Despicable Me 3

Dir: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda

2017

***

After two films and one spin-off, it’s nice to see that Despicable Me still has something to deliver. Despicable Me was a nice film and Despicable Me 2 was a welcome follow up but it became clear that the real hit of the franchise was the Minions, who sold a lot of merchandise and had their own film in 2015. However, I’ve always liked Steve Carell’s Gru more than the Minions and although I liked their own movie, they are side-kicks and should probably stay as such. In Despicable Me 3, Gru and Lucy (Kristen Wiig) continue to work for the Anti-Villain league and begin the film by chasing the infamous Balthazar Bratt (South Park’s Trey Parker) – a child actor of the 80s who has grown into a super-villain after his show got cancelled, leading to him losing popularity over time. When they fail to capture him the pair get fired from their beloved jobs and the future looks uncertain until, out of the blue, Gru discovers that he has a twin he was never told about. After seeking confirmation from his mother (played by the brilliant Julie Andrews once more), Gru agrees to meet his long-lost brother Dru (also voiced by Steve Carell) and learns that his father – whom he thought had died when he was young, had been one of the world’s greatest villains and hoped Dru would follow in his footsteps. It becomes clear that Gru took after his father and Dru took after his mother. Dru, who always longed for his father to be proud of him, begs Gru to teach him how to be a super-villain, which is a dilemma for Gru – who misses his villainous days now that he is unemployed. When he conjures up the plan of capturing Balthazar Bratt with his brother’s help, he realises that he will be fooling his brother and will be going behind his wife’s back, but feels there is little choice and sets about a plan. Everything else about the film is fairly predictable and we’ve pretty much seen it all before but I personally think that’s okay. I was never bored and the film didn’t trip over the usual clichés or delve into unwanted melodrama. Lucy bonds with her new step-daughters, Gru bonds with his new brother, and a familiar story is continued but it felt comfortable. The minions do their thing but are somewhat detached from the story which I think was important this time round – this is very much a Despicable Me movie and not a Minion movie featuring the characters from Despicable Me. Some of the sub-plots were better than others and some went absolutely nowhere, which was a bit odd, but again, this didn’t stunt my overall experience. I would go as far to say that the overall story is badly written but frame by frame, it’s almost perfect. It’s pure escapism with a minor story attached, which is something I’d usually criticize but in this instance I believe it works. Kid’s films should be, first and foremost, as silly as possible, and that’s what it is. Agnes’s quest to find a unicorn was a lovely little sub-plot that brought back the happy memories of “It’s so fluffy I could Die” from the first film and added to them but what I think worked best, and was the strongest element of the film, was Balthazar Bratt. Bratt is a villain suck in the 1980s and every trick, every plan and every move he makes has an 80s themed slant to it. It’s handled brilliantly. It may well go over the heads of many of the kids but I know a lot of the parents in the cinema I visited to see it were appreciative. It’s rare that a kids film gets certain themes right these days, so the fact they got the 80s spot on was a real treat. Everything from Balthazar Bratt’s shell-suit, mullet hair cut (complete with bald patch), moonwalking and sitcom ideologies was perfect and Tray Parker was well cast. I also really liked Dru’s character, essentially the opposite of Gru but just as likable. I really loathed the prospect of the two brothers fighting about their differences but this was very much on the down-low, the chemistry between them was refreshingly vibrant and the moral lessons were absent, Despicable Me 3 is all about the fun. It does seem like the animation formula of late; establish yourself over two films and a possible spin-off and then relax into something a little less serious from then on. Someone had better tell the Ice Age people asap. In conclusion, Despicable Me 3 builds on the first two films and settles down nicely in a silly and hugely likable sequel.