Pixar Has Serious Competition: Far from Despicable, It's Incredible!

Rating: 8/10 (10 December 2012)

I was ready to hate this film, having just viewed "Brave" on cable and not liking it that much. It's a rare situation when a film outshines its plot. The dumbest plot ever: A mad scientist-villain wants to steal the moon and has to go to "The Bank of Evil" (formerly Lehman Bros.) to borrow the money. He is turned down because he has a "bad-track record" performing evil deeds. He then employs 3 innocent orphan girls to enter the liar of his new competitor, the nerdy super-villain "Vector", to steal a shrink-ray. Sounds like enough story for 10 minutes, right? It's produced with images as good as anything I have seen from Pixar and far better than the annoying "Madagascar" series. It works because it doesn't take itself too seriously. The humor carries the movie as it pokes fun at everything from "Annie", to Girl Scouts Cookies, to werewolves. I won't spoil it for you by revealing all the inside jokes. The "minions" are not fully explained, but they are little yellow nearsighted "ompa-lompas" with goggles and speak like Cousin "It". The film's a bit long, but I am sure it plays better on DVD without cable commercials every 10 minutes. Steve Carell's character, "Gur", is the "Despicable Me" with an intentionally-bad fake accent that is a cross between Bela Lugosi and a Hungarian waiter.
Highly recommended. Cleverly animated with lots of gadgets and contraptions, like a "Chuck Jones" cartoon. The roller coaster ride is a great computer-simulation. (It "feels" real.) Nothing really bad or objectionable and fine for children old enough to enjoy Pixar movies such as "Cars" and "Toy Story".(Adults might like it as well.)