Good silly fun

Rating: 8/10 (11 March 2017)

When a new, unknown villain, steals the Great Pyramid of Giza other villains feel somewhat inadequate. One such villain is Gru, he has a plan to steal the Moon! Before he can do that he will have to steal a new shrink ray. He manages to get the ray but it is promptly stolen from him by young villain Vector. He tries to get it back but has no luck; then he sees three orphan girls get into his house while selling cookies. He swiftly hatches a plan; he will adopt the girls then infiltrate Vector's lair by getting them to deliver 'robot cookies'. Of course he has no idea how to deal with children but as he does things with them grows to care about them and must ultimately choose between the girls and the moon.
This film is lots of fun and not just because of the little yellow Minions that proved so popular they would later get a spin-off movie. The minions are lots of fun in a way that should amuse children and adults alike. Gru is a good protagonist and his character develops nicely throughout the film; early on we see him tormenting a crying child but by the end he is reading a story, which he has written himself, to the three girls. Gru's schemes are suitably over the top and both he and rival Vector have suitably villainous lairs. The three young girls were cute in a way that was fun rather than annoying. The animation looks really good and while there were moments that were probably designed to show off the 3D in the cinema they didn't seem too obvious when watching on television. The voice cast did a good job bringing their characters to life. Some of the jokes are a little bit crude but not excessively so; for example in one scene a minion photocopies his backside. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of animated film, both young and old alike.