The Lowdown: If you loved Despicable Me, then you will love Despicable Me 2. Despicable Me 2 manages to be just as cute and funny as its predecessor, making it neither better nor worse.
1. The Plot: Gru (Steve Carell) has put his supervillain past behind him and has become a full-time father to Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Kate Fisher). However, the Anti-Villain League sends Agent Lucy (Kristen Wiig) to retrieve Gru. The AVL is tracking a top-secret serum that transforms organisms into violent, ravenous, purple monsters. They figure that Gru, having once been a supervillain, would know the tricks of the trade and be able to track down the serum. The AVL suspects that the serum is hidden in a mall complex, and they have a list of suspects. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. From the start, the operation is plagued with problems. When investigating the mall, Gru encounters Eduardo, a Mexican restaurant owner who he believes to be legendary supervillain El Macho (Benjamin Bratt). Gru becomes convinced that El Macho is the one who has the serum, but has no proof. In the meantime, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), Gru’s manufacturer of supervillain weaponry, resigns because he misses doing super-evil things. The ever-annoying Lucy decides to become Gru’s partner. Most worrisome of all, Margo falls in love with Eduardo’s son, Antonio (Moises Arias). Can Gru overcome his own relationship problems and save the day?
2. The Characters: There isn’t a whole lot to write home about since almost the whole cast returns from the first film and there is hardly any variation in the characters they play. If you loved the cast from the first film, then this film won’t change your opinion.
The odd squad.
The new additions to the cast are far more interesting. Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) is the quirky, spunky, and borderline-annoying Agent Lucy who becomes Gru’s partner in tracking down the evil serum. She functions as a love interest to Gru, and while it’s not the romance of the year, it’s adequate for a kids’ film. Benjamin Bratt (Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs) is Eduardo, the large and flamboyant owner of a Mexican restaurant. He’s a charming figure, but could he really be the infamous supervillain El Macho, the most macho supervillain ever?
By the way, he keeps a chicken as a guard dog.
In much smaller roles, Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder) is Silas, the head of the AVL and kind of a snobbish prick. The overexposed Ken Jeong (Pain & Gain) is Floyd, a wig-shop owner. Thankfully, Jeong isn’t overly hammy or annoying in this film, mostly because his role is so small.3. Minions: The adorable, nonsense-blabbing, yellow, gumdrop-shaped dudes that run around and usually get themselves into trouble are just as adorable and hilarious in this film as they were in Despicable Me. Walking into the film, I was worried that the filmmakers would overexpose the Minions. So much of the advertising for the film focused on the Minions and their wacky, slapstick-ish antics. Fortunately, the filmmakers don’t oversaturate the film with Minions, which keeps them from getting stale.
Presented without further comment.
The Bottom Line: Despicable Me 2 exudes the same amount of warmth, charm, and humor that the first film did, making it a very worthy sequel and an excellent animated film. Highly recommended.Despicable Me 2 is property of Illumination Entertainment. This review was written by me.
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