If you liked the first, you'll like this one!

Rating: 8/10 (25 June 2013)

Even more Despicable! Actually this is a sweet turn for the lovable anti-villain villain, Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), who is comfortably back as a bona fide family man, to the three adorable orphans who melted audiences hearts alike in the first film. Gru would seem like a fun father, but he takes his responsibilities overbearingly over the girls as he has trouble accepting them growing up. Not only that, but he struggles to find contentment with no longer being a villain, with his laboratory now transformed into a jam-making factory. Through expected plot development, advocated from a sequel, it is not until a love interest comes along, Lucy Wilde (voiced by Kristen Wiig), that Gru loosen his shell and the plot moves into action. She takes him to the aptly titled 'anti-villain league' who recruit Gru, with Lucy as his partner in anti-crime, to take down a new villain who has taken disguise at a local shopping mall. What better way to take down a villain than with a post-villain. However Gru is not as proficient as he used to be, he is divided and distracted between his responsibilities to his girls, his love for villainous antics and his mixed emotions to his new partner.
The plot moves efficiently and effectively, moving briskly but taking special care with the characters whom audience enjoyed the first time around, while injecting a few new ones. Of course this means the minions are back, if ads didn't make it obvious. The uniformly dressed but motley shaped crew seem to have grown exponentially in number, as they are ever present in the film. Even their antics in the background over petty things, prove hilarious, but the pint size helpers also take a pivotal role in the plot. This strikes an interesting point in the films advertising. Hardly any plot was divulged, beyond set-up, meaning that there are plenty of surprises to be had in the film. In fact the minions took the foreground of marketing, being funny without substantiating into crass or being overtly annoying. Not only are they ingenious supporting characters but also act as an ingenious means of marketing the film, without spoiling much of the fun of the film, similarly like Scrat in the Ice Age films. If you only liked them in the first film, you'll love them now.
The bottom line (hahaha 'bottom'- you read it in a minion voice didn't you :) is that this is a very comfortable flick. It lives up to the adage, if you liked the first you'll like this one. Colorful and cheerful animation, that is quite impressive, with more minion madness, as expected, punctuated by heart warming sentiment, in good measure.