Portly people on pencil-thin legs are funny. So are unintelligible but sentient Twinkie-colored tater tots. "Despicable Me," the wonderful, new animated film from Universal, uses both to great comic effect.
The portly person in "Despicable" is Gru, a past-his-prime super villain nimbly voiced by Steve Carell. The tater tots are his mischievous minions, tailor-made to become plush toys and Happy Meal denizens.
Carell's Gru - he looks somewhat like Fester Addams and sports a thick and indistinguishable Eastern European accent - is being replaced in the super-villain game by Vector, a nerdy, well-funded wannabe and Bill Gates look-alike whose weapons invariably and inexplicably consist of guns that shoot different sea creatures at his targets. Gru needs to purloin Vector's one decent weapon, a shrink ray, so that he can miniaturize and steal the moon.
He finds an entry into Vector's high-tech suburban fortress - watch for the almost-invisible sky-and-clouds-painted Great Pyramids, which Vector swiped, behind this dwelling - in the form of Margo, Edith and Agnes, a trio of orphans selling cookies door-to-door (Vector can't get enough of the Peanutties; I guess every villain has his weakness).
Gru takes the orphans in, but while he plots to steal the moon, the children plot to steal his heart.
"Despicable Me" is better with the funny business than it is at tugging the heartstrings. The children are all big eyes and charm, so it should be heartbreaking to see them rejected by Gru and returned to the orphanage to spend the night in cardboard boxes. And my chest should have ached when an empty chair took Gru's place at their ballet recital.
In a Pixar movie, such scenes would bring me to grown-man-weeping tears; "Despicable Me" can't muster quite the same emotional heft.
But that's okay, because it's really, really funny.
The film looks great. The characters are all richly drawn. And the world the animators have created, from the suburban settings to the "Spy vs. Spy" lairs and the amazing gadgets that are found inside of them, is fully realized. I'm not generally a fan of 3-D, but this film uses it better than any animated picture I've seen since "Coraline."
It's especially effective in a boardwalk carnival scene that includes a wild roller coaster ride during which Gru's Grinch-like heart begins to grow a couple of sizes.
And there's a ton of voice talent here. In addition to Carell and "iCarly's" Miranda Cosgrove as oldest orphan Margo, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Ken Jeong, Will Arnett, Kristen Wiig, Danny McBride, Jemaine Clement, Jack McBrayer, Mindy Kaling and even Julie Andrews make appearances. Now that's a party.
Some of the jokes will go right over kids' heads. For example, a sign at the Bank of Evil, where villains go to secure financing for their dastardly schemes, reads "Formerly Lehman Brothers." Writers Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul have packed the screenplay with these clever jokes and thoroughly milked the premise for laughs, and directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud keep the action moving at a breakneck pace that will thrill your kids.
If it makes you feel more evil, you can pretend you don't like this movie as much as they do. But I think you will.
'Despicable Me'
Our grade: B+
Genres: Comedy, Animated
Running Time: 95 min
MPAA rating: PG
Release Date: July 9, 2010
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