Despicable Me 2

It seems that every major computer animation studio has its "Flagship Franchise". Having coined this phrase, a Flagship Franchise by my definition must have at least two successful films. Pixar has "Toy Story", DreamWorks has "Shrek" and Blue Sky has "Ice Age". Illumination Entertainment now has the "Despicable Me" franchise as its Flagship. I was impressed by "Despicable Me 2". The minor flaw of the first film still remains however in that there was an imbalance between heart and humor. Interestingly enough, the tables are turned. The first film had more heart than humor where as the second film has more humor than heart. Don't misunderstand, there is sincere heart in "Despicable Me 2" and the laughs were very funny. The problem is that the jokes took center stage. Having said all that, this film was great and the 3D was impressive. The new characters were much better also.

The first movie was a little funny but this sequel had me laughing quite a lot more. I was hoping for a "lightbulb" moment from Gru though. Some of my favorite funny moments include the fart gun salute and Gru breaking into the bad guy's lair. I also love how Gru and Lucy are shown eating the secret salsa. More great gags come courtesy of the nacho hat and I like its reprise with Margo. This leads to another great gag when Gru gets back at Antonio on Margo's behalf. The greatest laugh came from the "I Swear" sequence. Having "YMCA" to complement that was pretty funny too. When I first saw the movie, I thought the cupcake icing made a reappearance when Gru had his minions painted but it turns out that he used actual paint. Too bad the filmmakers didn't think of that one because that would have been smart comedy. As I mentioned, even though the film was quite humorous, I did not sense a balance with the dramatic side of the show. The first film had a great center of three lonely girls who want a home and end up changing Gru's heart. The romance between Gru and Lucy was the center of this movie and it worked but it was not as endearing. This movie would have been amazing if the filmmakers had taken a little more time to create some additional heartfelt moments to balance with the great humor of the show. I may have had initial trouble accepting the voice that Steve Carrell chose for the character but nevertheless, Gru is now a full-developed character that is believable on screen. Kristen Wiig was in the last movie as Miss Hattie, the owner of the orphanage, and I was afraid that using her voice for a new character might not work but I was completely wrong. I should have known considering her SNL background and her performance on "How to Train Your Dragon". Lucy was such as great character in that her perkiness was unique. Throw in some great animation and she was this movie's scene stealer. Lucy is my favourite film character played by Wiig. The villain of this sequel was also much better than Vector. Al Pacino had finished recording his lines as the voice of Eduardo but then he left the project. Benjamin Bratt stepped in to re-voice the character even though much of the animation had already been completed. He was effectively dubbed in and you really couldn't tell so that is noteworthy. All three little girls are played by the same actresses as the last film but Elsie Fisher has aged a little and I can tell she is more comfortable with voice acting this time around. Anges was the scene stealer in the first movie mostly because Fisher was brand new at acting. Anges is still cute in the sequel thankfully and her zombie voice was very funny but because Fisher is a tad older and more at ease with her character, what made Anges completely genuine in the first film is somewhat lost. I shouldn't be so picky though because she still stole the show. Steve Coogan, from "Night at the Museum", did well as Ramsbottom by the way.

"Despicable Me 2" did very well at the box office because it remains one of the top ten highest grossing animated films of all time. Pharrell Williams returned to write songs for this movie and one of them, "Happy", became a #1 hit in 24 countries after he included the song in his second album later the same year. I bet that when people watch "Despicable Me 2" decades from now, they will think the song came before the movie because of the song's popularity but "Happy" was written specifically for this movie. The song easily received a nomination for Best Original Song at the Oscars and the film itself was nominated for Best Animated Feature. "Frozen" however was even more successful during the Christmas season of 2013 when it became the highest grossing animated film of all time and so those Academy Awards ended up finding their way to Disney. Margo's T-shirt seemed to once again give a clue as to a future film from Illumination Entertainment but so far, it has yet to be realized. It appears that all the original main crewmembers returned to make the sequel so that is great. While the humor overshadows the heart of this movie, "Despicable Me 2" is genuinely funny and also provides a cute love story between two awkward people. I was hoping that this sequel might get better with multiple viewings just like its predecesor and the second time watching "Despicable Me 2" was fun but not as fun as the first time. I didn't have much faith in the spinoff film from the start but to have it outgross "Despicable Me 2" hurt a lot and I believe it sends the wrong message. That was such a bad movie that I am afraid studios will become lazy in that they don't have to work hard to make millions. After seeing "Despicable Me 2", I had faith "Despicable Me 3". The spinoff caused me to lose a lot of that faith but thankfully, the third film was decent.

4 Stars