Despicable Me for Not Seeing This in 3D/Theatres

Rating: 9/10 (8 January 2011)

I admit I didn't like the title, but the trailers to Despicable Me did look like fun. I have no excuse on why I missed it in theatres, but dang, I wish I had seen it there.
This was a wonderful movie, all around. Even the movie's shortcomings were overcome. Such as: old story at first glance, but enough twists and personal stamps to make it original and the minions ALMOST overstayed their welcome before the inevitable sequel – like what happened to Scrat in Ice Age: The Meltdown. They didn't, thank goodness, and were kept fresh, fun, entertaining and great to watch through to the end.
You may not even like Steve Carell, but even here, in animated voices, he shows his comic genius and absolutely shows depth, much like what Robin Williams did in Aladdin.
The world's full of super-villains, as this movie cleverly focuses on, and "poor" Gru (Carell) is getting older and out-thieved by others so he schemes to steal the moon. Like that's been done before.
Unfortunately for him, right when he's getting shut out by the evil bank – what bank isn't these days – and his peers, a new rival appears in the same mold, but creatively different, as Syndrome from Pixar's The Incredibles and three girls come into his life that need adoption. This also sounds like Pixar's Up, but they take it in a different direction.
Sure, you know he'll grow to love the girls, but Carell (and the writers, of course – it is animated after all) does a wonderful job of showing the bond grow through deception – he needs them to penetrate his adversary, Vector's (Segel) not-so-secret lair for a device to shrink the moon.
It's been awhile that I saw a movie that made me want to put on "repeat" as Despicable Me did. And it wasn't a one-note film involving the cute and resourceful little, yellow minions that aid in Gru's plight. Sure, they were wonderful, as well, but as a whole, this movie is highly recommended to kids and adults. It's heartfelt, adventurous, absolutely hilarious, enormously creative and leaves you rooting for the bad guy. Let's hope they don't spoil the sequel with twice the number of minions forthere's already hundreds in this one.