Despicable Me 4 – A Decent (Potential) Send-Off

The saga of supervillain Gru and his cutesy yellow minions has now gone on across 4 films and 2 spinoff films, starting with 2010’s Despicable Me. An animated children’s film franchise has entertained countless audiences for 14 years, that schtick, still a surefire hit with younger audiences, is starting to get old. Where their stories have slowly lost their importance, the plan seemingly has been to trot out the minions as much as possible and let those hijinks lead the way (the minions-based spinoffs consist solely of this). A formula that could understandably get old for some, it is one that still kind of works after all this time. Despicable Me 4, the fourth film in the main franchise, does a decent job at running it all back. Though not without flaws, it delivers what could very well be a send-off for the franchise. However, a feeling of skepticism is inevitable when it comes to whether or not this is really the end. While there is an argument about how it may or may not be getting old, one indisputable fact about this film is its animation as Illumination continues to bring it. That being said, one can’t help but have wanted them to do more interesting things with it.

Despicable Me 4 saw Gru (Carell), Lucy (Wiig), and their family welcome a new addition in their baby boy, Gru Jr.. Sharing a complicated relationship, Jr. perhaps took more after his father than he realized, withholding any kind of affection in favor of tormenting Gru in every way possible. Settling in as a family unit, their lives found themselves turned upside down after Gru’s highschool nemesis Maxime Le Mal (Ferrell) escaped an AVL (Anti Villain League) prison and set his sights on he and his family. A dynamic built on deep seeded revenge and resentment, Gru had to set his feelings aside and put his family first by uprooting their lives by going on the run and moving them to a new city. Moving in next to the Prescott family and assuming new identities and new lives, that adjustment period proved difficult, especially for Lucy, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Skyy Polan). Those new circumstances brought upon entertaining albeit predictable moments of drama bolstered by plenty of strong humor that didn’t amount to much in the grand scheme. Gru, on the other hand, found himself caught in young Poppy Prescott’s (Joey King) aspiring-supervillain scheme.

As Maxime, and his devious girlfriend Valentina (Sofía Vergara), lurked on the horizon, hunting for Gru, the AVL worked on their own plan to capture him. Only taking a core group of minions (Coffin) with him, the remainder of his minions moved there to work for Silas (Steve Coogan). The new home for their antics, their subplot eventually worked itself up to something entertaining as a few brave minions volunteered (or one volunteered and the others went along with it) to be part of the AVL’s super agent program. Injected with a special serum, those minions were given unique superpowers, forming a superhero team of sorts on paper. In reality, that experiment failed hilariously as their powers did not change what they were. The ‘Mega Minions’ made for a nice detour from the main storyline and were easily the best part of the film despite what little time they actually had.

It was only a matter of time until Maxime and Valentina caught up to Gru and his family and once they did, they were not alone. In the end, the endgame was Gru Jr., the one thing that would hurt Gru the most. Having quite the combative relationship over the course of the film, given the chance to spend more time together, that bond only further galvanized through their shared adversity. Though the outcome of the story was clear, their back-and-forth was fun to watch, which only made it hit harder. Ultimately, it was all about setting the franchise up for what could be the end, giving it a fitting, all-encompassing send-off final sequence. Meanwhile, in the animation department, Despicable Me 4 continues to bring it. As bright, colorful, and crisp as audiences have come to expect from the franchise and Illumination, the added wrinkle of the ‘Mega Minions’ helped change things up. Similarly, the voice acting was strong in terms of cast, but a mixed bag in terms of performances as many of them are wasted. Carell, Wiig, and Coffin continue to lead the way, however, the likes of Ferrell, Vergara, Stephen Colbert (Perry Prescott), and Chloe Fineman (Patsy Prescott) are wasted in roles that fail to utilize their talents.

At the end of the day, Despicable Me 4 is a decent potential send-off for the series that simply runs back the same schtick one more time with a meaningless story and a wasted supporting cast.

still courtesy of Illumination and Universal Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.