Cute... nothing more

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2010)

When I saw the trailer for Despecible Me, I honestly couldn't wait to see this movie. Ever since I was a little girl, I watched animated movies and it wasn't so much the lead characters that I was interested in as it was the villains. They always seemed to have more life goals going on rather than the hero or princess and had better personalities, not to mention betters songs. So to make a movie about the villain as our leading character was just awesome. What makes them tick, what motivates them and do they ever feel the pressure of keeping up the competition to be feared? So we introduce Dreamwork's new piece: Despecible Me. While I thought the film was going to be great, it didn't live up to my expectations. Not saying that the movie was bad because it did have some really cute moments, that's all it turned out to be: cute. I wanted it to be a little more clever, but I suppose with all the animated films that come out each year, we're spoiled. With Toy Story 3 also being released this summer, I suppose I want more. Because the animation is nothing special and the story was a bit too predictable.
In the middle of a suburban neighborhood sits a black house with a dead lawn, hidden deep beneath this home is the vast secret hideout of the super villain Gru and his army of mischievous little minions. He wants to pull the biggest heist in world history: stealing the moon. Gru tries to get a loan from the local Bank of Evil, where he meets Vector, and finds out that Vector stole an Egyptian Pyramid. Mr. Perkins, the bank president, refuses to give Gru a loan until he obtains the shrink ray for the plan. Vector promptly steals the shrink ray from him; Gru makes several attempts to get it back, but cannot get inside Vector's base. After seeing Margo, Edith, and Agnes, three girls who live at a local orphanage and are selling cookies door-to-door getting inside the base, he adopts them to get to the shrink ray. Gru begins to bond with the three girls and finds something that he's been missing in his heart for a long time.
I did like this movie though, despite some flaws, it was still worth the watch. It's the first half of the movie that really slows it down, but it did pick up. One of my favorite moments of the film was when Gru tries to steal the shrink ray away from him, I could have honestly watched a movie of just that the way they handled that heist. Also one part that killed me was when Gru takes the little girls to the carnival and they can't win a game so Gru takes out his ray gun and just blasts the game away. The story is still very clever, Gru and the little girls were great to watch. Now one character that let me down was Vector, I loved the idea of Gru having competition with this guy, but Jason Segel was not the right voice. I would have preferred a more nerdy voice, maybe even a little Bill Gates, Jason's voice was too deep and didn't seem to fit. Also his father, who is the owner of the evil bank and denies Gru his loan was a little too basic and something that has been seen before. I would say this movie is a matinée price, because while not being a great movie, it was still very cute and worth the watch. I just wanted it to be a bit more clever, but like I said, I'm spoiled, I need Dreamworks to up the bar.
6/10