Despicable Me 2 (2013)

"They never found the body after he entered the cinema for Despicable Me 2.

All that was ever retrieved... was a pile of singed chest hair."

 

Ba-na-na?

After the events of Despicable Me, Gru has moved on from his villainy ways and embracing fatherhood to his adopted three girls. When an entire laboratory at the Artic Circle is being stolen, Gru is brought in by the AVL (Anti-Villain League) to use his villainy expertise to hunt down the culprit. Partnering with an AVL agent, Lucy Wilde, he's not only back in his game of using big guns and cool gadgets but begins to venture down the love lane. Meanwhile, a sinister agent begins to mysteriously kidnap all his minions for a very sinister plot of world domination. Starring Steve Carell as Felonious Gru, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier and Elsie Fisher as his three adopted daughters; Margo, Edith and Agnes respectively, Benjamin Bratt as El Macho and Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, voicing the 10,400 Minions. Yes, it's that many minions.

ME-POH! ME-POH! ME-POH! SPOILERS AHEAD!!

I love this movie. It's one of the few good 3D animated film that's not belonging to Pixar (Pixar standards have dropped considerably). Almost as good as the first movie, what really drives this movie is its story... and its Minions. You just gotta love the adorable funny Minions. Story... the writers did a wonderful job in taking the character of Gru to a new place, to a new character development. We've seen him turning from a cold (possibly heartless) evil villain to a hero with a big heart when the three girls entered in his life. Now, with a woman coming into his life, his character begins to develop another step up. Technically, he's coming into the hero phase of "getting the girl." As for the three girls, there's not much of character development, you have Margo finding out that guys are jerk, Agnes having her heart desire fulfilled to have a real mother and Edith... well, just being Edith.

Gru's moving from the villain to the hero phase where he gets the girl.

The real stars of the movie are the Minions! Those yellow, short, spherical...beings really stole the show. They not only look cute and adorable, but their sound and actions are so funny. Unlike the first film, this time they come in all sort of costumes and even no costume or clothing at one point. I'm so glad they played a big part in the plot. And it made me feel sorry for them to see them turned into a mindless and heartless purple evil minion. But like every children movie, it all comes out well in the end. No minions were injured or killed in the process of film making. They especially stole the limelight at the end, singing their version of "I swear" as "Un-der Wear". It made all the audience in the cinema laughed. We can never get enough of them. We even begin to recognize them individually as the movie progresses. We know there's Dave the Minion who falls for Lucy and we know there's Kevin, the tall Minion who was in the golf wear and later in the Hula dancing costume, we got Tom who's the infamous French Maid Minion who would be the first to turn into the purple evil minion. Minion Madness!

 AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

If you didn't realise...

There were tons of memorable and funny moments in the film. Majority of them were Minion centered, but the ones that aren't, were how the way El Macho faked his death in a super macho way and how Lucy and Gru dealt with Gru's date. However, I don't dig the Fairy Princess Gru scene but the minions were there to wash that bad taste off by failing to vanquish the dragon and ending up fighting one another, and I would love to see more of their attempt at their magic trick performance. I also love the scenes with Eduardo's (El Macho) chicken, El Polito. When Lucy was strapped to the rocket and Gru was trying to untie her, I knew the rocket had to be launched somehow. I was half-expecting the launch button on the remote will be clumsily pressed by Gru or any of the minions. But when the chicken showed up, I burst into laughter, I just knew that he's going to hit the button to get his revenge on Gru and Lucy. Even the character Lucy Wilde had many good moments, her over-confident, yet sweet, cheerful and perky attitude came off really funny and cute at times. They make a good pair, Gru and her. The movie sold their relationship to me, that ultimately I was so happy to see their wedding scene at the end. Did I just spoil the movie for you? I did warn you that there's going to spoilers right?

Sweet cold chicken revenge...

"Hilarious," as Silas Ramsbottom puts it. I enjoyed this movie very much, and am looking forward to their next movie, a prequel, a Minions movie. I don't know how they can continue the story of Gru and his children, and this time with a wife. I hope they don't go down the road like Shrek and Ice Age did, where the main characters had to deal with their children growing up and all. They got to crack the story and get it right. Otherwise I would love to explore more of the world of Despicable Me. (Not so despicable, in the end after all) But you can never fail with Minions... Ultimately, Despicable Me 2 is an excellent story for a sequel, a lot of funny and hilarious moments, enjoyable from start to finish and minions everywhere, I give this movie an 8.5 out of 10 tons of TNT strapped to El Macho riding a shark into an active Volcano.

 MORE MINIONS!!! MORE!!!