Movie Review: Despicable Me 2

Kids and young adults are in for a lot of fun because Despicable Me 2 is certainly funnier and more expansive than the 2010 original. Unlike Cars 2 which was made just to sell toys, this film actually manages to offer a reasonably pleasing story. And yet every kid (and even his parent) will crave for a stuffed toy of one of the adorable Minions.

Despicable Me 2 picks up a few months after the events of the first film - Gru is now happily living with his kids, he has given up being a villain and is trying to start a jam and jelly business with the help of his Minions. But while Gru has shed his image as a baddie, a mysterious Supervillain has a sinister master plan to become the supreme boss of the world, a plan so terrifying that the Anti Villain League is forced to seek help from Gru. It’s not a particularly good plot, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. Directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud do a good job of avoiding the inevitable animated sequel clichés and the need to make things simply bigger and louder. The clichés that do make it to the story aren’t too jarring thanks to the frequent cutways to the Minions and their hilarious shenanigans. It helps that the film has the familiar voice cast of Steve Carell and Kirsten Wiig to keep things entertaining. The only element that is sorely missed here is Gru’s wicked, icy cynicism from the first movie, since he is the good guy now.

The animation is terrific, though yet again let down by the 3D glasses. There isn’t a single frame of a single scene that needed to be shown in 3D, except for the end credits where three Minions do a side spitting audition for their own spinoff movie that is coming out next year. The little yellow one and two eyed creatures are given a bigger role this time, and while they’re amusing every time they pop up on screen, one wonders if they would be this funny in their own standalone movie. After all there’s only so much Helium induced high pitched cutsey gibberish that one can take. What I really want is a crossover film between Scrat from the Ice Age films and the Minions from Despicable Me – I would brave even the hellish tortures of 3D to watch that.

(First published in MiD Day)