Steve Carell Makes a Lovable Villain in the Sweet and Funny Despicable Me

Last year, I saw a lot of previews for Despicable Me, as well as a lot of commercials making use of the little yellow minions who populate the movie. I was so taken with these odd critters that I got my picture taken with them in the display at my local theater. Somehow, though, I didn’t see the movie until this week. I’m glad I finally got around to it.

I’m generally a fan of Steve Carell, whose career has consisted largely of him playing roles in which he is some sort of lovable loser. That’s the case here as well, but this time, he’s a super-villain named Gru. He’s certainly got the equipment for it; he has an enormous secret lair under his hazardous home, and he oversees thousands of minions, strange jabbering humanoids who are super-short and resemble yellow pills. He rumbles through town in an enormous metal contraption, and every time someone annoys him, he whips out his freeze ray and makes a popsicle out of him. But as the movie begins, he’s bemoaning the fact that a younger villain has pulled off the amazing feat of stealing the Pyramids, and suddenly all his accomplishments look pretty paltry. He needs to think big in order to compete, and what could be bigger than the moon? Indeed, Gru has been obsessed with the moon his whole life, and his plan to steal it, with some help from a shrink ray, is the culmination of that fixation.

Carell puts on a thick Russian accent for Gru, who is grumpy and anti-social but really not prime super-villain material. His hideous dog steals his food and chomps on his arm without repercussions. He leaves money in the tip jar at the coffee shop. He expresses concern for his minions’ job prospects when he believes that his plan is a bust. And whenever he’s in the presence, even by phone, of his severe mother, voiced by Julie Andrews, all of his boyhood vulnerabilities and disappointments come rushing back to him. He desperately wants her validation.

When Vector (Jason Segel), the twerpy, tracksuit-wearing villain who pulled off the Pyramid heist, gets ahold of the shrink ray Gru needs, he realizes that it’s going to take some fancy maneuvering to retrieve it. How can he get inside that fortress? Enter clever, cynical Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), mischievous, disaster-prone Edith (Dana Gaier) and adorable, affectionate Agnes (Elsie Fisher). These three orphan sisters live in a home run by sugary-sweet but sadistic Southerner Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig), who is eerily reminiscent of Dolores Umbridge, one of the most bone-chilling villains in the Harry Potter universe. She forces them to spend their days peddling cookies, and Vector has a sweet tooth, so Gru decides these girls are his ticket to the access he needs. He adopts them merely as a means to an end. But then a funny thing happens. He starts to get attached to them…

It was pretty obvious from the previews where this story was leading, but that didn’t make getting there any less fun or endearing. This computer-animated movie is visually attractive and filled with sight gags, particularly whenever the minions are on screen. These little guys all look pretty similar, yet each one has a distinct feature or two, and they’re always squabbling or goofing around or creating something in the background, always in the same incomprehensible language. Some of the movie’s most laugh-aloud moments involve them. Gru, meanwhile, is a terrific character, too easy to sympathize with to be repulsive. Each of the girls, so thrilled to have a home at last, reacts to him differently. Agnes adores him instantly, while Edith delights in defying him and Margo is afraid to get too close to him. His interactions with the girls are hilarious but often strangely sweet.

I rented this from Netflix, and I had a strange experience I’d never encountered before. I couldn’t play the bonus features. Instead, a message filled the screen, informing me that I would need to buy the DVD in order to watch the extra features. Is that unique to this movie, I wonder, or will this soon be a commonplace practice? I don’t tend to be that interested in bonus features beyond deleted scenes, but I still found it disappointing. However, the movie itself was every bit as entertaining as I’d hoped it would be. As touching as it is funny, Despicable Me isn’t despicable at all.

"Your Kids Have All Really Touched Me, and I'm Pretty Sure I've Touched Them."

I had never heard of Jack Black until 2002, and my first exposure to him was in the dubious vehicle of an MTV parody of the Council of Elrond. My next was in Shallow Hal, which I expected to find really crude and stupid but was surprised. Thus encouraged, when I saw the previews for School of Rock and thought it looked like a cute movie, I decided to go for it. While I encountered strong echoes of both Sister Act movies, I didn’t mind, and given the direction of the film, I doubt they were intentional.

Jack Black stars as Dewey Finn, a burn-out wannabe rock star – recently booted from the band he founded – who loafs around his timid, good-natured friend Ned Schneebly’s (Mike White) apartment and refuses to get a day job, much to the annoyance of Ned’s snippy, career-driven live-in girlfriend, Patty (Sarah Silverman). Motivation to make a quick buck arrives in the form of Patty’s shrill ultimatum that he pay up his part of the rent or get out, and opportunity knocks when a prestigious private school comes calling for Ned, a substitute teacher, to take over a class for several weeks. Dewey has no experience whatsoever, but $600 a week sounds pretty good, so he impersonates his friend in order to score the “gig,” and the fun begins.

Some suspension of disbelief is necessary while watching this film, especially early on. Dewey comes across as so completely incompetent, no way would any real-life administrator hire him. But it does make for some amusing moments. Once he meets his young charges, it’s clear that they are no fools; they smell a rat, even if uptight principal Rosalie Mullins (Joan Cusack) doesn’t. But they are willing to give their clueless substitute a chance, and when he discovers that several of them happen to be talented musicians, he finds a way to connect with them – and maybe gain a little bit of fame in the process.

The kids are engaging, and we get to know several of them fairly well throughout the course of the film. There’s goody-goody Summer (Miranda Cosgrove), the Hermione of the class; Lawrence (Robert Tsai), the shy, nerdy pianist; Zack (Joey Gaydos Jr.), the guitarist whose father disapproves of rock and roll; Freddy (Kevin Clark), the percussionist with a bad attitude; Billy (Brian Falduto), the effeminate costume designer; Tomika (Maryam Hassan), the insecure singer; and others. Their interaction with their initially delinquent teacher is delightful, and the musically inclined ones of the bunch are impressively talented. I’m reminded of Sister Act with the premise of a person going incognito in a job for which he seems particularly unsuited and eventually becoming a far better person for the experience. Its sequel comes to mind, meanwhile, as the children prepare for a major non-school-approved musical contest.

I confess I find Joan Cusack inherently annoying, and such is the case here, but her character is at least ultimately sympathetic – reminiscent of the harsh administrator in Anne of Avonlea whose shell Anne finally manages to crack. She’s not nearly as irritating, however, as Ned’s girlfriend, and I felt terribly sorry for the poor guy who is so used to being utterly ignored by women that he’s grateful for the absolute shrew he is stuck with. We don’t see a lot of Ned, but when we do, he’s most endearing.

All in all, School of Rock is a sweet film about the power of music to change lives, and while it’s not quite as compelling as Mr. Holland’s Opus, it should still do the trick in getting people to appreciate the importance of having active music programs in schools. The laughs and the message, together with a great cast, earn School of Rock an A from me.