I think we can all agree that this summer’s movie selection has been a disappointment at best. As far as the animated summer films go, we’ve had a bit of a split decision. Shrek Forever After, the fourth installment of a once great series didn’t critically bomb as badly as its most-recent predecessor, but the consensus was that it just isn’t very good. On the other hand, the second animated feature of the summer was Toy Story 3, a great final installment of the series, a great overall film, and in my opinion, the best film 2010 has given us to date.

So when it came to the third animated film of this mostly dismal summer, Despicable Me, I wasn’t holding my breath for greatness. However, on a scale ranging from Shrek Forever After to Toy Story 3, I’m happy to say that it landed closer to the Toy Story 3 end of the spectrum.

"I will steal the MOON!"

Despicable Me is about a villain named Gru (voiced by Steve Carell, The Office) who devises a plan to steal the moon in order to ensure his name as the world’s greatest villain, when other villains, particularly a nerdy little villain named Vector (voiced by Jason Segel, How I Met Your Mother), begin to steal his thunder.

Meanwhile, we are introduced to three little orphaned girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes, who spend their days selling cookies for the tyrant who runs the orphanage where they live, and worrying that they will never be adopted by caring parents.

When Gru decides that he needs to use a newly developed shrink-ray gun to shrink the moon so that it can be stolen, he attempts to steal it from his rival, Vector. When he finds that Vector lives in a seemingly impenetrable fortress, he sees the three little girls invited right in by Vector, who wants to buy cookies.

Mardo, Edith and Agnes.

From here, Gru gets the idea to adopt these young girls merely to use them to gain access to Vector’s lair. As the girls enter Gru’s life of minions and villainy, Gru begins to change his ways.

Let me first clarify something I said in the beginning. When I said this film was more like Toy Story 3 than Shrek Forever After, I didn’t mean that I think this film is AS GOOD as Toy Story 3. That would be quite a feat. I just meant that Despicable Me is a good, enjoyable animated flick, that falls well above the low bar set by this summer’s releases. That being said, on with the review.

Gru and his minions.

Let’s begin with the voice actors. And there are a lot in this film. Steve Carell was great as Gru. He does some sort of strange Eastern-European accent which I thought would be annoying, but turned out to be subtle and perfect for the character, making him seem a bit like a Bond villain.

Russell Brand (Get Him to the Greek) played the voice of Dr. Nefario, the mad scientist and Gru’s partner in crime. I honestly didn’t even realize this was Brand until the credits reminded me that he was in this movie. Don’t get me wrong, the character was very funny, but Brand put on a much deeper voice and the character was not like character(s) we’ve been accustomed to seeing him play.

I think the best voice performance in the film came from Will Arnett (Arrested Development) as Mr. Perkins, the manager of the “evil bank”. Arnett has that great voice that sounds both menacing and hysterical at the same time. The instant Mr. Perkins spoke was the instant I started laughing at the character.

Jason Segel as "Vector"

As far as the rest of the voice actors go, Miranda Cosgrove, Julie Andrews, Jason Segel, Kristen Wiig, etc, they were just okay. Not really bad, but nothing to write home about either. I was kind of surprised Jason Segel wasn’t better as Vector. In my opinion, he is one of the funniest people in comedy today. But this character was just not that interesting or funny.

Now for the minions. The minions were gold. Every time they appeared on screen, the film immediately got funnier. I must admit, I was excited for the minions before the movie started, just from seeing the teasers. I was not disappointed at all.

The minions. The real stars of the film.

The plot of this movie is very funny and Gru is deliciously evil from the get go, notably when he walks past a young boy crying because he dropped his ice cream. Gru immediately takes out a balloon, makes a balloon animal for the boy, and just as the boy begins to smile again, Gru pops it. Classic cartoon villainy. And did I mention the minions are awesome?

My one complaint about the story is that, toward the beginning of the film, there is mention of villains—plural—who are doing heinous acts all over the world, but all we see is Gru and the newcomer villain, Vector. I think it could have been really funny to see some other outrageous villains in the film. Maybe it’s just me.

All in all, while not as good as Toy Story 3, Despicable Me is a very good animated feature that I would recommend for audiences of all ages. Go check it out in 3D before it leaves theaters.

Grade: 7/10

-Carlsberg