TYPICAL ME
Despicable Me
***
Review by Paul Preston
“Despicable Me” is proof that if you do everything exactly like Pixar does it, you’ll succeed. You may know from my reviews that I’m a FREAK for all things Pixar. I think they’re the best storytellers in Hollywood and because their shot composition and other film elements are computer-generated, they’re underrated as some of the industry’s finest filmmakers. It didn’t take long for others to emulate them in a big way.
“Despicable Me” stars Steve Carell’s voice as Gru, a supervillain who is dealing with some low self-esteem in the wake of another rising supervillain (Vector, played by Jason Segel’s voice) doing bigger and better things. In an effort to steal ideas from his upstart nemesis, Gru adopts a trio of girls to gain access to his opponent’s home, only to have his heart undone by the young orphans.
This is the first film released under the Illumination banner, a new studio founded by former Fox Animation frontman Christopher Meledandri. With movies like the “Ice Age”, “Robots” and “Horton Hears a Who” under his belt, he knows how to make a hit. But with “Despicable Me”, it seems Mel (what I call him) is out to dig deeper than the goofy laughs delivered by his previous films. Cue the Pixar formula. And this is tough to do, ‘cause Pixar doesn’t really have a formula.
The ’89-’99 decade of Disney dominance of 2D animation had a formula. It worked, but was still formulaic to itself – young lead looking for independence (mostly a girl – Ariel, Jasmine, Belle), score & songs by a Broadway veteran (Menken, Rice, Schwartz), cute sidekicks (Meeko, Flounder, Terk). Pixar doesn’t really have a character or element that is signature to their success. Their themes vary from friendship, loss, change, individualism, responsibility, persistence, family pursuing your dream, humility and self-worth and lonliness. And the characters are rival toys one minute, to a lonely robot the next, and an old man, a dreamy rat, a superhero family and talking cars in between.
I suppose the one characteristic besides Randy Newman that makes more than one appearance in the Pixar catalog is heart. And it’s heart that made “How to Train Your Dragon” the best DreamWorks movie so far, and it’s heart that’s propelled “Despicable Me” to over $200 million at the box office this summer. It’s also a huge dose of heart that has made Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” the highest-grossing animated film of all time. My fear? If heart becomes too prominent a theme, there may be backlash! Maybe people will want to return to the detached irony of early DreamWorks Animation and the impressive-graphics-only Disney 2D animation of the ‘00s (“Treasure Planet”, anyone?).
OK, that will never happen, but here are two more thoughts on this recent wave of 3D animation:
– In the end, the emulation of Pixar by the other animation sudios is a really good thing!. Remember that ‘90s golden age of 2D Disney animation? Quick on its heels came TONS of other animated films – REALLY BAD ONES. You know how right when improv was reeeeaaally cool, the market got reeeeaaally saturated, and mostly bad? Remember how great YouTube was, and now every jagoff imaginable puts dopey, un-thought-out shit up there and it’s over-saturated? That’s how the 2D animation business got in the ‘90s in the wake of Disney – “Hey, we should do it, too!” That attitude led to:
“Rock-a-Doodle”
“Rover Dangerfield”
“Thumbelina”
“We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story”
“Balto”
“Quest for Camelot”
I fear that already, the 3D market, fifteen years after “Toy Story”, is saturated. “Open Season”, “The Ant Bully”, “Bee Movie”, “Space Chimps”, “Planet 51” and more films like them are mucking up the animated film scene today. So if more movies figure they better have more developed and intricate stories and loads of heart if they’re going to keep pace with Pixar, that may boost the overall quality of the genre.
– However, all through “Despicable Me”, you can’t help but think of “The Incredibles” over and over again. The production design is similar, the characters are similar, the theme of family runs through it. The difference? “Despicable Me” still relies on phrases like “chillax” to get its point across. This keeps the movie from being timeless. I know, “timeless” is a LOFTY goal for your film to achieve. But think about what goes into the timeless animated films of our time. It’s not hipster gags and pop culture references. And if you’re participating in the “golden age” of computer-animated movies, get timeless or get out.
So this is more of a rant about the current state of animation than a review of “Despicable Me”. As far as the Carell-voiced movie goes….it was pretty good.
Directed by: Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
Release Date: July 9, 2010
Run Time: 95 Minutes
Country: USA
Rated: PG
Distributor: Illumination Entertainment
