Despicable Me 3 (2017)

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

6/10

Starring the voice of

Steve Carell

Kristen Wiig

Trey Parker

Miranda Cosgrove

Steve Coogan

Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Baida

I never thought I’d get to a point where the Minions would start to become annoying… and I’m not there yet, meaning I’ll gladly sit through another Despicable Me movie.
Illumination Entertainment has created a forever-enjoyable cast of characters that have become part of the expected fun when you take your family to see a movie. The family of Gru is like a perfect cup of coffee: Gru is the dark brew, his daughters are the sugar, and the Minions are the cream on top.

In the last Despicable Me movie, we were introduced to a new character, Lucy. Her role in the second movie was instrumental to the fun, and the Minions kind of took a backseat to the kids. In this movie, however, her presence feels more like a distraction and doesn’t add much to the enjoyable tone.
She and Dru (Gru’s twin brother) are like a triangle instrument in an already complete orchestra. Their contributions, whether in or out of tune, are forgettable when everyone else is playing their part so well. To top it off, we have a villain who loves the ‘80s music scene, and his musical score has me nodding along every time he appears.

I found myself looking forward to seeing this villain more than Lucy or Dru, and to my delight, the movie starts on his turf. We see our “bad guy” steal the biggest diamond in the world, and he doesn’t just steal it—he does it in style. Dancing, chewing gum, and rocking an all-‘80s hairstyle, this dude is off the hook during the heist.
On his tail are Gru and Lucy, who are members of the Anti-Villain League, but our “bad guy,” Balthazar Bratt, to my delight, gets away with the diamond.

Without giving too much away, let me skip ahead a bit. Gru gets a visit from a lawyer telling him he has a twin brother, Dru, who wants to meet him. After drilling his mother for the truth about his brother’s existence, he packs up the family to go see him. By this time, the Minions have left Gru, as they miss the good old days when they were the bad guys, not the ones chasing them down.

Upon meeting his brother, Gru discovers that Dru is his opposite in character and that their father was a world-class criminal. Dru is a disappointment to their now-late father because he wants to be a villain but is too scared to pull it off.
Gru and Dru’s father left behind a huge estate in Dru’s care, and Gru decides to use this new access to seek revenge on Bratt and steal back the diamond.

The animation is colorful, and there are enough silly scenes in the movie to keep you laughing. This 3D animation is the fourth in the Despicable Me film franchise and Illumination Entertainment’s eighth animated film. It will be followed in 2020 by Minions 2, and expect to see a Despicable Me 4 because this movie is doing very well at the box office.