Angela Jul 13, 2010
2010 may well mark the biggest number of CG animated films we'll see in a single year. Dreamworks already belted out both a winner and a dud with How To Train Your Dragon and Shrek Forever After respectively, and Toy Story 3 is sitting cozily on Pixar's one-way train ride to success. Later this year, we'll be getting Lionsgate's "Alpha and Omega" and Disney's "Tangled", while Warner Bros. will be offering up "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole." Finally, Dreamworks plans to cast their line out one more time with "MegaMind." Does Universal's Despicable Me, then, deserve the time of day, or does it risk oversaturation?
I went into Despicable Me with absurdly high expectations. Maybe I was hoping for another Bolt -- the sort of animated film that came out of left field, from a less prolific studio (i.e. not Pixar or Dreamworks), but still managed to be on par in terms of terrific animation and a pitch-perfect story. Bolt offered up equal doses of fun and genuine sentimentality; Despicable Me tries to nail these elements, but the results are wholly uneven. The problem with Despicable Me is that it merely draws upon surface emotions; its cartoony nature only knows how to elicit laughter from slapstick humor, the bulk of the comedy coming from the tirelessly goofy, juvenile-acting Minions. The emotional draw comes from the budding relationship between Gru and the three adopted orphan girls, but it doesn't attempt to pull terribly hard on the heartstrings for much of the story. And then there's the film's central plot, which revolves around Gru's ambitious plans to steal the moon. These caper sections, for all their neat gadgets, action, and frequent run-ins with Gru's heated rival Vector, is shockingly vapid. It all seems so perfunctory when stacked up to the parts you really want to see, which is the time spent with Gru and the three girls.
Unlike Knight and Day, a film where the premise starts out strong, but then degrades by the end, Despicable Me works in reverse; the film gets exponentially better once it becomes less about the moon heist, and more about the well-being of the three girls. As we approach the third act, the movie finally hits its stride, and both the climatic and emotional payoffs are worthwhile. It's just a shame that this sort of pacing isn't consistent with the rest of the film.
For what it's worth, my audience seemed to love the movie. It's a crowd pleaser, with big "awwwws" arising whenever the cute-personified Agnes showed up, and equally big laughs from the cause and effect of the giggly, jittery Minions. The use of 3D is something of a marvel, too. The film was clearly made with the format in mind, and most of the effects range from amazing to flat-out jaw-dropping. (Hellooooo, amusement park roller coaster!) I won't lie: the 3D is a big selling point here, and I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the movie nearly as much if I were watching it in plain old 2D.
So, the final word on Despicable Me? I liked it, I just didn't love it. My own self-made hype may be partially to blame, where I was dying to place the movie on a pedestal it never wanted to be on. Even without the 3D, the look of the movie is wonderfully vivid and bursting with a clean, colorful aesthetic. The voice actors are good, especially Carell and Russell Brand, who blend themselves into their roles completely. The music score from the Zimmer/Heitor Pereira/Pharrell Williams team-up is middle-of-the-road serviceable, and the storytelling has its ups and down, but it manages to salvage itself by the finale. Much better than Shrek, but nowhere near the greatness that is Dragon and Toy Story.
