Despicable Me 4 review β Gru goes into witness protection to keep Minion magic alive
Steve Carellβs everyvillain starts a dull new life but nemesis Will Ferrellβs Maxime Le Mal has other ideas
Hereβs something new in the saga of everysupervillain ordinariness featuring Gru the goofy animated megabaddie (voiced by Steve Carell), with his comedy bald head, pointy noise and foreign accent. We now reach the fourth film in the series; sixth, if you count the two spin-off films about his jabbering yellow sidekick minions.
This franchise from Illumination Entertainment has never come close to the inspired genius of its rival Pixarβs best work, despite the obvious indebtedness to Syndrome from Pixarβs The Incredibles; that mighty filmβs influence looks even more obvious now, as Gru and his family have to be moved to a new city and given witness-protection-scheme-type new identities by their faintly exasperated handlers. But it has to be said that the Despicable Me franchise has marathon stamina; it relaxes into its long-established characterisation and storytelling and only a snob would deny this filmβs unassuming consistency in delivering family entertainment. And this is, after all, the franchise that gave us the world-beatingly catchy Happy by Pharrell Williams, who returns to write songs for DM4.
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