Despicable Me 3 (2017)

“Despicable Me 3” stars Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Nev Scharrel, Steve Coogan, Julie Andrews, Jenny Slate, and Pierre Coffin.  Released on June 30, 2017, the film has Gru reuniting with his long-lost twin brother and facing against a new super villain.

The film is directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, and it is the third film in the Despicable Me film series.  Like what Toy Story did to Pixar, Despicable Me jumpstarted the new animation division known as Illumination Entertainment.  Despicable Me has been highly popular for many reasons, with one of them being the small, yellow creatures known as the Minions.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen them in some product placement and social media.  They’re flipping everywhere!  Anyway, the Despicable Me films have been hugely successful in terms of critics and box office, so it’s no surprise that Hollywood decided to continue the adventures of Gru and his faithful companions.  As for me, I really like these movies because of the characters and the animation, with the first film being my favorite out of the two.  I happen to own these films on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as its spin-off film, Minions (Don’t judge me).  With Cars 3 out of the way, it’s time to see if this latest animated threequel can be as good as the original.

If you’re familiar with the first two Despicable Me films, then this sequel is what you expect it to be.  Plenty of cartoonish slapstick, minion mayhem, and some good heartwarming moments here and there.  However, if you’re getting burned out from all of that minion madness, then this one won’t be able to win you over.  Plus, there’s going to be a Minions sequel, so you won’t like that one either.  As for me, well…I might get a lot of hate from a lot of die-hard fans of the franchise, but I was somehow a bit disappointed with how it turned out.  It still has plenty of fun moments that the franchise is known for, but like many other franchises that managed to get to number three, their qualities are slowly starting to fade.  Most of the voice cast once again reprised their roles as their respective characters, along with a couple of new characters to boot.  Steve Carell is pulling double duty this time around as he voices both Gru and his twin brother, Dru, who wants him to become a villain again.  It’s nice that the directors brought the villain aspect back for this film because at the end of the first film, Gru gave up his life of villainy to start a family with the three orphan girls.  Maybe I was expecting so much for it to be like Cars 3, but the story in this film wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be.  Curse you, marketing!  You fooled me again!  It had a nice message about sibling love, but it got overshadowed by its weak storytelling and the amount of crude humor that was presented by the minions.  Speaking of the humor, I only managed to find a lot of chuckle-worthy moments that involved the minions and the main characters themselves.  When compared to the humor from the first two films, it’s not looking good.  The film also introduced a new villain in the form of Balthazar Bratt, voiced by South Park co-creator Trey Parker, who wants revenge against Hollywood for cancelling his television show from the 80s.  I can see that Parker was having fun voicing the character despite the fact that there’s nothing too special about him.  The colorful animation once again offered plenty of slapstick shenanigans and some fun action moments to keep the young ones and their parents entertained.

Overall, “Despicable Me 3” is an enjoyable sequel that should please young and old fans of the franchise, but in terms of its storytelling, it just went from being fun and despicable to just plain despicable rather quickly.  While the animation and the voice performances were pretty good, they’re not enough to escape the fact that this is by far the weakest installment in the popular franchise.  Maybe it’s time for them to adapt it into a television show for Netflix?  Like I said before, if you like the Despicable Me films, you’ll like this latest sequel.  If you’re already tired of the franchise, then don’t even bother with it because it’s exactly what you expect from a Despicable Me film.

C