You're Despicable

I suppose my inner child is still alive and kicking, because in this weekend's movie showdown between the decidedly kid-oriented Despicable Me and the decidedly not Predators, I chose to see the former.

Despicable Me tells the story of a super-villain who begins to find his inner heart of gold when his latest scheme requires the assistance of a trio of little girls he takes into his care. It features a long list of good comedians, including Jason Segel (from How I Met Your Mother), Russell Brand (from Get Him to the Greek), Will Arnett (from Arrested Development), Kristen Wiig (from Saturday Night Live -- it's not her fault the writing there stinks), and Jack McBrayer (from 30 Rock). And of course, it's all headlined by Steve Carell.

In a refreshing change of pace for an animated movie, nearly all of these actors are affecting a character voice or accent of some kind. Even Pixar often falls into the convention of having top talent show up to just read into a microphone as themselves, so it's nice to see someone taking advantage of the animation format and having the cast ham it up a little.

But outside of that one aspect, Pixar overshadows this film in every way. It's kind of a shame for this movie that it was released in such close proximity to Toy Story 3, because it makes the inevitable comparison between Pixar and the new animation studio behind this film all the more easy to make. But the shame is that this really isn't a bad movie. It's actually a rather good movie that's just coming on the heels of a great one.

One thing that the makers of this movie grasp that the Pixar folks understand (and most other animated movie-makers still seem not to) is that there can be more to this style of movie than getting laughs. Despicable Me has heart to it in both story and execution. It does tap some deeper emotions (though yes, in between a few cheap jokes). If the funny parts aren't quite as funny, the more emotional moments not quite as emotional? Well, that's just the difference between a grade A movie like Toy Story 3 and this, which I'd call a B+ and still well worth considering.