Real heart beneath Despicable’s levity
It’s always been a source of huge amusement to the scrofulous franchise of reprobates and society’s jetsam I refer to as my friends that I once told them I’d cried my eyes out at the first Despicable Me, back in 2010.
I’d finished a relationship a few months earlier, with the mother of a couple of kids who I adored to hell and back, and the whole orphaned-girls-meet-adoptivesupervillain storyline that is the emotional underpinning of Despicable Me had me pretty much on the verge of a meltdown to rival a 9-year-old at a Justin Bieber concert anyway.
But when the kids gave the softhearted villain Gru a birthday concert, and I saw that the date – May 26th – was the same as my own, I decided that the gods simply had it in for me and I went off like a frog in a sock, alone in the backrow of the multiplex with only existential despair and a packet of jaffas for company.
Funnily enough – or not – I’ve loved the Despicable Me series ever since. And Despicable Me 3 isn’t doing much to dim my ardour.
I think the genius of these scripts has always been that while they look like candy-coloured explosions of inventiveness and cartoon villainy, they are actually founded on a rock solid core of emotional truth. These are films about the relationship between parents and their kids. And everything that unfolds in a Despicable episode is broadly in the service of that kaupapa. Hence my histrionics, I guess.
Does it surprise you to learn that Despicable Me writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio also have the fantastically good Dr Seuss adaptations Horton Hears a Who and the The Lorax on their CVs. As well as last year’s stonkingly good The Secret Life of Pets.
This third film sees Gru (voice of Steve Carell), partner Lucy (Kristen Wiig) and the Minions up against the supervillain Benjamin Bratt (Trey Parker), a child TV star now trying to make his pre- adolescent fantasy world come to life. Cue a whole bunch of heist scenes scored to Michael Jackson and A-Ha hits. Which can never be a bad thing.
Side plots, deftly handled, involve Gru’s long lost twin brother Dru arriving in his life. Both characters are voiced by Carell, who does an astonishing job of finding clear points of separation between the two, even while they share the same utterly unique and unclassifiable accent.
The Minions meanwhile are off on their own escapades for much of the film, with two lengthy sequences – a prison break and an unintentional performance on a reality TV show talent quest – pretty much bringing the house down at the screening I saw. Everything I – and you – have always loved about this franchise is present and correct in Despicable Me 3.
I could have done without a moment of unnecessary racial stereotyping that briefly let down the film’s message of inclusivity. But apart from that, Despicable Me 3 is a terrifically good time, with some real heart and thought solidly beneath all the spectacle and hilarity. Despicable Me 3 might never appear to be taking itself as seriously or so overtly exploring human themes as did the Toy Story series. But I reckon that in their own daffy, hyper-kinetic way, it’s the Despicable Me films that now represent ‘‘kids’ cartoons’’’ most intelligently put-together and resonant storytelling.
At least I got through this one without crying. – Graeme Tuckett