A very 'in-the-moment' experience.

Rating: 6/10 (9 September 2010)

Despicable Me is a short term film. It's playful, snappy, colourful and sporadically humorous. Watching it in 3D with my family was 95 mins well spent. Past that point it didn't offer much. Once the end credits rolled I barely gave the film a second thought. I have a feeling that a repeat viewing at home will render it dull and unwatchable. Well, for the parents at least. Only a few key moments have stuck with me since, but all of them can be found in the trailer anyway. This isn't to say the ephemeral Me isn't a movie worth watching, far from it in fact. It's just a very 'in-the-moment' experience, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Steve Carell supplies Gru with an intriguing Russian-esquire accent, it adds another level of fascination to the character but Carell is talented enough to not let it slip into a camp Bela Lugosi parody. Gru's voice defines him and seems to be a perfect match for the super-villain's physical appearance, I would be interested to know which came first. The rest of the voice cast are strangely forgettable. Julie Andrews and Russell Brand are unrecognisable as Gru's mother and elderly sidekick respectively, whilst Jason Segal doesn't conjure up any laughs as the nerdy Vector.
The animation is solid, if not groundbreaking. The creatively cute minions are visually funny and whenever they were on screen I had a smile on my face. Other images weren't as eye-catching as they should have been, such as Gru's stock-standard Addams family house and his over-sized automobile. The third dimension has been utilised well by directors Coffin and Renaud, depth is present throughout and the infrequent instances where an object lurches from the screen had the kiddies in awe, even if the adults won't find it all the spectacular.
Take the children and enjoy it while it's on, don't be expecting a lasting impression though.
3 out of 5 (1 - Rubbish, 2 - Ordinary, 3 - Good, 4 - Excellent, 5 - Classic)