Despicable Me

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with the news revealing that an Egyptian pyramid was stolen. When super-villain Gru (Steve Carell) hears of this, his pride is wounded and he plans to pull the biggest heist of the century by stealing the Moon.Gru tries to get a loan from the Bank of Evil (Formerly Lehman Brothers) and meets a young super-villain, Vector (Jason Segel), who annoys him. Bank president Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett) refuses to grant Gru the loan until he obtains the shrink ray necessary for the plan. Mr. Perkins tells Gru that he is getting too old and that new super-villains are younger and better, like Vector, who is revealed to be the one who stole the Pyramid of Giza.Gru and his minions steal the shrink ray from a top secret research facility in East Asia, but Vector steals it from him and shrinks his ship. Gru attempts to get the shrink ray back from Vector's lair, but all his attempts to enter the lair prove futile. After seeing three orphaned girls, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher) enter the lair to sell cookies to Vector. Gru adopts the girls from Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig), the head of the orphanage, to use them to steal back the shrink ray. Gru has his assistant Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) build robots disguised as cookies. He then has the girls sell the robots to Vector, and the robots help Gru steal the shrink ray.On the way home the girls ask to go to an amusement park. Gru agrees, intending to leave the girls there. Instead, the attendant says he, as an adult, has to ride the roller coaster with them. Gru ends up having fun with the girls. Back at home, he presents his plan to Mr. Perkins via video. The girls keep interrupting him. Perkins again refuses to give him the loan, claiming that although he doesn't have a problem with the plan, he just wants a younger villain to do it instead. Gru has a flashback of his childhood, depicting his wanting to go to the moon after seeing the first moon landing. When he tried to impress his mother (Julie Andrews) with models of the rocket (and an actual working one), she just ignored him. Mr. Perkins calls Vector (revealed to be his son, whose real name is Victor) to the Bank of Evil to inform him that Gru has the shrink ray. Vector reassures his father that he will get the Moon. Gru almost abandons his plan due to lack of funds, but the girls and the minions take up a collection to keep it going.However, Gru has to make a choice, because the moon will be in the optimal position for the heist on the same day as the girls' ballet recital. Dr. Nefario, seeing the girls as a distraction, contacts Miss Hattie, who arrives to take the girls back. Gru, the Minions, and the girls are heartbroken. Gru goes on with his plan and flies to the moon.Gru successfully shrinks and pockets the Moon. Gru remembers the ballet recital and rushes to it. However, it has ended by the time he arrived. There, he finds a ransom note from Vector demanding the moon in exchange for the girls. After Gru hands over the moon, Vector reneges on the deal, keeping the girls and the moon. This enrages Gru, who storms Vector's lair, this time successfully breaching the defenses. Vector flies off in an escape pod with the girls. Gru holds on to the exterior of the ship. He nearly falls to his death, but is rescued by Dr. Nefario piloting the same ship that Vector shrunk before. Nefario reveals that the bigger the object, the quicker the effects of the shrink ray wear off. Very soon, the moon begins to grow and roll around inside Vector's ship, hurting him and freeing the girls. The girls see Gru outside of the ship, and Gru tells them to jump over to him. Edith and Agnes successfully make it onto the ship, but before Margo can jump, Vector grabs her. The moon rolls again and knocks Vector over, and Margo grabs onto Gru's grappling hook. Gru rescues her with the help of his minions, while the rapidly-expanding Moon wrecks Vector's controls, causing his ship to carry it back into orbit.Gru and the girls settle down to live a happy life as a family and Vector is stranded on the Moon. The girls give a special ballet recital for Gru, his minions, and his mother, who finally tells him she is proud of him and acknowledges him to be the better parent. The music changes from Swan Lake to You Should Be Dancing, and everyone rushes on stage to dance as the film ends.

Tags: cute, flashback, psychedelic, humor, entertaining, storytelling

Review:
There's humor, action, and heart -- what more could you want from an animated film?Also notable is the way the star-studded voice cast handles their characters.
How to Train Your Dragon amazed, Toy Story 3 is one of the best animated films of all time, and Despicable Me impresses.
The entire hall was laughing through out the movie.The plot is very interesting to keep you engrossed throughout the movie.It is not a very original plot but has the very humorous dialogs and acts.Steve Carell's is SIMPLY amazing, he is funny in a very different way...he is the king of the awkward embarrassing insulting type of comedy.
Their worst effort is without a doubt "Cars" (I almost don't even like it), but even that is above a lot of other crap from other studios.I like the first "Shrek", "Kung-Fu Panda"; found "9" and "Coraline" a little bit boring (but interesting, both!), and totally dislike "Shark Tales", "Planet 51", "Space Monkeys", "Surf's Up", the first "Madagascar" (except for the penguins and the king lemur, lol).In a broader sense, my all time favourite animated movie (although not CGI) is "The Nightmare Before Christmas".Enough of that!
Even so called "art-house" animated pictures like WALL-E follow the trend (in fact, that particular film contains two such supporting characters) and Despicable Me ups the ante and adopts thousands.The villainous central character of Gru (voiced my Steve Carell) operates his evil lair with the aid of a multitude of adorable little yellow workers, and along with their "awwwee" factor, are the subject of a healthy portion of the aforementioned slapstick.
The 3D is great and used quite a number of times in the movie during many effect-driven scenes, which is very impressive considering the poor up-conversion to 3D of MANY movies of late.Overall, this animated film is a great fun time for the kids and family to see, and even some teens will get many laughs out of it as well.
I sit on the toilet."Any animated movie that was released during 2010 is inevitably going to be compared to Toy Story 3, so let's get that out of the way, first.
This makes up for the rather simple story actually, one you probably have seen in some cartoon show somewhere.The voice acting was pretty on spot, with Steve Carell Russel Brand, and Jason Segal.
The film, starring the voice of Steve Carell as Gru, a criminal intent on executing the largest heist in the history of the world, is often funny, always entertaining, but unfortunately much more forgettable than the animated films it goes against (see Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon).
Regardless, for young kids or an adult audience alike, it provides enough wonderful visuals and comedy to keep you fully competent for it's fast paced 95-minute run time.Despicable Me opens and ends with Gru, an awkward individual dressed in all black with a pointy nose, bald head, skinny legs, and fat body.
It's only when Gru adopts three young girls, originally planned as bait to outwit is sympathetic suitor, that the film goes from funny and action oriented to sappy and heartwarming.There's absolutely nothing bad about Despicable Me from a film-making standpoint.
But i think the film really kicked in when we are introduced to the cutest little orphan girls: Margo, Edith and Agnes (Agnes being the youngest and cutest) I loved the character development of Gru, who turns from failed villain to loving father and big softie.
But putting that aside this is no doubt an enjoyable film, of course the little minions were cute, and there was some great character development in this film so i would say it's a good watch..
I recall watching this in 2010 and I think I watched this movie around 12 times already so I think I got used to all the jokes around it so I can only giggle to it rather than laughing out so hard.Despicable Me is about a villain wanting to scheme the most evil plan known to man.That is stealing the moon but the lack of budget and the bank declining on him makes it hard to do.
Surely Universal Pictures did a great job animating it and it really looks like the equivalent to a much more recent (and better) film, Toy Story 3.
But still, it has the ability for animation, but it doesn't have the fun and morals that are packed in a Pixar film.To sum it up, after a pyramid is stolen in Egypt, we are introduced to Gru (Steve Carell) who is the second best super-villain in the world, right behind Vector (Jason Segel), who stole the pyramid.
Its kind of cool, and since I was the only one in the entire theater laughing at the screen when everyone just watched trying to understand them, I felt like I knew more than they did (when I did).Still, it would make more sense if the app buzzed and dubbed what the Minions were saying throughout the movie rather than just at the end.
Besides the great voice work (mainly from Carell and Cosgrove) and good animation, the film is just despicably fair.With Voice Talents of: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher.
I consider a family film geared towards an audience of all ages (ie Toy Story, Dragon) and I think children's films like Nanny McPhee and CareBears the Movie do nothing but entertain the youngsters while we older folk sit and watch mindlessly - but perhaps chuckle occasionally.
Well, Despicable Me comes up with a legion of similarly whimsical scene-stealers: the minions, little yellow guys shaped like time-release capsules, all of whom wear goggles over either 1 or 2 eyes and scurry cheerfully and endlessly (if not always effectively) to do the bidding of their master Gru (Steve Carell), the World's Greatest Villain, or his hench-mad-scientist Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand).The WGV title is visually underlined by driving the biggest polluter since Mount Pinatubo but apparently determined solely by which world landmarks one has recently stolen.
And the whole movie is like that, basically a joke a minute, almost all of them winners.This is an immensely good-natured film, with a plethora of visual gags and the occasional bone tossed to the adults (like the subtitle "formerly Lehman Brothers" under the Bank of Evil logo).Despicable Me is also completely shallow.
What appears to be a simple plan turns out to be disaster and ultimately leads to Gru connecting with the girls and distracting him from his master plan.There's a point during this movie where I just gave up analyzing the story and how it makes sense and just sat there and watched, taking each joke one line at a time and then moving on to the next one.
The idea of a villain taking care of three little girls, surrounded by bug-eyed minions, while trying to steal the moon, seemed like it would be worth a few laughs.
In order to accomplish this he needs something his arch-enemy has and find the only way to get it is to employ 3 little orphans who can get inside his lair by selling cookies.The movie goes exactly where you think it will and some the jokes fall flat, but at its core is good feeling story of redemption and parental love.
Yes, Steve Carell is pretty amusing as the voice of the leading character and seeing that character in scenes with his minions, those three orphan girls, and some others I won't mention provided some good laughs.
Surprisingly, there seems to be a lot of PG rated films lately - which is nice for families.We saw the previews in 3D and it looked like a cute film.Which it was.Just don't go comparing it to anything by Pixar, but it has heart and humor.Won't bother to repeat the story..
And that wanting to please other people (Grul wanting to please his mother) stops us from being whom we were meant to be.The minions were cute, but felt they could have been used more...The cast was very good, and while the animation is not up to Pixar quality, the film was always watchable.Ironically, my theater could only get the 2D version.
When i first saw the trailers for this movie i was ready to dismiss it as a cheap dreamworks rip-off, but when i saw it got nominated for a golden globe and heard so many wonderful things about i decided to give it a watch.It's just awful, the premise seems somewhat interesting a villain tries to pull of his greatest heist yet, but keeps being outdone by a younger villain, but the story focus mainly on three girls, who make me wonder if anyone involved with this movie has ever spent any time with children, they are annoying and not in a "cute" way, they are all clichéd archetypes that make you want to reach out and choke them, which almost seems possible thanks to the quite good 3D, the whole movie looks really pretty in a strange way, everything is shiny for some reason, but it's annoying from start to finish and 30min into the movie it felt like torture, for me there is nothing redeemable about this movie in the slightest, i don't expect every movie to set the world on fire, but i do expect them to at least try something new, this all seemed like a textbook example of how to make a kids movie but with extra cheesiness.Having said that, my brother did enjoy himself and wanted to give it a 5/10, but for him the funniest/best scenes where the dancing scene (why do all kids movies need those?) and a scene wherein a man used his butt to operate a keyboard, so if that sounds like a good time for you, then go watch some youtube clips and skip this movie..
The yellow blob-like Minions of Gru were also portrayed very cutely (but what are they, really?).Compared to the excellent animated films so far seen this year, which included "Toy Story 3" and "How to Train Your Dragon," "Despicable Me" falls behind in my opinion.
The writing is just excellent, it was so funny and incredibly smart without feeling too much, while the voice work is exemplary especially from Steve Carell whose brilliant vocals add a lot to the film's success.Overall, a truly great film with a lot to like.
Yeah I know Toy Story 3 is great but this film definitely deserves a watch too.But before mentioning the good sides of the movie.
Like when the kids were showed in their first sleep that they prayed first before sleeping but they were never showed praying again in the following sleep scenes.Vector was also a techy villain so I just can't figure out how he came up with the not-so-cool octopus gun invention, (I've read though that it was done purposely to come up with a scene close to a Jules Verne's novel).The presence of the minions was also kinda questionable for it isn't a monster or alien movie.However, considering the fact that it is a fun-filled animated feature, all those minimal errs are kinda excusable...hehe Now here are the strong points.I love this film for IT IS FULL OF LOVE.I love the characters in the movie too especially the very endearing Agnes.
It kinda made me feel like I was in the ride too.I also love how the movie indirectly pointed out that we have let go of the bitterness in the past.This movie is definitely a good reminder that no matter how bad our past is we can still live a good life if we choose to.So as I end, I encourage everyone to watch the film if you haven't watch it yet.Very cute, funny and lovable.
It is the type of story that will warm your heart and sink right in, probably one that you will have with you for quite some time actually.The impressive cast does a very, very good performance in their voice acting, and all characters have a lot of personality and quirky traits that you just want to see more and more of them.
From the villainous Gru to the small yellow minions, you just simply love them all.I hadn't thought "Despicable Me" would turn out as cool as it was, so I was thoroughly surprised when I watched it.
On entering the cinema we were presented with 3d glasses and a free bag of popcorn (nice touch), this was a screener so probably a one off and not to be expected again.The place was packed with kids and I must admit I did have some misgivings at first but once the film started I realized how wrong I was , this is the kind of film that must be watched whilst surrounded by hordes of laughing children.The animation was very well done and so was the story line, the jokes were easily understood by all and overall the humor was fit for all ages, the 3D effects in most films usually rely on objects appearing to fly out of the screen directly at you but it was more subtle in this movie, which I find more appealing.I would recommend this film to anyone, with or without kids, it has great appeal to all ages, and stay through the end credits.And on a final note for anyone who like me is sure that the main character "GRU" is familiar think back to the old comics "Wham" and "smash", remember Grimly Feendish..
The films has some wonderful moments too, where we feel something, we root for Gru, the supposed best villain of the planet, voice given by Steve Carell.
But just like Pixar, Illumination Entertainment put in a lot of effort and time into a family film that packs a punch for all ages.Despicable Me is the story of a troubled genius named Gru. Gru isn't truly evil, he just doesn't have much of anyone to care for.
It probably would have made the film even more memorable.The voice cast is awesome which makes the characters likable allowing the comedic moments to bring out the fun in the movie.
The film does do a good job at setting up why going to the Moon is so important to Gru and it is more then just make a name for himself.Like most animated films these days Despicable Me has a big name cast.
This is especially the case for Margo as she acts as the leader of the girls but still acts as a child when she is around Gru. But I would have thought Edith would want to take her hat off sometimes.Despicable Me is a fun and enjoyable film for the whole family.
Also worthy of note were the voice talents of; Jason Segel as Vector, Russell Brand as Dr. Nefario, Julie Andrews as Gru's Mom, Will Arnett as Mr, Perkins, Kristen Wiig as Miss Hattie, Miranda Cosgrove as Margo, Dana Gaier as Edith and Elsie Fisher as Agnes.One of the things I like to write about when reviewing a film is how it makes me feel.
This charm carried it for me because otherwise it isn't quite as smart or as cleverly funny as I would have liked – the adult jokes in particular tended to feel more "inserted" than being part of the film in the way Pixar (sorry for mentioning them again) do so effortlessly.Carell's voice work is pretty good.
Those doing the kids voices also work very well – getting the levels right to be cute and funny – even those that dislike children will be won over by these three (which I guess is key to the story and the film when you think about it!).
Everything from the imaginative, colourful set design, the brilliant character designs and the silky smooth emotion rich animation itself, it all just impresses the hell out of me.The story while simplistic enough for younger children to follow, has such warmth and heart that you really can't poke holes in it either.I adored this film and fell in love with the minions, the little girls and Gru. I'd happily have minion plushies on my couch and I'm an old fart of a guy.
Even so, this movie is a great movie to take the whole family to see.This is about some evil villain who adopts three young girls so they can help him thwart his nemesis plans on taking over the moon.The voice acting is pretty good.
The little, yellow minions are really funny.Overall, this is a great movie to take your kids to see.
i found this movie mildly entertaining,with a few light chuckles here and there,but i don't think it wasn't as funny as i had hoped or expected it to be.there were no real 'laugh out loud,tears rolling down your face moments'.i think it was just a case of a lot of the jokes falling flat.it had some cute moments though,and of course there's a feel good ending.it's suitable for the whole family and kids will get a kick out of it.for me,it was just this side of boring.compared to a lot of animated films i've seen this one just doesn't stack up.having said that,however,it's far from being awful.it's just not great.for me,Despicable Me is a 5/10.
I truly loved it because it's different than most of the other children movies where the protagonist is a good guy rather than having a little bit of a twist where the main character is a villain.
So, it's not a bad choice to enjoy it in 3D."Despicable Me" is another must-see movie this summer as it rivals "Toy Story 3" to become the best animated film of 2010.
If you do, you will be pleasantly amused with Despicable Me. The film's plot is fairly original as super-villain Gru (voiced by Carell) learns to father three young girls that he has adopted in order to use for his dastardly plan to become the greatest thief of all time.