Moi, moche et méchant

I love this movie! It was so adorable, so charming & the writing was absolutely terrific! I love the animation & the characters (including the minions) were all fantastic! A MUST WATCH!

Despicable Me's teasers and trailers seemed to represent a few different movies, and that's reflected by the general segregation of comedy styles that the film begins with. At the film's start, Gru (Steve Carrell) handles the dark comedy, the trio of orphans get the cutesy comedy, and the minions handle the slapstick. As the film progresses, though, these lines begin to blur, building to a strong emotional finale and a satisfyingly complete tale. (This is one of those rare non-Pixar animated films that doesn't seem destined for sequel-dom.)

The tale of rival villains isn't terribly original. Nor is the idea of a villain having his heart melted by adorable children. But the way Despicable Me blends these two ideas is just fantastic. 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. While there are a ton of big names filling out the roster, most of them use accents which render them familiar but not too much so. It's a different route than many animated films take, and it's refreshing. Julie Andrews and Steve Carrell especially do well at straddling the line between their trademark voices and their characters' accents. The voice that steals the movie, however, is the adorable Elsie Fisher as Agnes. Almost every line gets either a laugh or an "Aw..." (On a related note, I love that the orphan girls are named Edith, Margo, and Agnes. I love old names for young people.)

The plot has enough twists and turns to keep things interesting, and the antics of the minions provide a nice side of fun to the proceedings. Also, their reaching contest during the credits is a fun use of 3-D that had the kids in the theater reaching for the screen.

Last year was a banner year for animation, and this year seems to be following suit. How to Train Your Dragon amazed, Toy Story 3 is one of the best animated films of all time, and Despicable Me impresses. A very pleasant surprise.

As a reviewer mentioned, this year is set to be a great year of animated films, much like the previous two years. This is proved with Pixar's unmatched (touching wood) winning streak and Dreamworks' surprise turn "How To Train Your Dragon", which proceeds to continue the ever- increasing "golden years" of computer-animated films. Universal's "Despicable Me" is yet another gem in an already quite-heavy bag of diamonds.

With nice direction, the filmmakers were able to combine two quite unoriginal plots into one with ease and without force, and they managed to add wit, charm and smart humor to it as well. Not to mention heart. I have never heard of the filmmakers before, but this is a heck of a debut from two first-time animated film directors. The humor is also not too over the top, yet utterly hilarious and ingenious when they pop up. Most of the jokes had the entire audience rolling in the aisles. The three girls end up being adorable and lovable characters, as per the main character/protagonist/villain, whom you can't help but cheer on and care for, no matter what he does. Steve Carell is spot-on as Gru and he makes the role funnier than it should be, I mean his voice and humorous style is there behind the funny accent. And what Gru plots and does is beyond ridiculous and far too funny to be deemed "serious" by any cynic. Some hilarious supporting characters round out the primary cast, most notably Gru's assistant Dr. Nefarious played by Russell Brand, and I could not believe Julie Andrews was Gru's mother, I hardly recognized her voice at all! Jason Segel was hilarious as Gru's vain nemesis Vector. And let's not forget the utterly adorable and hilarious minions and their wacky antics.

Technical wise, the animation is gorgeous, bright and nicely rendered with a deft touch of simplicity to it, causing it to be not too overly glossy and polished. This makes the animation look less artificial and more fluid, and this especially shows when it comes to the practical jokes. The music score is just wonderful and suits the moods of the film as they come along. 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. This is a very adorable film, full of charm and heart, and with a funny and lighthearted storyline, and may the powers that be reward this at the box office, if the mediocre "Eclipse" isn't taking all of its viewers already. Looks like Universal's animation days are returning.

Entertainment value: 10/10

Overall: 7.5/10

When one pyramid of Egypt is stolen, the despicable suburban villain Gru feels frustrated since he considers himself the greatest criminal mind ever. However he plans to steal the moon, in the greatest heist of history, with the support of the evil Dr. Nefario and his army of minions. Gru intends to hire a loan in the Bank of Evil (former Lehman Brothers) to build a rocket and steal the shrink weapon to reduce the size of the moon. But the banker Mr. Perkins intends to invest in the young Vector, who actually had stolen the pyramid. When Gru robs the shrink weapon, Vector steals it from him and kept the weapon in his impenetrable fortress that is protected by state of art security system. Gru sees that the orphans Margo, Edith and Agnes from Miss Hattie's Home for Girls have full access to Vector's house to sell cookies. Gru plots a scheme, adopting the three girls to use them to recover the shrink weapon from Vector. But the three little girls change the behavior of Gru and his minions.

"Despicable Me" is a sort of contemporary version of the Charles Dickens' classic novel "A Christmas Carol" and a highly entertaining animation with one of the sweetest villain ever, three adorable little girls and a group of adorable minions. The story is not corny but human, and the jokes with Bill Gates that is the source of inspiration of the nerd Vector and with the investment banking Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. that declared bankruptcy in 2008 and affected the lives of small private investors are witty. In the end, Gru is not the criminal mastermind that he supposed to be. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Meu Malvado Favorito" ("My Favorite Meanie")

I should note that I did NOT see this film in 3-D but at a non-3-D equipped theater. I am not sure that this impacted my viewing experience very much as most 3-D films I have seen really didn't benefit much from this technology--the most notable exception being "How To Train Your Dragon"--a film that fully utilized 3-D and was amazing to see in all its glory.

I should also point out that I knew exactly where this film was going long before it got there--and I am sure most adult viewers and kids probably felt the same way. Heck, just by watching the preview for the film a few months back, I knew exactly where the film would go. But despite being a formulaic film where the big curmudgeon has his heart melted by some adorable orphans, I still had a wonderful time watching the movie. Why? Because it did something that many family movies forget--it was fun!! And, on top of that, it was super-cute--but not in a cloying manner. Unless you are Genghis Khan, you WILL find the countless little yellow minions to be completely adorable and funny--a real high point for the film. Heck, a couple months before the film was released, I was at Universal Studios in Florida and just HAD to have my picture taken with one of these characters as it roamed the park--it was just so freaking cute! And, I even liked the adorable little orphans--something I usually hate in films. They had a good balance between cute, sassy and endearing.

Overall, this is a wonderful 3-D movie because parents can enjoy it. I loved the characters and thought the French animators did a terrific job--with artistry that stacks up very well against the older and more established CGI studios, Pixar and Dreamworks. A pleasant treat that won't change your life...but who cares if it's so entertaining?!

By the way, the plot for this film sure looks a lot like "Megamind" that was released just a few weeks later. I have yet to see "Megamind" and plan on doing so soon, so I'll update this review to reflect which of the two films I preferred. I just can't imagine how "Megamind" could be that much better!