Chillin' like a Villain in Despicable Me

There is something wonderful about animation. Once you embrace animation, your own imagination can take you anywhere. Anything is possible when the characters and story is animated. Houses can fly and tiny robots can fall in love while gazing at the wonders of the universe. The best animation reveals things that cannot possibly be seen in live-action film. The best animation envelopes you and takes you away.

The movie Despicable Me doesn't quite achieve that level of greatness. However, it does manage to do several things just right. First, it manages to balance the cuteness with the funny just enough to entertain the kids who will want to see it and the parents who will be dragged to see the film. Second, it manages to be delightful with interesting characters, eye-popping scenes and animation. Third, it manages to throw in some very cute characters that will leave the viewer quoting from the movie and remembering the movie after it ends.

The story starts with a premise that anyone who has ever watched a James Bond movie, read a comic book or watched science fiction already knows. That premise is that the villains are much more interesting and much more fun than the heroes. Villains can do anything. They can come up with any plot. They can create any evil thing. They can try to steal anything. When you then put those villains in animation, you can up the ante to the ridiculous and make it fun.

The main character is something out of a James Bond novel. His name is Gru and he has been the number one evil genius villain for some time now. However, he has just been upstaged by a nerdy punk in an orange track suit named Vector. Vector bears a startling resemblance to Bill Gates. He has just stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza and completely upstaged Gru's last escapade which involved stealing the Times Square Jumbotron.

Gru lives in a scary-looking house in an otherwise normal-looking suburb. He is surrounded by hundreds of strange Twinkie-looking characters that he simply calls "minions." They are funny little yellow dudes with work gloves, sometimes only one eye, and who talk in a strange language only they can understand. They also have normal names like "Kevin." He is helped in his villainous endeavors by Dr. Nefario who invents all of his weapons such as the freeze ray he uses to jump in line at the local coffee shop. Finally, there is Gru's mother, who likes to call and humiliate her son and make him feel small whenever she can.

Gru now has a crazy plan that involves stealing the moon. It also involves a shrink ray, but the rest of the details I will leave for you to find out. In order to steal the shrink ray, he hatches a plot that involves adopting three young female orphans who are selling cookies for their girl's home. At first, of course, he is a villain and he treats them more like pets than as children. Do you think the girls will eventually show Gru how to fave fun and melt the ice around his heart? Do I really need to tell you?

Steve Carell is the voice of Gru and he gives him a unique accent that is part Nazi and part Russian spy. Dr. Nefario is voiced by British comedian Russell Brand with a very low, deep growl. Gru's mother is voiced by Julie Andrews and she gets not nearly enough scenes. Vector is Jason Segel whom you might remember from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Also lending their voices to various characters are Will Arnett and Kristen Wiig.

The movie is not exactly an animation classic. WALL*E is still the pinnacle, in my opinion, of computer animated movies. Of course, to expect every animated movie to reach that level is a little unrealistic. Despicable Me manages to come into theaters without a toy to back it up or an established book or cartoon and creates three dimensional, interesting and fun characters. It also adds a healthy dose of humor and it manages to throw in some great side jokes that only the parents will be able to understand. The kids will delight at the slapstick humor that goes on throughout.

All in all the movie is a load of fun. Families will have a blast laughing throughout. As for whether or not to see it in 3D, well, I think if you want to spare the extra bucks for the 3D glasses you will still have a blast. I saw it in 3D and spent more time adjusting the damn glasses on my nose and over my own glasses than really enjoying the 3D effects. The movie also throws quite a bit of stuff at the screen rather than just adding depth.

So, enjoy spending time with the villain. Despicable Me proves that it's OK to root for the bad guy after all.