DESPICABLE ME 2 – The Review

Gotta love Gru’s Minions, those goggle-eyed scene-stealers from DESPICABLE ME, and the little yellow critters are back in the thousands, performing musical numbers no less in the gut-busting follow up DESPICABLE ME 2. Also returning are the same writers, directors, and French animation house responsible for the original, who stick closely to its winning formula, even recycling some of its jokes such as the fart gun, Nefario’s comically slow scooter, and the twisted interaction between Gru and his three adopted girls. There is nothing particularly inventive in the new film’s plot but it has enough twists and turns to keep things interesting and is so relentlessly hilarious that it makes for a great time if you’re dragged to it by your kids.

Domestication by the orphaned sisters Margo, Agnes and Edith has softened everyone’s favorite hook-nosed hunchback Gru (Steve Carell) a bit. DESPICABLE ME 2 finds him, along with his sidekick Dr Nefario (Russell Brand) and their horde of naughty yellow minions now trying to go legit with his own brand of jams and jellies (containing every fruit known to mankind. Then he meets the undercover spy Lucy (Kristen Wiig) and her pompous British boss Silas (Steve Coogan), head of AVL – the Atnti Villan League – who ask for his help hunting down the baddie who stole a secret government chemical that can change bunnies into fangy purple monsters. Gru reluctantly takes the job setting up in a shopping mall where his suspicion falls on Mexican restaurateur Eduardo (Benjamin Bratt), not because he looks just like the former fellow villain El Macho, but because his oldest adopted daughter Margo is in love with his surly teen son (Moises Arias).

Gru may have been more entertaining as a super-villain but I think part 2 is a slight improvement for a couple of reasons. First is the great amusement is found in the increased presence of Gru’s Minions. Voiced by the film’s directors jabbering in a helium-fuelled garble, they are pure slapstick gold. Second is the addition of Wiig (who voiced Miss Hattie, the head of the girls’ school where the orphans lived in part 1 – but this is a new character) whose Lucy is a perfect foil and mate for Gru. DESPICABLE ME 2’s look is relatively basic, at least insofar as big-budget animated films are concerned, although the post-credits sequence with the minions having fun with the film’s aspect ratio is worth the price of admission. It lacks the rich detail and depth of color that characterize both the Dreamworks and Pixar productions but it interferes less with the 3-D process so perhaps it’s an advantage. DESPICABLE ME 2’s breakneck pace, zippy visuals, and non-stop jokes make it one of the best films of the summer.

4 of 5 Stars