So with Pixar and DreamWorks conquering the animated film genre with their films (which by the way, started off well, but has slowly gone downhill thanks to the likes of Cars 2 and Rise of the Guardians), is there anybody out there who can give us something outside of those 2. Yes there is. The other animation companies out there, may not be as advanced or as good as Pixar and Dreamworks, but boy do they try and this series of films comes from Illumination Entertainment (which by the way is Universal's equivalent to Pixar and Dreamworks) who haven't been around for a while, but have had some success in their films, which includes the one we're looking at today. Created by an international team of people (which you have to admit, is darn impressive), this is Despicable Me:
Despicable Me
So using the idea of having a villain be the main protagonist (which isn't really that original as Dreamworks already did that with Megamind), we come to our main protagonist, the super villain known as Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) who has his pride crushed when a much younger villain than him (known as Vector, who is voiced by Jason Segel), steals a pyramid in Egypt which according to his best friend and scientist, Dr Nefario (voiced by Russell Brand), is making the other villains look lame. Gru however decides that in order to regain his pride, he will top what that other villain did and steal the moon, but the question is how will he do it and when part of his plan, involves adopting and using 3 young orphaned girls, will he even want to do it? Watch to find out. Now while this film may not be up to the standards of what the big 2 have, its still a very funny and enjoyable film that in all honesty, is better than Dreamworks' take on the idea, and being better than an animation giant, is a pretty big deal and is also pretty impressive too. 9/10
Despicable Me 2
When a giant floating magnet collects nearly all known metals in the world, a secret organisation for anti-villains, known as the Anti-Villain League (or AVL for short) decide to call in Gru (the majority of the original cast return for this film so yeah) who has stopped being a villain so that he can spend more time with his girls. During Agnes's birthday (Agnes by the way in case I haven't mentioned already, is the youngest of the 3 girls and is voiced by Elsie Fisher in both films who is also the youngest cast member), Gru and 2 of his minions gets kidnapped by a AVL agent known as Lucy Wilde (who is Gru's preferred love interest and is voiced by Kristen Wiig who previously voiced Miss Hattie who was looking after the orphanage that the 3 girls were in, in the last film), who takes him to the AVL HQ where he is given the mission to find the culprit responsible for stealing a laboratory and some kind of chemical that can turn any living being into a mutant killing machine, which Gru reluctantly accepts and Lucy gets to be his partner in crime. Dr Nafario, upon Gru's return, leaves his post to take on new employment somewhere else. During his first assignment, Gru comes across one of the greatest villains of all time, who is now the boss of a Mexican restaurant in a mall somewhere and suspects that he is the culprit, but with one of the girls falling in love with this villain's son and nearly all the minions mysteriously disappearing, can Gru complete his mission and save the world once more? Watch it to find out. Now a lot of things that I've noticed in this film, is that it has much smoother animation than before which means that Illumination Entertainment is slowly improving their animation which for a company that has just started being a animation company, is a good thing. I saw this film in 3D because it was recommended by other critics and movie goers to be seen in 3D and as Animation films go, the 3D effects actually work quite well (especially with Gru's pointy nose). As for everything else, there are a few pop culture references and cringe worthy moments, but unlike most films which are more or less doomed to suck the minute that those 2 things come on, this one does it in a way that makes it funny and not overused and to me, that is a big step to go. 9/10
Now before I give my score for the series itself, I am very much aware that a spin-off film featuring the minions is in the works and I'll do a separate review of that when it comes out. So as a whole series, it a great series that make anything that would normally suck, work and I think the future of this company is strong, just as long as they make original films and not too many sequels and prequels (which is what other money munching companies are doing, those greedy gits). 9/10
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