amount of inside jokes for grown-ups without confusing the kids. There’s a hilarious nod to the horse head moment in “The Godfather,” for instance, as well as a sequence reminiscent of “Apollo 13.” And though in some ways the film steals liberally from “Up,” with a crabby old man making room in his heart for a child, its sentimentality is pure of heart and touching. You know exactly what’s going to happen by the end, but you get the ending you want. Any other ending would have been a disappointment.

I wouldn’t say that DESPICABLE ME was better than “Toy Story 3,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” or “Tangled,” but it’s at least amply good enough to be included in the same sentence with them, (which is good because I just put them all in the same sentence! Ha!). It was fun, funny, touching and sassy: the kind of animated film you could see yourself adding to your home collection and watching again with the kids.

3.0 out of 4