I was worried going into Despicable Me 2. The first film wasn’t exactly a “breath of fresh air” but it was somewhat original. It was funny and heartwarming. I was worried the sequel didn’t really have anything to say and would sort of wind up going in the Cars 2 direction of creating a decent story but not feeling true to the original.
Fortunately my fears were unfounded. Despicable Me 2 builds on the first film very nicely and in a way that feels honest and true to the characters. Picking up a little while after the events in the first film we have Gru and his trio of girls settling into their family unit nicely. Of course this is going to be disturbed – Margo, the oldest is discovering the opposite sex. This, however, is background to the main plot of the film.
Somebody is pulling off some major villainy and Gru is recruited, rather unwillingly, to investigate matters. Plot-wise Despicable Me 2 is a bit more straightforward than its predecessor, but that works largely in its favor. Instead we get to explore a bit more of the characters. The agent assigned to oversee Gru’s investigation into the villainy is Lucy, who proves not only to be able to hold her own against the (ex-) criminal mastermind but the chemistry is such that she could be a love interest.
Further exploring the character of Gru is his relationship with Doctor Nefario, his chief henchman. Since things have changed, going from a life of crime to the straight and narrow, it’s not necessarily what he signed up for and there is tension between the two. Of course the minions steal the show and reportedly they are getting their own movie in a couple of years.
Trading that character exploration for predictability may have been a gamble but it paid off. Despicable Me 2 stands tall next to Despicable Me and I enjoyed watching it with my kids.
On Blu-ray we get 3 new “mini-movies” (uh, Universal, these are called “shorts”) for a total of 15 minutes. Honestly, if these things came out at regular intervals I wouldn’t be upset. Universal should make a bunch of these and show them in front of other feature films. And there is a short featurette on the making of these shorts. An audio commentary is present with the directors, the kids won’t be interested in that. They may be interested in the various featurettes but they are artificially chopped up int o little pieces it is almost not worth bothering. Really, why can’t we just have one extensive “making of” featurette instead of half a dozen ones that are 5 minutes or less?
And one deleted scene.
It certainly isn’t the best animated film of the year, but it does deserve a place on your shelf.