At the time of seeing the Despicable Me trailer this is what I knew: Gru (Steve Carell) is a failure of a super-villain who plans to steal the moon with his little yellow minions and somehow three girls, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith and Agnes, come into the fray and he adopts them, even if he isn’t good at looking after them.
First impressions: entertaining, but nothing entirely special, just a basic recycled plot hidden under something trying to be original.
If you think this then in some ways you are right. The plot is a fairly standard formula of an unwilling parent caring for unruly children, who at first cause havoc but are suddenly sweet and caring when Gru shows them affection. In fact, the film at times seems to borrow from films rather than be an homage to them, The Incredibles at times springing to mind.
However, within this there is something genius. Yes, the film has cheap laughs, but they are nothing compared to the bigger jokes that surround them, which are truly hilarious! The plot carries forward at a constant pace, never stalling for any longer than it should, with underlying themes throughout: from Gru’s mother issues to the difficulties of fatherhood, though attempts to tug at your heartstrings sometimes aren’t successful (the girls’ mistreatment, sadly, was funnier than it should have been).
The animation and art styles are simply wonderful and aesthetically pleasing. Though the 3D does not offer too much to the film as a whole, there are some times where it looks pretty good - especially when the film takes us to space!
The voice acting is great, with all voice actors pulling in a fantastic performance and the character design matching the personality and voices perfectly. The only character that doesn’t have any impact seems to be Margo, who appears to have no personality and Cosgrove falls short of making this character in any way memorable. Nonetheless, the performances of Carell, Russell Brand and Jason Segel make up for this.
Though the plot is nothing exactly special, Despicable Me is a great looking film with constant laughs and a top-notch cast. All of this as a whole makes this film one of the best animated films this year.
Final Verdict: 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment