Despicable Me Is “Evil” (But Not Scary)

Last night, we went to see an advanced screening of Despicable Me along with several other Mom in the City readers and their families. If the members’ responses are a proper indicator, this movie is going to be a hit! Every single person whom I spoke to after the movie enjoyed it.

Oce concern that I had (and several parents of young kids expressed) was whether or not the film would be too scary because of the whole “evil”/superbad aspect. Let me reassure you, it’s not a problem. I think that any kid who is old enough to sit through a movie, will do just fine with this film. It’s more of a funny/comedic take on evil rather than a sinister one. Basically, villain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) attempts to become the world’s greatest super-villain by stealing the moon with the help of his funny minions. Along the way, he gets sidetracked by three adorable orphan girls. They worm their way into his heart and cause him to rethink his life.

I liked almost everything about the movie including the animation. The kids and I don’t usually wear our 3-D glasses all the way through 3-D movies, because there is just too much going on visually for us. Surprisingly, that was not the case for Despicable Me. The 3-D computer animation actually enhanced the movie’s storyline in subtle ways. The only thing that I didn’t like about the movie was how Gru’s mom was portrayed. “Blame everything on the mom,” kept popping in my head, but at least her character softened up by the end of the movie. Overall though, I really enjoyed Despicable Me. (My husband and sons all loved it too.) The movie will be released on July 9, 2010 and I have a hunch that your kids will think that you are pretty super if you take them to see it (mines did!). Meanwhile, here’s a little clip:

Thanks to Universal Pictures for providing the passes to the advanced screening for my family and 100+ Mom in the City readers and their family members!