Despicable Me

Despicable Me is another awesome children's film that's fun for the young and the young at heart. I like to think I fit in to both those categories! I haven't yet met a person that honestly doesn't like children's movies. Like most movies, the style, story and technology of the 'cartoon' have a lot to do with what type of children's movies you do and don't like. But like I say, everyone (and I say that tentatively even though I think it's true) likes children's movies. Perhaps deep down and perhaps some won't admit it but you know it's true. We loved them when we were young and we love them now.

Gru is a villian, secretly living in surburbia with his hundreds of happy, yellow minions doing his bidding deep down in the basement. He wants to steal the moon and become the greatest villian ever. But, standing his way is a lack of funding, a new super villian on the scene and three orphaned girls trying to sell cookies that want to make him their new Dad.

Despicable Me is Dreamworks 2010 offering to children world wide. Comedian Steve Carell voices the main character Gru, with support from Russell Brand, Julie Andrews and Jason Segel. Along with a cameo from New Zealands own Jermaine Clement as one of the minions. With a cast of currently 'hot' comedians and stars this movie could date very quickly. But this is a 'cartoon' afterall and I'm sure the 'celebrity' of the cast will wear off and leave behind the fun movie for all to enjoy.

The storyline is different, it's not your typical super hero versus super villian with the hero winning, but instead, the villian is the 'hero' and we're all routing for him to succeed in his villianous endeavours. The charming orphaned girls add a smack of schmaltz to the movie that I can conceed was a good edition, but I'm not really convinced that it was overly necessary.

My favourite thing of the whole movie has to be the minions. The minions are small, yellow, squeeking people. Although they are more like 'people-like-beans' really. Each minion has a different outfit, facial expressions and jobs. We are also convinced that there is one in the movie that makes a face exactly like John when he's slightly annoyed, but we tried to locate it once and couldn't. I'm sure he's in there somewhere.

If for no other reason, watch Despicable Me for the minions. The villian 'hero' is not overly explored and therefore another good reason to watch this movie over some other previous offerings. If you're looking for a laugh and a no-brainer then you can't go wrong, plus the kids will love it. Win-Win.