I never thought Despicable Me would be such a major animated franchise rivaling Disney and Dreamworks in the cinematic landscape. The weird-shaped man voiced by Steve Carell, who is a villain who becomes a father to three young girls, was a nice, cute little movie. Then, out of nowhere, this franchise seemed to blow up hugely. One reason is the little yellow pill and ball-shaped Minions, who speak in hilarious gibberish as Gru’s sidekicks overshadow him to me. Another is the music for the franchise created by legendary producer Pharrell Williams. Ultimately, the stories have heart and great gags, but the Minions have grown in importance over the years. With this new film Despicable Me 4, most of the marketing I’ve seen is about Minions who are given superpowers, and I’m down. Let’s go y’all! I’m trying to see them do more goofy things with powers. So will the trend continue with the base franchise, or is this the one where they fall off and should just focus on the Minions in their movies from now on?
So this movie is trying to do two things – a continue telling the story of Gru (Steve Carell) going from supervillain to good guy family man and tell some fun Minions stuff. The film starts with Pharrell’s new song (which could be a Drake diss), with Gru attending his Villain High School reunion and interacting with Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), his main school rival. He’s successful, and his girlfriend Valentina (Sofía Vergara), the former most popular girl at school, rubs his success into Gru’s face. After getting a prestigious award, Gru, working on behalf of the AVL (Anti-Villain League) Maxime, pledges revenge on Gru, which freaks Gru out. Things get bad when Maxime escapes prison, and the AVL essentially has to move Gru and the family to Witness Protection. The whole family has to deal with fitting into a new community with new identities. Most of this movie is about Gru trying to bond with his baby son Gru Jr, who prefers his mother Lucy (Kristen Wiig). The girls have their own little problems; Margo (Miranda Cosgrove) has the usual can’t fit into a new school. Agnes (Madison Polan), the youngest, misses her goat and has a problem with the concept of having a new identity because it’s lying.
The middle child, Edith (Dana Gaier), doesn’t get an arc at all. Most of the girls’ plot lines aren’t followed because they give Gru a sidekick/mentee in this movie named Poppy Prescott (Joey King); the kid next that knows Gru is Gru and blackmails him to help her with a heist so she can get into the same high school he went to. So already, this movie is juggling a fish out of water story, a father bonding with a new child story, and a protagonist finding a student, and that would be a lot for any movie, but this movie has more. Remember when I said that the movie is part Gru movie and part Minions movie? So, while three Minions went with Gru and the family, the rest went back to AVL headquarters and started wearing suits and trying to be super spies, I guess. Five Minions get chosen to get superpowers and become The MEGA MINIONS. This doesn’t go well as they try doing superhero stuff but end up making things worse. These gags, though, are hilarious and are some of the best laughs in the whole film. They tie the two together in a sloppy way, but I don’t think kids care or think about it that deeply, so who cares?
The film feels uneven to me but has some high points with Poppy and the Minion gags. Maxime is cool, and his obsession with roaches could be funny if explored a little bit more (I’m just talking like a minute or so). The animation and details, like how they are able to have liquid on the characters from spit takes and spills, caught my attention. The liquids would spray so realistically and wrap and drip on the characters that I don’t think I’ve seen before in a CG animated film. How this movie ended, felt like it could be the end for Despicable Me right now, and honestly, I don’t know what else they could do. Gru is a good guy, and now there’s no change left. They could do something with him mentoring Poppy, but that might not work for everyone. This movie referencing Gru’s teenage years can easily lead to a new Minions movie, though with them helping him at school. There’s a lot there to work with telling stories with them and Gru growing up in more funny movies. Yet we have Despicable Me 4, which is a serviceable movie with some laughs and isn’t too long, but it’s definitely something you can wait for at home and not something to see over Inside Out 2.
Score: C
