Movies Reviews

Despicable Me 2 – Movie Review

By Anne Brodie Jul 2, 2013, 14:16 GMT

Gru is recruited by the Anti-Villain League to help dealwith a powerful new super criminal. ...more

We open in the frozen North Pole. Russian soldiers guard a satelliteinstallation when suddenly everything metal swoops up into the air, lost forever. An electromagnetic spaceship is hovering over top sucking up and destroying everything in its path. Feels excitingly Bourne Identity-ish.

Cut to suburbia where a dark, forbidding home mars the pastel landscape. Inside, is Gru (Steve Carrell) that unusual looking, decidedly European character from Despicable Me tried but failed to steal the moon in the original film.

He’s a changed man now, having settled into suburban life with those three adorable adopted moppets and appears to have reformed. No longer a criminal, he is a contented family man and a manufacturer of jellies. His hysterical minions run the operation under the supervision of Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) and life is sweet, literally.

A long tall drink of a woman called Lucy (Kristen Wiig) appears on the scene and demands that he come with her. She and Gru have a funny showdown with missiles, and she kidnaps him to an underwater lair, the secret headquarters of the AVL (Anti-Villain League). He is asked to work undercover to locate a new super villain. A new super villain whom they suspect is working at the mall.

Lucy and Gru take off for the mall, a pleasure palace of endless consumer delights to begin their search for the hidden criminal. Whoever it is, he has stolen a potion that turns creatures into screaming meemies. Is it Eduardo / El Macho (Benjamin Bratt) the local Mexican restaurateur? Is it Floyd (Ken Jeong) the Japanese wig maker? Gru, now undercover as the baker and cupcake king, and Lucy break into the Eduardo’s restaurantto find the potion.

And there it goes. They leap from one delightfully crazed scheme to another, and meet a succession of wonderful characters. Somewhere along the way a Mexican wrestler straps explosives to himself and catapults into the mouth of a flaming volcano. It’s just that wacky.

That’s the 911. But it all plays out against a huge roiling herd of minions; they are the heart and humor of the piece. With their adulterated language and heightened sense of play, these mischievous yellow workers are an entertainment extravaganza all their own. It’s impossible to understand what they’re saying but they’re so expressive and emotive that you can easily “get it”. And they are hysterical. They’re also mighty sweet.

The film is one of those genius animated films with universal appeal for its good heartedness and its comedy. Adults get as much joy from it as do the children. Savvy pop culture references enrich the humor, but the vocal delivery and performances by the minions send it way out of the ballpark.

The animation is super crisp and bright, there seems to be a lot of pink in the air, and lots of pretty things. As ever the human-ness of the animated characters is freaky, skin looks like real skin, hair like hair. It’s a masterpiece of artistic vision and execution. Word to the wise; stay for the credits for a giant animated treat. If its stomach hurting, helpless laughter you seek, go no further than Despicable Me 2.

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Animated adventure
Written by Ken Daurio, Cinco Paul
Directed by Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Opens: July 3
MPAA: Rated PG for rude humor and mild action
Runtime: 98 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English