Laugh Value, Character Value, Music Value.

Rating: 9/10 (10 July 2016)

I saw the trailer for this movie last Summer and the first thing I said was "I have to go see this movie." So, needless to say I've been looking forward to this film since last summer and I had very high expectations for it. I am pleased to say it went above and beyond and met these expectations, I absolutely adored this movie and would recommend it to anybody of any age.
First things first is starting from the beginning and the introduction of the characters and I thought Illumination Entertainment did a fantastic job in presenting each individual. As an audience we knew after the first ten minutes who each character was, their relationships with each other, and the individual personalities. For an animation film I was really pleased with this because you normally don't get that character depth in the beginning and sometimes you never get it in the film. As the story went on the characters developed at an individual level as well as a relationship level with others which added to the plot line drastically. Not to mention the actors and actresses who portrayed each character were spot on with the voices.
However, the icing on the cake for the entire film for me was the soundtrack. The soundtrack is very important because it not only sets the pace for the film on screen but it also changes your emotions and tells you when you need to be sad, scared, happy, etc. That is exactly what this soundtrack did and it pleased me because without that human interaction happening on the screen, because it was animated, the music filled that gap and allowed your emotions to change.
One problem I did have with the movie, and this was more towards the end, was the humor. The humor made me laugh in the beginning quite a bit but by the end of the movie the humor was starting to become more outrageous. Almost as if they were trying to hard to make it funny. Now even though this humor was changing a bit as the film went on it was not enough for me not to suggest seeing this movie for its laugh value.
Overall, if you have a family, kids, husband, or just want to see this movie with friends I would definitely recommend. You'll laugh, you'll cry a little bit, but most importantly you will leave the theater happy.