Let There Be Movies

Review by Elliott

In Despicable Me, Steve Carell does the voice of Gru the main character of this movie. Now Wait! Don’t hit the back button quite yet. Some people really like Steve Carell…others, myself included, mostly just want to punch him in the face. That is the primary reason I had no interest in seeing this movie and didn’t see it when it first came to theaters. As a summer promotion, our local theater plays different kids movies every saturday morning for free. So one Saturday morning, my wife and I decided we would go see this. Going into the movie I had rather low expectations. Much to my surprise, I was proven completely wrong. Steve Carell is joined by Jason Segal (The Muppets) playing Vector the main Antagonist and Julie Andrews (Sound of Music) playing Gru’s mom.

Overview of main story

The great pyramids in Egypt have been taken, but by whom? What we know for sure is that it wasn’t Gru, the greatest villain of all time or so he thought. In an effort to regain his status, he comes up with a master plan to steal the moon.
Before he can take the moon,  he must first obtain a shrink ray. The moon of course is too big to steal unless you shrink it down.The shrink ray is located somewhere in Asia (most likely China or North Korea, they don’t say), so he takes his ship there and steals it. However before he can make it home, he is intercepted by Vector the young, up and coming villain, who stole the pyramid. Vector takes the shrink ray and escapes to his fortress. Gru attempts to sneak into the fortress, but is thwarted by Vector’s high tech security/weapons system. After being blown up by roughly 50 large bombs(yet somehow surviving), he is ready to give up. However, he notice’s 3 little girls walking up to the fortress to sell cookies. Instead of being shot at, they are allowed into the fortress. This gets him to thinking…

The 3 little girls are Margo, Edith, and Agnes; sisters and orphans. The girls dream of being adopted by a family, but in the meantime are forced to sell cookies for Miss Hattie, the headmistress of the orphanage. That is until the day Gru comes to adopt them. After bringing them home, Gru begins to make preparations for the rest of his plan. This involves using the girls to deliver special cookie robots. The end. No just kidding, but if you want to know the rest of the story then you’re just going to have to watch it. 🙂

Lessons learned

So is this movie just about high tech gadgets, stealing the moon, and being the best villain? No not at all. As the movie unfolds, we get to see bits and pieces of Gru’s past. Ever since he was little, he has been dreaming big. We see a scene where he draws a rocket and shows it to his mom, stating that he wants to go to space. His mom cruelly responds by saying that he’s too late, Nasa has stopped sending monkeys into space. He later build the rocket from his drawing out of macaroni noodles, which his mom also poo poos.  He continues doing things to gain acceptance from his mom, but never receives it.

This story isn’t about being a villain or stealing the moon, it is about 1 man and 3 little girls, all seeking love and acceptance from a parent. Now this is something we all can relate too. We all seek approval from someone. whether it’s our parents, friends, co-workers, or spouse. Parents need to show their children that we are proud of them. But not everyone has loving accepting parents, some friends aren’t true friends. The most important person we should be seeking approval from, is our Father in Heaven. He has always and will always love us, even when we are sin. He is the only one we can truly be fulfilled by.

4 But[a] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. Eph. 2:4-5

*****Spoiler*****
Gru thought he could gain his mother’s approval by doing something great or by being the greatest  villain,  but it wasn’t until he learned to love, that he gained her approval.

*****Spoiler*****

Conclusion

This is a great movie that didn’t get a lot of press while it was in theaters. It’s just as good, if not better, than many of Pixar’s movies. Aside from the fact that I really like it, I chose to review this movies because its sequel, Despicable Me 2 comes out July 5. So if you haven’t already seen it, you have a month to prepare. Epic and Monster University, are two other animated movies coming out this summer, but I’m predicting that Despicable Me 2 will be the best of the 3. Aside from the good message that is at the core of this movie, here is a list of 10 reason why I love this movie.

1. The dialogue is hilarious.

2. The minions are extremly funny (they speak a hybrid of english, spanish and gibberish).

3. There are lots of little background things throughout that are humourous.

4. It’s just plain fun.

5. The characters are great.

6. Great intro Song(Sweet Home Alabama) followed by a great theme song and soundtrack.

7. Lots of funny quotes.

8. The animation is top notch.

9. The true power of cookies is shown.

10. Lots of bathroom humor. 🙂   (release your inner 4th grader)

Quotes

Agnes: Does this count as annoying?

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Edith: It was your cousin’s idea!

Dave the Minion: *What*?

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Gru: [to Miss Hattie] You are a beautiful woman. Do you speak Spanish?

Miss Hattie: Do I look like I speak Spanish?

Gru: You have a face… Como un burro.

Miss Hattie: Oh! Well, thank you!

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Gru: [Explaining why the girls can’t find their book “Three Little Kittens”] That book was accidentally destroyed maliciously…

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Vector: [after shrinking toilet] Look at you, a little tiny toilet, for little tiny people to…

[toilet breaks, spraying water on Vector]

Vector: Ah! Curse you, tiny toilet!

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Agnes: He’s so fluffy, I’m gonna die!

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Gru: Well, I suppose it will work with two.

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Gru: Why, Why are you so old?

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Gru: It is disintegrated. By definition it can’t be fixed.