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Despicable Me is a 2010 American computer-animated family crime comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment (in its debut film) and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is the first installment in the Despicable Me franchise. Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud (in their directorial debuts) from a screenplay by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, the film stars the voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett, and Julie Andrews.
Despicable Me premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival on June 19, 2010, and was released in the United States on July 9. The success of Despicable Me launched a multimedia franchise and a series of two sequels and two prequels, starting with Despicable Me 2.
Plot
A man who delights in all things wicked, supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) hatches a plan to steal the moon. Surrounded by an army of little yellow minions and his impenetrasble arsenal of weapons and war machines, Gru makes ready to vanquish all who stand in his way. But nothing in his calculations and groundwork has prepared him for his greatest challenge: three adorable orphan girls (Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fisher) who want to make him their dad.
Why It's Not So Despicable
- The idea for a movie where the protagonist is a villain who has a change of heart is very original and creative.
- The movie's script is very entertaining, engaging, witty, and well-written, as it has some pretty funny quotes.
- Many of the characters are likable and fun, especially Gru and three orphan kids.
- In fact, Gru is a fun, sympathetic character and his motivations for being a villain are understandable, as he's not just "evil" and is the way he is because he just wants some love and appreciation for who he is.
- The Minions can make you laugh in most of the scenes, and their relationship with Gru and his adopted daughters is very heartwarming.
- One of the orphan girls, Agnes is absolutely adorable.
- The humor is hilarious and creative. Even some of the bathroom humor is funny, with Gru's plan being one example.
- The animation (even when it is produced in CGI) is pretty decent, especially considering it was the first movie by Illumination Entertainment.
- Vector is a really hilarious and entertaining villain who has many memorable lines such as "Oh yeah!", "Booyah!", and "You got shrunk tiny mouthwash! Take that! Your done been shrunk".
- Despite being arrogant, humorous, and a buffoon for the viewers to laugh at, he was fairly competent on his part before his arrogance or fallibility led to his defeat. As he stole a pyramid, stole the shrink ray Gru wanted to impress his boss with, effectively prevented Gru from getting the shrink ray back, and was able to keep the three girls hostage before Gru rescued them.
- Many of the film's action scenes are quite amazing to watch, especially the scene when Gru steals the shrinking ray.
- The vocal performances are very fantastic and quite amazing as everyone brings a great job of each of their characters.
- The relationship between Gru and the orphan girls is one of the cutest and most emotional moments of the film.
- Many of the other emotional scenes are pretty wholesome.
- A lot of Pharrell Williams songs are very astounding, some of them are "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Prettiest Girls" and "My Life" by Robin Thicke.
- Heitor Periera's score in the movie is very vivid and awesomely moving.
- "I will stuff you all in the crust!"
- "Vector! That's me, as I'm committing crimes, with both direction and magnitude! Oh yeah!!"
- "Can I drink this?"
- "Do you want to explode?"
Bad Qualities
- The scatological humor can be a little annoying at times.
- In fact, Miss Hattie and the carnival barker are also very unlikable characters. Even Dr. Nefario gets a bit mean too in the latter half when he has the girls sent back to the orphanage.
- The minions (despite being comic reliefs) can get annoying at times, but they are at least tolerable here compared to every other entry in the franchise, especially their self-titled 2015 film.
- Despite the movie having cartoonish logic, it has some confusing moments. For example, why would Vector disregard the moon rapidly inflating when the girls are constantly telling him that the moon was getting larger? Especially when it destroyed his cup (so he'd be able to notice it) and it made the ship tilt due to the moon's heavy weight. The moon of which, eventually crushed, slammed, and even steamrolled Vector because of his clumsiness and lack of wisdom in the situation. Which led him to his defeat with being stranded on the moon itself.
- Some obnoxious scenes that have some childish humor here and there, like the one where a Minion grabs Gru's pants and pulls them off, showing his underwear.
- The animation, while decent, does have some flaws, such as a lack of motion blur (plus an excessive amount only at the very beginning), though this is understandable as it is Illumination's first film. Fortunately, as the studio (and franchise) evolved, the animation improved over time.
Reception
Box office
Released on July 9, 2010, in the United States, Despicable Me opened at the number one spot at the box office and pulled in $56.3 million, making it the third-biggest opening grossing for an animated film in 2010 behind Toy Story 3 and Shrek Forever After: The Final Chapter. In its second weekend, the film dipped 42% to second place behind Inception with $32.8 million earned. The film earned $251,513,985 in North America while in Worldwide earned $543,113,985.
Critical response
Despicable Me received positive reviews from critics. The film currently holds an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 194 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10 and a critic consensus that says "Borrowing heavily (and intelligently) from Pixar and Looney Tunes, Despicable Me is a surprisingly thoughtful, family-friendly treat with a few surprises of its own". According to the review aggregator Metacritic, which sampled 35 reviews and calculated a weighted average of 72 out of 100, Despicable Me received "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Nowadays, Despicable Me is considered one of the most popular films for today's children, partly thanks to the Minions and their antics.
Awards
It was nominated in The Golden Globes, the BAFTA and the Critic's Choice Awards for Best Animated Film and also being nominated for Annie Awards, losing all to Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon. Despite this, it won a Kids Choice Awards for Favorite Animated Movie.
Videos
Trivia
- This movie spawned many memes such as the "you just got vectored" meme.
- This is the first Illumination Entertainment film ever.
External Links
Despicable Me at the Internet Movie Database
Despicable Me on Rotten Tomatoes
Despicable Me on Metacritic
Despicable Me on Letterboxd
