DVD Reviews

Despicable Me

• Rating:
• Director: Chris Renaud
• Starring: Jason Segel
• Details: US/94mins G

Staring: Russell Brand, Jason Segel, Steve Carell, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig

Whilst marketing a film on the previous works of its Executive Producer may be staggeringly irrelevant (this aint a Bruckheimer joint), Despicable Me manages to engage, amuse and even evoke the odd "awwww." It's suitably silly set-up is happily contradicted with a barrage of gags aimed towards more mature audience members. Also, the cute-factor hasn't been this far off the scale since Boo melted hearts in Monsters Inc. a few years back. "It's SOOOO fluffy."
Steve Carrell voices one of the world's most dastardly villains, Gru. He's hell-bent on becoming top dog and needs a loan from the bank to fund his next plan - stealing the moon. But he has a competitor in the form of Vector; a younger, flashier villain, with similar aspirations to his own. When Vector steals a shrinking device that he recently pinched himself, he hatches a plan to retrieve it by adopting three orphans, and having them enter his fortress under the guise of selling cookies for their digs. Soon, he finds himself more suited to a completely different role - as a father.
With gags aplenty, complimented by an eccentric animated style and Carrell's dulcet tones, the kids will absolutely lap this up. The jokes aimed more towards older audience members are subtle (the sign under the villain's bank reads "formally Lehman Brothers"), so they won't leave the kids scratching their heads, waiting on a more abrasive punch line. Also, all of the laughs aren't in the trailer, which should be a given, but is rarely the case in such mainstream fare nowadays.
There are no heroes - which makes you wonder how there can be just a world of villains - and no character is really expanded upon enough to rank this amongst the elite of the genre, but this is still entertaining, charming stuff that will leave you and the youngsters with a smile come the closing credits.

Review by Mike Sheridan