Third entry in franchise showing signs of burnout
Despicable Me 3
(out of 4) Animated comedy featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig and Trey Parker. Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda. Opens Friday at GTA theatres. 90 minutes. Here’s some Despicable Me math: third movie plus Gru times two plus one new supervillain = not much of anything.
Clutching at air rather than fresh ideas, Despicable Me 3 further dilutes the delightfully droll villainy of animated protagonist Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, by lumbering him with a dim twin brother named Dru (also Carell), who may have nefarious ambitions to redeem the family name.
The ol’ lost twin gambit is a sure sign of franchise burnout, but Gru’s been thin gruel for a while now. Having acquired a conscience — he’s now an ex-villain — plus three darling adopted daughters in film one, and a devoted wife/fellow crimebuster (Kristen Wiig) in film two, he’s in full dad mode.
Despicable Me 3 packs in so many non-despicable characters, it’s as if co-directors Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, along with screenwriters Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, would rather be making a My Little Pony movie rather than a send-up of James Bond villains, the raison d’être of the series. (A subplot about the quest for a cuddly unicorn is too twee for words.)
It’s even worse for the Minions, those manic Gru sidekicks sidelined by his crossover to the light side. They interrupt the proceedings with random song-and-dance routines, like a tamer version of Sergio Aragones’ “Marginal Thinking” minicomics in MAD magazine.
What mild enjoyment the movie offers is mostly thanks to South Park’s Trey Parker, who voices the new supervillain character Balthazar Bratt, a 1980s child star out to get revenge and illicit treasure for having been forgotten by fickle fans.
How could anyone forget a mulletsporting maniac who fires bubblegum bombs from shoulder-pad cannons, and who breakdances between heists to the likes of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” and Madonna’s “Into the Groove”? (The music licensing fee for this film must have been through the roof.) Bratt’s villainous remarks are similarly stuck in the ’80s: “It is on, like Donkey Kong!” he cackles.
His theft of the world’s biggest diamond, possibly formerly owned by the Pink Panther, is allegedly the plot driver for this grab bag of distractions.
Gru and Wiig’s Lucy Wilde must prove their secret agent bona fides to new boss Valerie Da Vinci (Jenny Slate), who is determined to fire them both for failing to deliver. If only she could do the same to the filmmakers.