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Today, I watched the first 'Despicable Me' on Cartoon Network while feating over lasagna, gravy ribs and coke zero. I'm a huge fan of the Despicable Me saga, so much that I decided to write my own review on the adventures of the Gru family (Minions included!!! )

'Despicable Me' is the trademark film series of Illumination Entertainment/Universal Pictures. The franchise consists of only two films, with the third one in production. To be more frankly, Universal has already two of their animated classics on their hands which are undoubtedly 'An American Tail' and 'The Land Before Time' which were all directed by Don Bluth and produced by Steven Spielberg/Amblin Entertainment. Despite such a sweet and heartwarming legacy of animation in their history, Universal wouldn't produce their own animated feature in-house until they bonded with then-newcoming small animation house Illumination Entertainment (founded by Chris Meledandri, producer of the first 'Ice Age' movie and 'Horton Hears a Who!') and launched their first computer-animated masterpiece called 'Despicable Me'. Being a surprise hit, the first film wasn't just an original and beautifully animated film. It was also a genuinely delightful film. It didn't match anything Pixar had created nor it wasn't an unnecessary Dreamworks clone. The first 'Despicable Me' was a different kind of animal and genuinely rehashed the previous family films Universal has done before.

What makes a film like 'Despicable Me' purely a Universal Pictures' film????? It's a sharp and ambitious comedy that still manages to retain its heart and humanity. It wasn't a timeless Disney/Don Bluth classic nor it was a forgetable and dated comedy from the likes of Dreamworks, but it still left audiences in a state of child-like admiration and affection for the characters on screen. It’s an adult comedy – on paper – that manages to transcend age and gender. It pushed boundaries of family-friendly comedy without being cheap and disgusting, and it captivated audiences with a sense of realism. It’s both crude and smart, and in short, it’s uniquely and literally Universal.

Resuming, Universal has always been capable of releasing such animated features in the past. The best honor went to the aforementioned 'An American Tail' and 'The Land Before Time'. But time has passed and the studio released animated stuff who didn't make the same impact than the Don Bluth/Steven Spielberg partnerships, like 'Curious George' and 'The Tale of Despereaux', which is why 'Despicable Me' attracted my attention. After years of ups-and-downs, the first 'Despicable Me' finally appeared to be a return to Universal's classic kid-friendly roots.

Now, let's review the 'Despicable Me' films, starting with the first one, released in 2010. The dashing hero is a ruthless evil-doer called Gru who wishes to steal the moon to make his archrival Vector seem puny. To do so, he and his adorable and hilarious minion army recruit the trio of orphan girls to be his pawns on his ambitiously barbaric scheme. But what Gru would never ever expect is that his adopted daughters would commit an even more vicious sin: to steal his heart. I've told ya, it's the best animated feature ever! It has good laughs, story and heart. Now I'll jump to the characters!

Gru (Steve Carrell) is one of the most formidable supervillains the world has ever been the poor innocent victim of. He's been unfairly ousted by Vector (Jason Segel) who stole the Giza pyramid which the media called 'the crime of the century'. In a fit of revenge, Gru and his minions (Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, directors of the 'Despicable Me' films) plot to do a even more impressive crime: to steal the moon. To do so, he adopts three orphan girls Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher) who will slowly assure him that he may not be a powerful bad guy forever.

They are pretty good characters with pretty recognizable and identifiable personalities. Gru is this ruthless evil-doer who actually has a heart buried under his inhumane greed and selfishness. Margo, Edith and Agnes are Gru's adopted daughters. Margo is the oldest and the wise girl, Edith is the mean-spirited middle-child and Agnes is really cute. And the minions are the most adorable troublemakers Gru could ever have as his own police.

Gru himself is one of my favorite characters in the movie. He's purely evil, ruthless and willing to achieve his goals at every cost, but as we go on into the movie, we learn a bit about his backstory and the things he went through in his childhood. His backstory in my opinion is what really makes him very likeable as it helps us to understand why he went to the route of evil and why he wishes to conquer the world. He didn't become evil for the sake of being evil, he was changed by past events and thus has trouble socializing and bonding with anybody. This is a heartwarming retread of real-life as we go primarily through such cantankerous, moody phase when we learn that life has always been bullshit and changes us forever. Gru is the most developed character ever in the movie.

Margo is the wise old sister of Edith and Agnes. She's cunning, cynical and cool and is very untrusting of people, taking plenty of time to bond with Gru and his minions. However, she's optimistic, due to the girls' excitement that they were finally going to be adopted. Margo is very caring towards Agnes and Edith and also has a fun loving side, such as teasing Gru because of his accent.

Edith is the middle child. She inherits Gru's villainous tendencies, being very brutal, ruthless, tomboyish and snarky. Not a girl of many words, Edith falls in love with Gru's mass-destructing technologies and wizardry.

Agnes is the film's scene-stealer. The youngest sibling Gru's adopted daughters, she openly accepts being adopted by Gru and treasures him whether he is rather cold and tyrannical to all of the three girls or not, which makes her pure and innocent. Agnes is always attached to Margo as she often looks worried whenever Margo walks off ahead of her and follows her, not wanting to be left behind. Whenever she doesn't get what she wants, she holds her breath until she gets what she wanted and opens her eyes and pretends to faint if she doesn't get what she wants. Agnes loves candy, unicorns and Kyle, Gru's pet dog.

And the minions are the best part of the movie. They're fantastical creatures with little to zero self-control but with odd innocence which makes them the best cartoon characters of all time. They can be pesky whenever they do weird interactions with other people, animals, objects, etc. Gru treasures his minions a lot and loves them as if they're his own family, unlike the bulk of the mainstream villains and their abusive tendencies towards their henchmen. The minions are extremely loyal to Gru, Dr. Nefario (Gru's best friend and mentor, played by Russel Brand) and the girls. Friendly and fun-loving, they're extremely eager to please, willingly helping with Gru's evil plans and the girls' agenda. They're huge fans of apples and bananas and their short-sighted obsession with these fruits often results into hilarious trouble. The minions also love fine arts and to laugh at everything related to butts. They also enjoy building contraptions, something the minions are very formidable at. The only things the minions hate are being unsure of themselves and Gru leaving their questions unanswered. What makes the minions very unique is their own constructed language called 'minionese'.

All of these characters alone carry plenty of weight behind them and make this film a modern and 'despicable' classic.

Other characters also have their own spotlight. Dr. Nefario, the aforementioned Gru's best friend, mentor and second-in-command, is a hilariously stereotypical mad scientist who is often responsible for designing Gru's devices and technology. I can personally compare Dr. Nefario to Doc Brown from the 'Back to the Future' saga. Vector, Gru's archrival, is the spoiled son of Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett), whose Bank of Evil usually funds Gru's evil plans, and is as ruthless and selfish as Gru. Mama Gru (Julie Andrews), is Gru's mother who disowns her son's weird ambitions. Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig) is the tyrannical and vicious owner of the orphanage where Margo, Edith and Agnes come from. And Fred McDade (Danny McBride) is Gru's annoyingly optimistic neighbor.

Aesthetically, the animation is really good and the CGI effects are very well done. The character designs by Carter Goodrich and the production design by Yarrow Cheney and Eric Guillon are fantastic and give the film a more distinctive hand-drawn cartoon look. Since Illumination Entertainment's offering is often done in a different budget than the likes of Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks, it's very nice that all of the money is wasted on building up a good story and the lack of budget allowed more creative and artistic freedom on producing 'Despicable Me'. Too much budget is often used to make CGI animation too realistic and the tiny fraction of money is used to make the animation of 'Despicable Me' more expressive like the classic MGM/Warner Bros./Hanna-Barbera cartoons and more tangible like the stop-motion works of Aardman and LAIKA. The musical work of Pharell Williams and Heitor Pereira, produced by Hans Zimmer, adds a whimsical and cheerful aspect to the world in which Gru and his family live. And there are some funny scenes in the first film, most notably the part of Super Silly Fun Land in which Gru and the girls ride a rollercoaster and Gru assaults the shooting arcade to get Agnes' unicorn.

The first film is really a cool and hip classic. It has a basic, but engaging and original story with likeable character development and enjoyable animation. The comedy is appealing and we get some memorable scenes coupled with some heartfelt moments, including the chemestry between Gru and his adoptive daughters.

'Despicable Me' is a very great film with minor flaws. Ditto its sequel.

Speaking of which, 'Despicable Me 2' was released last year. It focuses on Gru now busy raising Margo, Edith and Agnes and his evil-doer career cut short. He unwillingly falls in love with Lucy Wilde (also voiced by Kristen Wiig) from the Anti-Villain League and both are sent to save the world from a more sinister and global-dominating threat while the minions are one-by-one being kidnapped without explanation. Is the sequel as good as the original? Let me see...

While the story of DM2 looks safe compared to the original, it has very much to it to make it more than it sounds. It made the sequel look as if the story of an evil-doer adopting three orphan girls wasn't completely told. It focus on Gru's emotional quest to continue healing and complete himself. The romantic aspect of the sequel is a good and fresh something new in this film and gave Gru more character development than before. The sequel in fact established that Gru never really wanted to be evil for the sake of being evil and was only destined to become a bad guy by bad parenting and the fear of a romantic love. From this point forward, the story actually began telling itself and everything else formed around that.

The sequel itself, in fact, greatly expanded the universe of 'Despicable Me', allowing new characters, new horizons and new story challenges for the characters we all know and love to take place. And the minions went to become this film's co-stars alongside Gru and his girls, mere comic relieves no longer. They're the plot device of this film since their mysterious kidnappings unexpectedly lead to the core story of the sequel.

Lucy Wilde is Gru's partner-in-crime and later the love of his life. She may look stoic and serious, but is actually very happy, enthusiastic, cheerful and perky. Lucy's trademark weapons are her lipstick taser which is used to shock enemies, her athleticism and a formidable combination of jiu-jitsu, krav maga, Aztec martial arts and krmuping. She's also capable of being polite and level-headed in hazardous situations and remain calm and cheerful when she was trapped in a rocket even if she was, in fact, freaking out. Lucy can also be impatient in traffic and can't stand hearing music while driving. The minions and Agnes treasure Lucy a lot. She's a brillant female protagonist of DM2.

The new main villain of the film is Eduardo Perez, very well known as El Macho (Benjamin Bratt, formerly Al 'Tony Montana' Pacino before he left production). He was once a formidable and inhumane criminal who was able to commit vicious crimes only with bare hands until he faked his death to start a family and open a Mexican restaurant Salsa & Salsa in Paradise Mall. This undercover supervillain has come to spread terror in the world again using the lethal mutagen PX-41 to create mass-murdering weapons. As the normal, everyday Eduardo, he is very friendly and treats his pet chicken Pollito nicely as his fierce bodyguard. But if you upset him, be careful!!! He's compelling, murderous and sinister enough to make Vector look silly and pathetic. His son Antonio (Moisés Arias) becomes Margo's love interest, much to Gru's horror and protests. He's charming and handsome for Margo, and arrogant, sarcastic and sassy towards Gru.

El Macho's henchmen, the Evil Minions (again Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud), are the most invincible and mass-destructive weapons ever created by the PX-41. They're in fact Gru's adorable minions who were being kidnapped and turned evil and vicious by PX-41 on El Macho's hands. Their war motto is 'BAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!' Even in their disturbing and menacing forms, the Evil Minions are still capable of getting lots of laughs with their hilarious gluttony and dimwittedness.

Other new chararcters inclue Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan), the boss of AVL and Lucy's employer. He's a more stoic and serious man who often berates Gru's good deeds because of his previous record as a villain. Jillian (Nasim Pedrad) is Agnes' neighbor and matchmaker who Gru oftem sees as irritating and annoying. Her friend Shannon (Kristen Schaal) enjoys fitness and holds racist feelings towards phonies. And there's Floyd Eagle-san (Ken Jeong, who played the news anchorman in the first film) is the owner of the Eagle Hair Club and treasures hair and wigs as much Agnes treasures unicorns. Gru becomes his treasured client.

The humour and heart of the first film are back in the sequel. We even get some funny and heartwarming flashbacks with Gru as a kid trying to woo Lisa in the school only to be caught on spot by one of the kids who denounced him spreading 'grooties' on Lisa, causing many children to leave school quickly before 12:00 AM in terror, making Gru an outcast. As for the humour, the chemestry between Lucy and the minions works very well. The final battle between the good and evil minions has also its hilarious moments. In addition, in the beginning of the film, we see Gru dressed as the fairy princess to make Margo, Edith and Agnes and their friends happy. Gru as the fairy princess is freaking hilarious!!! Other funny moments include the chemestry between Gru and Antonio, Pollito's scenes, Lucy's antics and Agnes' side of the story.

We get more character development in this film too. Gru not only must cope with his fear of a romantic love, he also has to build a better life and family for his adoptive daughters, even if it means being overprotective towards Margo as she's searching for boys in her phone. Margo herself also faces new challenges as she's growing up. Agnes gets more emotional in her lust for a mother and even becomes badass when she screams at an evil minion to protect her unicorn, making her scream an amazingly powerful and lethal weapon against those who upset her. Edith is now following the moral ninja code and looks very cool in her ninja outfit. And Dr. Nefario is wishing for a better job after Gru ceased being evil and used his malicious technology and weaponry to manufacturate jellies and jams, to disastrous results.

And the animation is more fluid and comparable to a generic summer blockbuster film than the first DM. Sure, Illumination's animators and artists used the profits from the first film to create more fun visuals and polished animation work for DM2. They even remade the Margo model entirely from scratch, which made the character more expressive in this film than in the original.

Concluding, both Despicable Me films form an enjoyable saga with tiny, insignificant flaws. I recommend them to animation fans out there.

Despicable Me (C) Illumination / Universal

Description
Today, I watched the first 'Despicable Me' on Cartoon Network while feating over lasagna, gravy ribs and coke zero. I'm a huge fan of the Despicable Me saga, so much that I decided to write my own review on the adventures of the Gru family (Minions included!!! )

'Despicable Me' is the trademark film series of Illumination Entertainment/Universal Pictures. The franchise consists of only two films, with the third one in production. To be more frankly, Universal has already two of their animated classics on their hands which are undoubtedly 'An American Tail' and 'The Land Before Time' which were all directed by Don Bluth and produced by Steven Spielberg/Amblin Entertainment. Despite such a sweet and heartwarming legacy of animation in their history, Universal wouldn't produce their own animated feature in-house until they bonded with then-newcoming small animation house Illumination Entertainment (founded by Chris Meledandri, producer of the first 'Ice Age' movie and 'Horton Hears a Who!') and launched their first computer-animated masterpiece called 'Despicable Me'. Being a surprise hit, the first film wasn't just an original and beautifully animated film. It was also a genuinely delightful film. It didn't match anything Pixar had created nor it wasn't an unnecessary Dreamworks clone. The first 'Despicable Me' was a different kind of animal and genuinely rehashed the previous family films Universal has done before.

What makes a film like 'Despicable Me' purely a Universal Pictures' film????? It's a sharp and ambitious comedy that still manages to retain its heart and humanity. It wasn't a timeless Disney/Don Bluth classic nor it was a forgetable and dated comedy from the likes of Dreamworks, but it still left audiences in a state of child-like admiration and affection for the characters on screen. It’s an adult comedy – on paper – that manages to transcend age and gender. It pushed boundaries of family-friendly comedy without being cheap and disgusting, and it captivated audiences with a sense of realism. It’s both crude and smart, and in short, it’s uniquely and literally Universal.

Resuming, Universal has always been capable of releasing such animated features in the past. The best honor went to the aforementioned 'An American Tail' and 'The Land Before Time'. But time has passed and the studio released animated stuff who didn't make the same impact than the Don Bluth/Steven Spielberg partnerships, like 'Curious George' and 'The Tale of Despereaux', which is why 'Despicable Me' attracted my attention. After years of ups-and-downs, the first 'Despicable Me' finally appeared to be a return to Universal's classic kid-friendly roots.

Now, let's review the 'Despicable Me' films, starting with the first one, released in 2010. The dashing hero is a ruthless evil-doer called Gru who wishes to steal the moon to make his archrival Vector seem puny. To do so, he and his adorable and hilarious minion army recruit the trio of orphan girls to be his pawns on his ambitiously barbaric scheme. But what Gru would never ever expect is that his adopted daughters would commit an even more vicious sin: to steal his heart. I've told ya, it's the best animated feature ever! It has good laughs, story and heart. Now I'll jump to the characters!

Gru (Steve Carrell) is one of the most formidable supervillains the world has ever been the poor innocent victim of. He's been unfairly ousted by Vector (Jason Segel) who stole the Giza pyramid which the media called 'the crime of the century'. In a fit of revenge, Gru and his minions (Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, directors of the 'Despicable Me' films) plot to do a even more impressive crime: to steal the moon. To do so, he adopts three orphan girls Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher) who will slowly assure him that he may not be a powerful bad guy forever.

They are pretty good characters with pretty recognizable and identifiable personalities. Gru is this ruthless evil-doer who actually has a heart buried under his inhumane greed and selfishness. Margo, Edith and Agnes are Gru's adopted daughters. Margo is the oldest and the wise girl, Edith is the mean-spirited middle-child and Agnes is really cute. And the minions are the most adorable troublemakers Gru could ever have as his own police.

Gru himself is one of my favorite characters in the movie. He's purely evil, ruthless and willing to achieve his goals at every cost, but as we go on into the movie, we learn a bit about his backstory and the things he went through in his childhood. His backstory in my opinion is what really makes him very likeable as it helps us to understand why he went to the route of evil and why he wishes to conquer the world. He didn't become evil for the sake of being evil, he was changed by past events and thus has trouble socializing and bonding with anybody. This is a heartwarming retread of real-life as we go primarily through such cantankerous, moody phase when we learn that life has always been bullshit and changes us forever. Gru is the most developed character ever in the movie.

Margo is the wise old sister of Edith and Agnes. She's cunning, cynical and cool and is very untrusting of people, taking plenty of time to bond with Gru and his minions. However, she's optimistic, due to the girls' excitement that they were finally going to be adopted. Margo is very caring towards Agnes and Edith and also has a fun loving side, such as teasing Gru because of his accent.

Edith is the middle child. She inherits Gru's villainous tendencies, being very brutal, ruthless, tomboyish and snarky. Not a girl of many words, Edith falls in love with Gru's mass-destructing technologies and wizardry.

Agnes is the film's scene-stealer. The youngest sibling Gru's adopted daughters, she openly accepts being adopted by Gru and treasures him whether he is rather cold and tyrannical to all of the three girls or not, which makes her pure and innocent. Agnes is always attached to Margo as she often looks worried whenever Margo walks off ahead of her and follows her, not wanting to be left behind. Whenever she doesn't get what she wants, she holds her breath until she gets what she wanted and opens her eyes and pretends to faint if she doesn't get what she wants. Agnes loves candy, unicorns and Kyle, Gru's pet dog.

And the minions are the best part of the movie. They're fantastical creatures with little to zero self-control but with odd innocence which makes them the best cartoon characters of all time. They can be pesky whenever they do weird interactions with other people, animals, objects, etc. Gru treasures his minions a lot and loves them as if they're his own family, unlike the bulk of the mainstream villains and their abusive tendencies towards their henchmen. The minions are extremely loyal to Gru, Dr. Nefario (Gru's best friend and mentor, played by Russel Brand) and the girls. Friendly and fun-loving, they're extremely eager to please, willingly helping with Gru's evil plans and the girls' agenda. They're huge fans of apples and bananas and their short-sighted obsession with these fruits often results into hilarious trouble. The minions also love fine arts and to laugh at everything related to butts. They also enjoy building contraptions, something the minions are very formidable at. The only things the minions hate are being unsure of themselves and Gru leaving their questions unanswered. What makes the minions very unique is their own constructed language called 'minionese'.

All of these characters alone carry plenty of weight behind them and make this film a modern and 'despicable' classic.

Other characters also have their own spotlight. Dr. Nefario, the aforementioned Gru's best friend, mentor and second-in-command, is a hilariously stereotypical mad scientist who is often responsible for designing Gru's devices and technology. I can personally compare Dr. Nefario to Doc Brown from the 'Back to the Future' saga. Vector, Gru's archrival, is the spoiled son of Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett), whose Bank of Evil usually funds Gru's evil plans, and is as ruthless and selfish as Gru. Mama Gru (Julie Andrews), is Gru's mother who disowns her son's weird ambitions. Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig) is the tyrannical and vicious owner of the orphanage where Margo, Edith and Agnes come from. And Fred McDade (Danny McBride) is Gru's annoyingly optimistic neighbor.

Aesthetically, the animation is really good and the CGI effects are very well done. The character designs by Carter Goodrich and the production design by Yarrow Cheney and Eric Guillon are fantastic and give the film a more distinctive hand-drawn cartoon look. Since Illumination Entertainment's offering is often done in a different budget than the likes of Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks, it's very nice that all of the money is wasted on building up a good story and the lack of budget allowed more creative and artistic freedom on producing 'Despicable Me'. Too much budget is often used to make CGI animation too realistic and the tiny fraction of money is used to make the animation of 'Despicable Me' more expressive like the classic MGM/Warner Bros./Hanna-Barbera cartoons and more tangible like the stop-motion works of Aardman and LAIKA. The musical work of Pharell Williams and Heitor Pereira, produced by Hans Zimmer, adds a whimsical and cheerful aspect to the world in which Gru and his family live. And there are some funny scenes in the first film, most notably the part of Super Silly Fun Land in which Gru and the girls ride a rollercoaster and Gru assaults the shooting arcade to get Agnes' unicorn.

The first film is really a cool and hip classic. It has a basic, but engaging and original story with likeable character development and enjoyable animation. The comedy is appealing and we get some memorable scenes coupled with some heartfelt moments, including the chemestry between Gru and his adoptive daughters.

'Despicable Me' is a very great film with minor flaws. Ditto its sequel.

Speaking of which, 'Despicable Me 2' was released last year. It focuses on Gru now busy raising Margo, Edith and Agnes and his evil-doer career cut short. He unwillingly falls in love with Lucy Wilde (also voiced by Kristen Wiig) from the Anti-Villain League and both are sent to save the world from a more sinister and global-dominating threat while the minions are one-by-one being kidnapped without explanation. Is the sequel as good as the original? Let me see...

While the story of DM2 looks safe compared to the original, it has very much to it to make it more than it sounds. It made the sequel look as if the story of an evil-doer adopting three orphan girls wasn't completely told. It focus on Gru's emotional quest to continue healing and complete himself. The romantic aspect of the sequel is a good and fresh something new in this film and gave Gru more character development than before. The sequel in fact established that Gru never really wanted to be evil for the sake of being evil and was only destined to become a bad guy by bad parenting and the fear of a romantic love. From this point forward, the story actually began telling itself and everything else formed around that.

The sequel itself, in fact, greatly expanded the universe of 'Despicable Me', allowing new characters, new horizons and new story challenges for the characters we all know and love to take place. And the minions went to become this film's co-stars alongside Gru and his girls, mere comic relieves no longer. They're the plot device of this film since their mysterious kidnappings unexpectedly lead to the core story of the sequel.

Lucy Wilde is Gru's partner-in-crime and later the love of his life. She may look stoic and serious, but is actually very happy, enthusiastic, cheerful and perky. Lucy's trademark weapons are her lipstick taser which is used to shock enemies, her athleticism and a formidable combination of jiu-jitsu, krav maga, Aztec martial arts and krmuping. She's also capable of being polite and level-headed in hazardous situations and remain calm and cheerful when she was trapped in a rocket even if she was, in fact, freaking out. Lucy can also be impatient in traffic and can't stand hearing music while driving. The minions and Agnes treasure Lucy a lot. She's a brillant female protagonist of DM2.

The new main villain of the film is Eduardo Perez, very well known as El Macho (Benjamin Bratt, formerly Al 'Tony Montana' Pacino before he left production). He was once a formidable and inhumane criminal who was able to commit vicious crimes only with bare hands until he faked his death to start a family and open a Mexican restaurant Salsa & Salsa in Paradise Mall. This undercover supervillain has come to spread terror in the world again using the lethal mutagen PX-41 to create mass-murdering weapons. As the normal, everyday Eduardo, he is very friendly and treats his pet chicken Pollito nicely as his fierce bodyguard. But if you upset him, be careful!!! He's compelling, murderous and sinister enough to make Vector look silly and pathetic. His son Antonio (Moisés Arias) becomes Margo's love interest, much to Gru's horror and protests. He's charming and handsome for Margo, and arrogant, sarcastic and sassy towards Gru.

El Macho's henchmen, the Evil Minions (again Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud), are the most invincible and mass-destructive weapons ever created by the PX-41. They're in fact Gru's adorable minions who were being kidnapped and turned evil and vicious by PX-41 on El Macho's hands. Their war motto is 'BAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!' Even in their disturbing and menacing forms, the Evil Minions are still capable of getting lots of laughs with their hilarious gluttony and dimwittedness.

Other new chararcters inclue Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan), the boss of AVL and Lucy's employer. He's a more stoic and serious man who often berates Gru's good deeds because of his previous record as a villain. Jillian (Nasim Pedrad) is Agnes' neighbor and matchmaker who Gru oftem sees as irritating and annoying. Her friend Shannon (Kristen Schaal) enjoys fitness and holds racist feelings towards phonies. And there's Floyd Eagle-san (Ken Jeong, who played the news anchorman in the first film) is the owner of the Eagle Hair Club and treasures hair and wigs as much Agnes treasures unicorns. Gru becomes his treasured client.

The humour and heart of the first film are back in the sequel. We even get some funny and heartwarming flashbacks with Gru as a kid trying to woo Lisa in the school only to be caught on spot by one of the kids who denounced him spreading 'grooties' on Lisa, causing many children to leave school quickly before 12:00 AM in terror, making Gru an outcast. As for the humour, the chemestry between Lucy and the minions works very well. The final battle between the good and evil minions has also its hilarious moments. In addition, in the beginning of the film, we see Gru dressed as the fairy princess to make Margo, Edith and Agnes and their friends happy. Gru as the fairy princess is freaking hilarious!!! Other funny moments include the chemestry between Gru and Antonio, Pollito's scenes, Lucy's antics and Agnes' side of the story.

We get more character development in this film too. Gru not only must cope with his fear of a romantic love, he also has to build a better life and family for his adoptive daughters, even if it means being overprotective towards Margo as she's searching for boys in her phone. Margo herself also faces new challenges as she's growing up. Agnes gets more emotional in her lust for a mother and even becomes badass when she screams at an evil minion to protect her unicorn, making her scream an amazingly powerful and lethal weapon against those who upset her. Edith is now following the moral ninja code and looks very cool in her ninja outfit. And Dr. Nefario is wishing for a better job after Gru ceased being evil and used his malicious technology and weaponry to manufacturate jellies and jams, to disastrous results.

And the animation is more fluid and comparable to a generic summer blockbuster film than the first DM. Sure, Illumination's animators and artists used the profits from the first film to create more fun visuals and polished animation work for DM2. They even remade the Margo model entirely from scratch, which made the character more expressive in this film than in the original.

Concluding, both Despicable Me films form an enjoyable saga with tiny, insignificant flaws. I recommend them to animation fans out there.

Despicable Me (C) Illumination / Universal