Firstly I should say that I saw this film in 3D and if you go to see it and you have the option save yourself some money and see it in 2D. A ranty blog about 3D shall follow shortly.
Despicable Me is an animated film aimed at a family audience, i.e. trying to appeal to both adults and children simultaneously. This can be a tricky genre to pull off as many post Toy Story films have proven, I’m looking at you Shrek 3, Ice Age 3 and other non sequel titles. However the trailer for Despicable Me showed promise and so I went in with fairly high expectations, which were met.
This is not going to be long-lasting classic like Toy Story but it is certainly one of the better efforts in this genre. The evil genius and mad scientist roles are played with well and the endearing minions will no doubt prove popular at Christmas. I can already feel the looming presence of some low quality, straight to DVD minion spin-off.
I liked this film, the humour was consistently funny, there was depth to the characters and, although it wasn’t massively original, there was a solid and strangely believable story, given a plot about stealing the moon. This was a film that felt lovingly created, by people who made an effort and not just a rush job for a quick buck, and for that reason alone it is worth seeing. If you liked the Incredibles or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which it felt strangely close to in some undefinable way, then you should see this and if you didn’t, I feel sorry for you for losing your inner child.
