There have been a lot of great animated films released this year, which puts a lot of pressure on Despicable Me to live up to expectations. Does it manage to do that? Well ... sort of. There isn't anything particularly terrible about the movie, but nothing really stands out to help it stand above the rest either.
Despicable Me's catch is what if a classic Bond style villain was the main character of a movie? Gru is a pointy nosed villain with grand ideas that never seem to work out, and The Bank of Evil is tired of his failures and refuse to grant him any further loans to fund his dastardly deeds. His plan requires a shrink ray that is currently in possession of another villain named Vector. He adopts three orphan girls as part of his plan to steal the ray gun from Vector.
It is a unique concept, but fails a bit in the execution. The two best things the film has going for it are the three girls, and Gru's minions who provide a bulk of the movie's best laughs. I couldn't do this review without mentioning those little yellow minions, who are still a mystery to me. Their origin is never explained, but all we need to know is they act as Gru's henchmen and do all the heavy lifting.
Margo, Edith, and Agnes are the little girls that Gru adopts for his plan, who slowly begin to soften up villain's heart. These three are adorable, and the young actresses playing them do a great job bringing them to life. After the awful child actor performances from Airbender last week it's nice to see some young talent really shine.
Animation is Despicable Me's biggest flaw, with rather dull character designs and flat textures keeping it from reaching Pixar or Dreamwork's level of computer animation. I did not see this in 3D, but a number of scenes were clearly meant to use a 3D effect to hurl objects toward the audience.
A decent family film that will provide a few good laughs. If you have already seen Toy Story and looking for something the whole family can enjoy, then give Despicable Me a shot.
Final Score: B
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