Less family, more minions in ‘Despicable Me 4’
Despite a new child, Gru Jr., themes of family typically seen in the Despicable Me movie series fall apart in favor of focusing on a new cockroach-themed, high school rival villain in “Despicable Me 4.”
This movie, the fourth “Despicable Me” and sixth in the series overall, is being released seven years after the last film in the franchise. Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), newly reinstated to the Anti-Villain League after being fired and rehired in “Despicable Me 3,” has settled into a comfortable routine between work and trying to connect with Gru Jr., who seems to hate him.
Unfortunately, nothing good can last. Gru and his family are forced to flee to a safe house in the preppy town of Mayflower after he garners the wrath of his high school nemesis Maxime Le Mal (voiced by Will Ferrell) by arresting him at their School of Villainy reunion. Shortly after his arrest, Maxime breaks out of prison, vowing to exact his revenge on Gru by kidnapping his infant son, Gru Jr.
Oddly, Maxime’s villainous niche is cockroach-themed. Not only has he turned himself into a sort of human-cockroach hybrid and created a ray that can do the same to others, but he seemingly communicate tricky-to-kill creatures.
Within the “Despicable Me” universe, Maxime stands apart as a villain because his theme does not make much sense. For example, the characteristic items of Balthazar Bratt (voiced by Trey Parker) from “Despicable Me 3” (’70s-esque purple blazer, bubble gum and keytar) are remnants from his canceled television show that caused his descent into villainy. Unlike Bratt, Maxime’s cockroach approach has nothing to do with his backstory. Cockroaches, a strange choice to be featured in the film, leave the audience scratching their heads.
Forced to leave their homes, Gru’s “gorls” are understandably upset about the change. Margo (voiced by Miranda Cosgrove) is nervous about making new friends at school and Agnes (voiced by Madison Skyy Polan) is afraid her also with can the pet goat Lucky, who they must leave behind, will forget her. Edith (voiced by Dana Gaier) is characteristically nonchalant. However, the three girls who the first “Despicable Me” movies focused so much on are shoved to the side in favor of super villainous action and comedic shots of the minions. It would be better if these plot points weren’t introduced instead of having them fizzle out.
While Gru and the family are gone, the minions are taken in by the AVL. Five minions “volunteer” to be test subjects for a superserum to turn them into “megaminions.” Despite being one of the biggest selling points for the movie in advertisements, the megaminions don’t get a ton of screen time. However, whenever they are on screen, they engage in classic minion shenanigans amplified by the clumsiness of their new powers. They try to rescue cats, stop runaway trains and retrieve stolen purses but end up making the situation much, much worse. The most consistently satisfying piece of the movie series, the minions don’t disappoint.
Meanwhile, back in the idyllic town of Mayflower, the neighbor girl Poppy Prescott (voiced by Joey King) reveals she knows Gru’s identity as a former supervillain. The pink-obsessed teenager also has lofty goals of supervillain-dom and acceptance into the School of Villainy, so she blackmails Gru into helping her pull off a heist: stealing the school mascot from his alma mater. When he obliges and sneaks Poppy into the school, bringing Gru Jr. along, everything — of course — goes wrong and chaos breaks loose.
Overall, “Despicable Me 4” has the classic slapstick humor from the minions for younger kids and some jokes for the older folks in the crowd about retirement funds, country clubs and plant-based milk alternatives. It begins with big promises to tackle how scary change can be, from schools to jobs to leaving things behind, but falls flat in tying those storylines up. Frustrating, considering we have been given this before, in “Despicable Me.” But is it trying to make a statement, or simply to make the audience chuckle?
(Tribune News Service)