'Despicable Me'

'Despicable Me' (PG) (3 stars)

Writer: Ken Daurio
Directors: Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
Starring the Voices of: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett, Julie Andrews, Jack McBrayer

Pixar has cornered the market on superb animated movies and usually the other studios give us weak product. "Despicable Me" is not a Pixar movie but it is pretty funny and a major step up from the last few "Shrek" movies. "Despicable Me" is not "Toy Story 3" good but it is a lot of fun. The writing is clever, the gags are pretty funny and Steve Carell is outstanding as Gru. There are also some very cute and very funny little minions that provide the best laughs. They are like little Charlie Chaplins running around doing major slapstick. The movie is about a very evil villain who looks a lot like Dr. Evil from "Austin Powers". In fact I would say this is an animated version of that movie but centered on Dr. Evil. Gru is battling for top bad guy with a nerdy antagonist named Vector voiced by Jason Segel. To infiltrate Vector's evil fortress Gru adopts and recruits three orphan girls. The girls are cute and the youngest one is a scene stealer as she yells how furry her stuffed unicorn is. "Despicable Me" really belongs to Steve Carell and the little minions who are hilarious. Steve Carell's voice work here is perfection and is very funny and delivered with great polish. As I mentioned before, the huge laughs come from these little minions and I like the movie's sly satire on evil bad guy movies. This is not a great movie because the little girls do go over the top in the cute department and it kind of wears thin by the end. Also Jason Segal as Vector doesn't really register with me because his character is the least interesting and kind of blah. That being said, I love the use of 3D here and this time it is not a rip off like "The Last Airbender". There is a wonderful scene at an amusement park and when Gru and the kids go on a roller coaster ride it looks awesome in 3D. There is also some great closing credit scenes as the minions play around with the 3D format. There are a lot of laughs in "Despicable Me" and I think it will be fun for kids and adults.