Despicable Me 2 Review
Grand Total: 5
Despicable Me Review
Grand Total: 8 ¾
Technical
Engaging 6
Kids movie +1
An amazing scene (One big unicorn) +½
Really funny +½
Great performance/character (Gru) +½
Amazing animation +½
Great writing +½
Total: 9 ½
Overall impression
Despicable Me is a touching story about a supervillain who adopts three orphan girls as part of one of his despicable plots and ends up loving them. This sounds generic, but manages to feel fresh due to a number of factors. The movie has some great humor in it, features great development of each of the characters (through great dialogue, mostly given to Gru, featuring great voice work from Steve Carell), and focuses on the heart and the characters over anything else, letting them drive the story. The villain, Vector, is a great comic villain, which perfectly suits the movie, as Despicable Me is not about Gru vs. some other villain but rather Gru vs. his villainous image, which adds a great family dynamic to the film. This family dynamic is what makes Despicable Me so memorable; so much of the film, including the “one big unicorn” scene I mention above, is devoted completely to creating the relationship Gru shares with his three adopted daughters. You really buy into why his personality changes and why he ends up caring more for the girls than he does for his villainous mission that he began planning at the beginning of the film. Speaking of the villain, the humor in the film is especially good. The villain is hilarious and his antagonistic relationship with Gru is great. As a supervillain, Gru has so many quirks and mannerisms that are just hilarious. His dog, house, and possessions are all comedic gold. Despicable Me is remarkable, apart from being a genuinely touching, funny, and well-made film, because it was released in arguably the most competitive year ever for animation; it was released in 2010, the same year that saw the likes of three other well-known animated pieces: Tangled, How to Train Your Dragon, and Toy Story 3. I say that it is remarkable because Despicable Me has managed to stand out and produce a very successful sequel despite the original being swamped by other animated heavy-hitters (it would be tough to rank them, as I really like all four). The animation is also good. Though admittedly low budget, several animation segments, including a roller coaster scene, really struck me as great. All in all, this movie is a great balance of humor and heart that everyone should enjoy, though it isn’t much more than that.
Total: 8
Technical
Engaging 6
Kids movie +1
Really funny +½
Too short -1
Overly predictable -1
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 5
Overall impression
Despicable Me was an unexpected success in 2010 and managed to stand out even though it was surrounded by three other great animated features (Toy Story 3, Tangled, How to Train Your Dragon). Made on a low budget for an animated film, Despicable Me’s success at the box office and positive reception ensured the existence of Despicable Me 2. This story seeks to fill the only gap left behind at the end of the first film: Agnes, Edith, and Margo have a father but still need a mother. This film seeks to fill that gap and presents this as its primary plot. Unfortunately, though, the film has several other subplots going on at the same time and has a tough time focusing on any of them. This problem is made worse by the film’s short runtime, as each of the stories gets rushed along and the film never has enough time to slow down for character development, essential to telling any good story. When it comes to finding Gru a suitable partner, you would think that the film would at least try to get in some character development so that you end up both understanding why each would want the other and routing for them to end up together. What ends up happening is that Gru ends up liking this character mostly because his daughters, Agnes in particular, want him to find someone. On the other side, I have no idea why said partner likes Gru back. She is a zany character that often becomes annoying and Gru is a likeable character only because of what was established in the first film. They don’t do much together and share maybe one moment together. While romances in children’s films rarely succeed or often have problems, I can’t help but be disappointed by how little effort was put into this one; two characters ended up in situations together because the plot willed them to and somehow fell for each other without any explanation. Two films that quickly come to mind when I think about movies featuring plots with a focus on romance are Tangled and Beauty and the Beast. It should come as no surprise that both films succeed in said romances because each dedicates several scenes to just character development. Sure, those films had other things going on as well, but they focused on characters first, and let that drive the stories. In a way, Despicable Me 2 is at an advantage over those two films because it has already established one of the two characters in the romance. Instead of focusing on the other character and trying to put together a story that makes you buy the romance, the film instead chooses to focus on comedy. Entire subplots exist solely to create laughs and chew up the runtime of the film. Luckily, it is this comedy that keeps the movie fun and entertaining. It works really well and often makes you forget about the really predictable plot. As soon as characters are introduced, you know exactly who they are and what their purpose is going to be. This doesn’t make the film bad. If anything, it’s that much more impressive that Despicable Me 2 can be as entertaining as it is despite its major flaws. While it’s true that nothing in the film is anywhere near as clever or original as what was presented in the first film, this sequel still manages to entertain and I still enjoyed it.
Total: 5
Technical
Watchable 4
Kids movie +1
Obvious plothole -½
Boring part -½
Total: 4
Overall impression
It is hard for me to describe how I feel about a movie like The Secret Life of Pets, which is a film designed to take its interesting premise and turn it into the most mindless forms of entertainment for children. I mean, half of me gives this film a pass for being entertaining enough, while the other half of me detests how riskless and emotionless this film was. Let’s jump right into this thing.
The Secret Life of Pets is about what happens when you leave your pets at home for work every day. Specifically, it is about Max, a dog living in New York City with his beloved owner Katie. When she comes home one day with a partner for Max, a much larger dog named Duke, Max gets irritated that he now has to share his home and tries to get rid of Duke. In the process, both dogs are lost in the city and have to make their way back home. This premise might sound familiar, as it’s essentially a mix of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. This wouldn’t have bothered me too much, if this film didn’t rip entire scenes from those two. Seriously, do you remember a scene in Toy Story 2 when Buzz reminds the crew about how Woody never gave up on them and was always there for them? Well that exact same scene, context and all, is in this film too. To make matters worse, this film contains scenes talking about how people lose their owners, the same way the characters in Toy Story 2 do. The difference, however, is that this movie tells its story in the most emotionless, ridiculous way. Animals drive cars. Animal patrol seemingly spawns anywhere there’s a stray animal. Mobster bunnies rule the animal underground, it’s all just for laughs, and that’s a shame. The reason studios like Pixar make the Toy Story films such successes is because of their heart and emotion. Without that, what would they be? Well, this movie. Seriously, why are kids movies suddenly deciding that they can’t go dark or contain emotional scenes? Every single successful animated film has some depth to it that makes it memorable and its characters engaging. I never felt anything in this film, except some laughter at its dumb jokes. How is this film, Minions, and Despicable Me 2 more successful than The Incredibles?
I wish I could say that this film tried to find a path from the “mediocre ripoff” path, but it really didn’t. The voice cast is good, I guess, but I really can’t say that it really makes a difference given how shallow the characters are. The film looks pretty good, but that’s about all I can give it. There were so many opportunities for this film to hit a solid emotional level. Each time, it just avoided the situation as if it were trying its hardest to stay mediocre.
Overall, The Secret Life of Pets succeeded in making me angry about the state of children’s entertainment despite the fact that Zootopia, one of the best childrens films I've ever seen, just came out. Yeah, it brought me down that far. It was one of the most superficial, entertainment-only films I’ve ever seen, built on a stolen premise that was done so much better by, more emotional films. It looked good, and it had a good voice cast, but that doesn’t replace the emotion this film so desperately needed. It was entertaining, but never engaging.
Total: 3
The Secret Life of Pets Movie Review
Grand Total: 3 ½
Minions Review
Grand Total: 0 ¾
Technical
Boring 2
Kids movie +1
Too long -1
Obvious plothole -½
Bad performance/character (Scarlett Overkill) -½
Unfunny -½
Total: 0 ½
Overall impression
Minions is about the minions, strange yellow creatures obsessed with worshiping the powerful. As a result, they revolve around the biggest, baddest villain in town, often resulting in that villain’s accidental demise. So eventually they run out of villains. Bored, the minions send three of their own, Kevin, Bob, and Stuart, to go find the next villain.
That is the whole movie. There really isn’t much to be said except that these little creatures featured in Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 can’t hold their own movie. I was bored after about five minutes, and had to take long breaks to re-adjust to the real world before throwing myself back into this mess of a movie clearly not accessible to anyone over the age of five. I couldn’t believe that a film this lifeless could ever be a successful movie, but it clearly was.
There wasn’t an ounce of creativity in this film, unless you count the ridiculous over-the-top dresses that Scarlett Overkill wears as she screams at the minions and does pretty much nothing else. This studio has already proven that they are capable of creating a genuinely likeable villain. Why did they do such a terrible job here? I mean this villain is as one-note as you can get. Not once in this film did I feel any emotion at all, for anyone or anything, because this film is made to be mindless entertainment for children. The animation isn’t even good! The backgrounds and character designs are all cheap, without proper detail given to anything. The only thing I liked about this film was a character that showed up at the end, a character I already knew and loved. If it weren’t for this character, Minions would get my lowest score; it just has no value.
Total: 1
Despicable Me 3 Movie Review
Grand Total: 5 ½
Technical
Engaging 6
Kids movie +1
Obvious plothole -½
Uneven tone -½
Total: 6
Overall impression
Despicable Me 3 tells the story of Gru, Lucy, their adopted children, and the minions. This time around, a new villain named Balthazar Bratt is trying to steal a diamond for his own nefarious purposes. When Gru fails to catch him, he finds trouble at work and then gets distracted by a stranger telling him that his father has recently passed and that he has a twin brother named Dru.
Yes, it is a little scattershot, but the film still works as entertainment. There are lots of subplots that don’t really go anywhere, but the film’s brief runtime and fun gags help distract you from thinking too much. It might seem like I’m being really negative here, but I surprisingly really enjoyed this movie. It had a sense of fun that has been absent in the past few movies from Illumination. Gru has always been the best character this animation studio has ever written, and he’s practically doubled in this movie. Does that equal double the entertainment value? Pretty much. Even the minions were appropriately used. They actually made me laugh, which I didn’t think was possible after I sat through Minions, their own movie.
Still, as entertaining as I found this movie, there are still big problems. It’s difficult to not get annoyed when the film touches on potentially emotional scenes and then immediately recoils to fun gags. Last year’s The Secret Life of Pets did the same thing, which I thought was annoying. None of the really great animated films ever shy away from delivering an emotional scene because they help ground the film and make it feel like more than just disposable. And, as much as I enjoyed Despicable Me 3, I can’t deny that it felt very disposable.
Total: 5