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Despicable Me (film)

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Despicable Me
File:Despicable Me Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPierre Coffin
Chris Renaud
Written byKen Daurio
Cinco Paul
Story bySergio Pablos
Produced byJohn Cohen
Janet Healy
Chris Meledandri
StarringSteve Carell
Jason Segel
Russell Brand
Julie Andrews
Will Arnett
Kristen Wiig
Miranda Cosgrove
Dana Gaier
Elsie Fisher
Edited byGregory Perler
Pam Ziegenhagen
Music byPharrell Williams
Heitor Pereira
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • July 9, 2010 (2010-07-09)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$69 million[1]
Box office$544,513,985[2]

Despicable Me is a 2010 American computer-animated 3D comedy film from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment that was released on July 9, 2010 in the United States. The film stars Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, and Miranda Cosgrove. It is the first CGI feature produced by Universal, in association with its Illumination Entertainment division. It was entirely animated in the French studio Mac Guff in Paris, France.

The film earned positive reviews from critics, and grossed more than $251 million in the US, against a budget of $69 million.

Plot

Felonious Gru (Steve Carell) is a super-villain, operating out of his suburban home that serves as a front for an underground lair where he, his partner, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), and thousands of short yellow minions plan their nefarious deeds. When Gru learns that another super-villain has stolen the Great Pyramid of Giza, his pride is injured, and he plans an even greater heist, stealing the Earth's moon, a plan he has had since childhood but discouraged by his mother (Julie Andrews). The prospect is quite expensive, and Gru seeks out a loan from the Bank of Evil ("formerly Lehman Brothers", as it says on the bank door). The Bank's president, Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett), initially refuses to extend Gru a loan, noting that he is much older than the super-villains of the day, but offers that if he can secure a shrink ray, the critical part of Gru's plan, the Bank will give Gru his loan.

Gru is able to steal a shrink ray from a classified East Asia facility, but it is stolen from him moments later by Vector (Jason Segel), a nerdy super-villain who is responsible for the Pyramid theft. Gru attempts to break into Vector's lair but is easily defeated by the numerous defenses. Taking a moment to re-plan, he watches as three orphan girls, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher), enter Vector's lab with no difficulty to sell him cookies. Gru devises a scheme to use the girls to take in robotic cookies that can be used to disable the lair's defenses and allow him to steal the shrink ray. He adopts the three girls from the local orphanage, Miss Hattie's (Kristen Wiig) Home for Girls, falsifying his credentials, but has difficulty coming to nurture them properly between their own rambunctiousness, their ballet classes, and his own unwillingness to be a parent.

Gru is eventually able to set his plan in motion, and with the girls' help, retrieves the shrink ray. The girls suggest going to a theme park to celebrate, which Gru agrees to, seeing it as a way to abandon the girls. However, when he is forced to accompany the girls on one of the rides he finds himself coming around and enjoying his time. Gru and the girls spend the entire day at the park, Gru having warmed up to them.

With the shrink ray in hand, he contacts Perkins at the Bank and successfully shows his plan to steal the moon to him. Though Perkins is impressed by Gru's plan, he still refuses to give Gru a loan, stating that Gru's schemes always seem to fail and that the Bank is going to support a younger villian. Perkins then calls Vector, who is revealed to be Perkins's son, to his office and informs him that Gru has stolen the shrink ray from him. Encouraged by the girls who want to see Gru succeed by giving him the few coins in their piggy bank, Gru decides to scavenge parts from his lair to construct the rocket that will take him to the moon. Gru plans to launch on the day the moon is in the best position in Earth's orbit, but which happens to be the same day of the girls' ballet recital. Dr. Nefario feels that Gru is not focused in his mission and the girls are becoming the major distraction, so he calls Miss Hattie telling her that Gru wants to return the girls, which he sadly does when Miss Hattie arrives.

Gru launches his rocket and successfully shrinks the moon, and sees he has time to make it to the girls' recital. By the time he lands the recital is over, but Vector has left a ransom note, having kidnapped the girls and demanding the moon in exchange for the girls. Matters are made worse when Dr. Nefario realizes that "the larger the mass of the object, the quicker the effects of the shrink ray wear off". Gru instantly commits to the exchange but Vector reneges on the deal, taking both the moon and the girls in his own ship. As the shrink ray's effect wears off and the moon expands, Gru, Dr. Nefario, and the minions launch a rescue operation in mid-air. Gru and his allies are able to save the three girls just as the expansion of the moon engages Vector's ship hyper jump into space. The moon returns to its original size in its orbit, destroying Vector's ship and stranding him on its surface with a space helmet.

Some time later, Gru has readopted the girls and treats them as his family, and he writes them a bedtime storybook framed around his own experience. The girls perform their own ballet recital for Gru, his mother, Dr. Nefario, and the minions, with the movie ending as they all get on stage to dance.

Cast

Music

Main article: Despicable Me: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Release

Marketing

Sneak peeks were shown in episodes of The Biggest Loser. Despicable Me was also featured on Last Comic Standing when Gru comes in to audition. There has also been a minion that came in to audition, but he was mute for the duration.

IHOP restaurants promoted the film by introducing three new menu items, a kids' breakfast meal, and a drink all having the word "minion" in them.

Airheads (candy) Realesed packages of The Characters and came with a code for the Despicable Me (video game)

Best Buy released a free Smartphone application called "Movie Mode" that translates what the Minions are saying during the end credits. Special content can be unlocked from the application after seeing the film.[3]

Books

In May 2010, three books related to the movie were published, as well as the children's puppet book featured in the film. The first, My Dad the Super Villain (ISBN 0316083828), was rated as a preschool book. The second, Despicable Me: The Junior Novel (ISBN 0316083801), was rated as being a Junior Reader for ages 8 to 12. The third, Despicable Me: The World's Greatest Villain (ISBN 0316083771), was rated for ages 3–6 years. The puppet book Sleepy Kittens (ISBN 031608381X) was written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio and illustrated by Paul.

Video game

A video game titled Despicable Me: The Game was released for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii. A Nintendo DS version was released under the name Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. Namco also released a version for the iPhone and iPad platform entitled Despicable Me: Minion Mania, developed by Anino Games.[4]

Home media

Despicable Me was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on December 14, 2010.[5] The release included three new short films, titled Home Makeover, Orientation Day and Banana. Also, the website Minionmadness.com was launched to promote the home media release.

Reception

Critical response

The film has received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 81% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 185 reviews, with an average score of 6.8/10. The critical consensus is: "Borrowing heavily (and intelligently) from Pixar and Looney Tunes, Despicable Me is a surprisingly thoughtful, family-friendly treat with a few surprises of its own."[6] Among "Top Critics," comprising critics from the top newspapers and other publications, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 32 reviews.[7] Metacritic, another review aggregation website, assigned the film a score of 72%, based on 34 reviews from mainstream critics.[8]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film, awarding it three stars out of a possible four.[9] Other positive reviews came from Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone.[10][11]

In contrast, A. O. Scott of The New York Times disliked the film, stating "while there's nothing worth despising, there's not much to remember either."[12] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "there's nothing in this to engage an audience. Obviously, no one cares if this guy gets to remain as the world's top bad guy. Nor is this situation inherently amusing in a character way or even interesting in a satirical or sardonic way. There is simply nothing here, except a pretext for lots of labored, slapstick spy-versus-spy type shenanigans between the two 'villains.' Twenty minutes into "Despicable Me," nothing has happened."[13]

The film received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 68th Golden Globe Awards[14] and the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film at the 64th BAFTA Awards.[15] It also won a 2011 Kids Choice Awards for best animated movie.[citation needed]

Box-office performance

Released on July 9, 2010, in the United States, Despicable Me opened at the number one spot at the box office and pulled in $56.3 million, making it the third biggest opening grossing for an animated film in 2010 behind Toy Story 3 and Shrek Forever After.[16] In its second weekend, the film dipped to 42% to second place behind Inception with $32.8 million earned. The film then had another drop of 27% in its third weekend and finished in third place with $23.8 million. On August 5, 2010, the film crossed the $200 million mark, becoming the first Universal film to reach the milestone since 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum.[17]

On the weekend lasting from September 3–5, 2010 it surpassed Shrek Forever After to become the second highest-grossing animated film of 2010 in the United States and Canada, behind Toy Story 3. It is also the highest-grossing non-DreamWorks/non-Disney·Pixar animated film of all time in these territories. The film has made $251,513,985 in the United States and Canada as well as an estimated $290,500,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $543,010,705, against its $69 million production budget. This film is also Universal's sixth highest-grossing film (unadjusted for inflation)[18] and the tenth-highest-grossing animated feature of all-time in North America.[19] In worldwide earnings, it is the sixth biggest film of Universal Studios,[20] the fourth-largest animated movie of 2010 trailing Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After, and Tangled, the 16th largest animated film of all time and the 9th highest-grossing film of 2010.[21]

Awards and nominations

  • Best Animated or Mixed Media Film (nomination) lost to Toy Story 3

Sequel

Chris Meledandri has said that a sequel is in the works.[22] It is scheduled for release on July 5, 2013.[23]

References

  1. ^ "Despicable Me (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  2. ^ "Despicable Me - Box Office Date, Movie News, Cast Information". The Numbers. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
  3. ^ Terrell, Kenneth (July 14, 2010). "Fun With Phones: Despicable Me's Best Buy Movie Mode App". Washington Post. Retrieved July 20, 2010. {{cite news}}: More than one of |work= and |newspaper= specified (help)
  4. ^ "Despicable Me: Minion Mania". iTunes. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
  5. ^ Calonge, Juan (2010-09-22). "Despicable Me Blu-ray and 3D BD Announced". blu-ray.com. Retrieved 2010-11-22.
  6. ^ "Despicable Me Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
  7. ^ "Despicable Me – Cream of the Crop". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
  8. ^ "Despicable Me Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  9. ^ Ebert, Roger (July 7, 2010). "Despicable Me". rogerebert.com. Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  10. ^ Travers, Peter. "Despicable Me". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
  11. ^ Phillips, Michael (July 8, 2010). "Despicable does battle with itself, but sentiment wins in the end". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
  12. ^ Scott, A. O. (July 9, 2010). "Despicable Me Lunar Toons and Cookie Capers". The New York Times. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
  13. ^ LaSalle, Mick (July 9, 2010). "Review: Despicable Me". SFGate. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
  14. ^ Reynolds, Simon (December 14, 2010). "In Full: Golden Globes – Movie Nominees". Digital Spy. Retrieved December 14, 2010.
  15. ^ "'The King's Speech,' 'Black Swan,' rule BAFTA nominations".
  16. ^ Ray Subers (July 12, 2010). "Weekend Report: 'Despicable Me' Dominates, 'Predators' Solid But Unspectacular". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com.
  17. ^ Ray Subers (August 6, 2010). "Seven-Day Summary: 'Inception's Reign Continues". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com.
  18. ^ "UNIVERSAL All Time Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2001-08-26.
  19. ^ "Animation". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2001-10-06.
  20. ^ "WORLDWIDE GROSSES". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-10-26.
  21. ^ "2010 Worldwide Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
  22. ^ "Chris Meledandri's Illumination Game Plan Includes 'Despicable Me' Sequel, 'Minion' Spinoffs, Dr. Seuss, The Addams Family". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
  23. ^ "Universal Dates Savages, Despicable Me 2 and Oblivion". ComingSoon.net. 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2011-06-18.
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