3 out of 5

Director: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud

Harmless kid comedy that thankfully avoids base humor and keeps the laughs in a mellow range between smart and cute. Despicable Me doesnt break any new ground plot-wise, though its not supposed to – Steve Carell voices Dr. Gru, a villain who finds himself upstaged and a younger, newer villain. As part of his plan to try and regain the number one villain throne by stealing the moon, he picks up three cute little orphans. Perhaps these orphans teach him some kind of moral. What I liked about this movie were the way things were underplayed: the minions are unbelievably cute, and will probably save the movie for kids, but they are not over-used, and some of their wordless jokes actually require attention beyond giggling at their cuteness. Similarly with the orphans. It wouldve been easy for these three girls to be an overly sappy portion of the movie, but by staggering the ages they kept the roles responsible and primarily intelligent. Along these lines, the humor tread a nice path – nothing was hilarious, but nothing was just stupid, either, and some of it was impressively subtle. Carells character and the opposing villain arent too engaging but they suffice, as does the movie. Cuteness should keep the kiddies happy, adults should be entertained.