Despicable Me was delightful to me… and to the child and other adult I had in tow when I went to see it. We all experienced laugh out loud moments throughout the movie, including a few just for the adults, like a sly reference to Lehman Brothers. This movie is, in a word, hilarious.
The Despicable Me of the title is a super villain named Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) who accomplishes his evil deeds with the assistance of a mad scientist named Dr. Nefario (voiced by Russell Brand) and an army of amusing yellow minions. But recently, Gru’s been one-upped by a younger villain named Vector and he’s feeling the pressure to pull off an epic heist. So he gathers the minions and Dr. Nefario and announces his grand plan: they’re going to steal the moon! First though they have to “acquire” a shrink ray, but just as they manage to steal it, Vector swoops in and grabs it from them.
Gru must get that shrink ray back and part of his plan to get inside Vector’s lair involves sending in three little orphan girls selling cookies. So he adopts the girls, Margot, Edith and Agnes, and of course, they turn his life upside down. We start to see a softer side of Gru as they start to warm his evil heart. He becomes so attached to them he even begins to rethink his plan to steal the moon.
By the end, Gru manages to do it all and be both super villain and super dad. He even manages to make his hard-to-please mother (voiced by Julie Andrews) proud. This is a movie with heart and humor, and even with the extra charge for 3D, is well worth the price of admission.