Despicable Me - Online Review

'if it feels like it ends on a whimper then that's because it does, directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud having peaked long before the final act'

Another in what seems to be a never-ending stream of increasingly bland CGI efforts, Despicable Me follows 'the formula' to the letter and does so whilst borrowing characters from every other animated release of the last ten years or so.

As such it is, of course, perfectly serviceable. The character models are cute, the minions are hilarious, the villain really gets under your skin and the 'hero' is, in the end, someone you can really root for. It has got all of the elements that make this sort of thing work and it trots through them with the custom brevity of a ninety-minute kids film, designed to provide little ones with distraction on a Saturday afternoon.

Never though, does Despicable Me threaten to reach the heights of Toy Story, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs or any of Pixar's assorted back catalogs. The script by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul is almost completely devoid of the clever wordplay of those films and whilst the emotional heart is present and correct, it never tugs at your tear glands enough to make you feel truly invested in the characters. Making Gru (Steve Carell) a villain-who-is-really-a-hero is an interesting stab at breathing fresh life into the genre but it ensures that, although you might support him, you never really love him and the insinuation that many of his actions are governed by the relationship with his Mother will go over kids' heads.

Russell Brand as Dr. Nefario provides an unrecognisable voice which works alone in its invention but equally serves as the straight foil alongside Carell who has his usual, Jim Carrey-esque, ball. The three child actors who voice the orphans Gru is saddled with are all exemplary whilst talent like Flight Of The Conchords' Jemaine Clement and Kristen Wiig are largely wasted. If it feels like it ends on a whimper then that's because it does, directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud having peaked long before the final act with Gru's break in of Vector's (Jason Segel) hideout. Decent but unremarkable in the same vein as fellow animated release Monsters Vs Aliens.

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'Cynics need not apply here: this is a fun, fantastical ride that isn't anything short of entertaining' - Cinematic Paradox, 8/10