Illumination Entertainment Shows Industry How It’s Done
You sort of have to pull for Despicable Me regardless of whether or not you actually enjoyed the film. Why? Well because Illumination Entertainment, the company responsible for this work, did the impossible by knocking one out of the park their first time at bat. Founded in 2007, it’s downright impressive they even managed to put out a feature length CGI film by 2010 of any quality! The feat becomes even more impressive once the quality of this one is revealed.
Additionally the film has managed to establish itself so firmly in the world’s collective psyche that not only is a sequel in the works for 2013 but also a spin-off film based on the minions for the following year. Not bad at all for a firm with only three titles to its entire roster at present (the other two being a CG/ live action hybrid called Hop and a second full CG feature, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax).
But enough about Illumination and their meteoric rise to legitimate competition to industry heavy hitters Pixar, DreamWorks, Sony Imageworks and Blue Sky, you are surely reading this review to learn more about the movie itself. But before we get to that, consider Despicable Me’s modest budget of $69-mil. If that sounds like a lot to you, the average budget of a modern CG feature from the likes of some of the companies mentioned above is roughly $150-million with some even dwarfing that amount (fellow 2010 CG entry Toy Story 3 cost a staggering $200-million for example). Obviously this makes Despicable Me’s current gross of $543,113,985 even more impressive! Okay now I’m done talking about Illumination, honest.
Despicable Me tells the tale of a villain getting up there in years who is feeling the squeeze put on by young up and coming evil-doers like the smug & tech-crazy Vector. So as to one up Vector and raise the bar of villainy so high that no other baddie can ever compete, antagonist/ protagonist Gru hatches a scheme straight off the pages of a comic book: He’ll steal the moon!
But to accomplish such a lofty ambition a little heist action is in order: Namely the stealing back of the shrink ray that Vector stole from Gru after he had stolen it initially. Confused yet? No need to strain your noodle, the plot is a straight forward through and through with a wide variety of visual goodies and far reaching shades of humor to be sure to get almost anyone giggling sooner or later.
Things get complicated for our pointy nosed, bald headed, sweater donning bad guy when his scheming requires that he adopt a trio of wide-eyed orphans. Lending his voice to the character of Gru is none other than The Office’s Steve Carell with a surprisingly convincing European accent. The remainder of the cast is equally well selected and delivers above average vocal deliveries to compliment the solid visuals- Jason Segal as Vector, Julie Andrews as Gru’s unlovable and unloving mom, and strangely appropriate Russell Brand as Gru’s geriatric genius inventor Dr. Nefario.
However, and as you might expect, an animated version of Austin Powers’ Dr. Evil is hardly going to obtain the type of marketability that you’d expect from a film trying to give Disney a run for its money but don’t worry, Despicable Me has that covered in earnest as well in the form of the minions. While it’s never actually made clear just what these little yellow capsules with safety goggles and overalls actually are in the film, the special features reveals that they are in fact small genetically engineered drones. The high-pitched nearly unintelligible banter is just the icing on the cute/ marketable cake. If additional films and theme park rides are any indication, mission accomplished.
The soundtrack & score are spectacular as well. Pharrell Williams provides an absolutely infectious blend of beat driven filler instrumentals and original hip-hop and R&B numbers.
Comparisons to DreamWorks’ Megamind are all but inevitable and though pretty similar from afar, the fact is Megamind is more of a spoof on comic-book cliché/ superhero vs super-villainy not unlike Pixar’s The Incredibles (just told from the bad guy’s point of view). Despicable Me is more about the business of trying to make it in the world as a villain; completely doing away with the hero element altogether. At the risk of providing a little spoiler, this is a redemption tale at its core as well: The type where the goodness present in the human heart trumps even the sheer terror of wearing a gray turtleneck sweater with scarf and freezing everyone ahead of him into a block of ice in the line at the coffee shop.
In all, Despicable Me falls into the territory of a resounding success in just about every unit of measurement. The plot feels a tad bit more forced than the well-oiled machine that is Pixar (or DreamWorks of late) but for a new studio on an extremely limited budget, such complaints become increasingly insignificant. With an exclusive partnership with Universal Films, Illumination Entertainment has made it clear that they aren’t going to be content competing with anything less than the absolute upper echelon of the genre. This, their first entry into the fold is 95-minutes well spent. Here’s hoping we’re treated to that inexplicably absent back-story of the minions in either of the forthcoming films in the series.
CG Movie Review 