Gru and his crew are back!
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Everyone’s favourite yellow pill-shaped beings are back in Despicable Me 4! This is the fourth main installment and the sixth overall installment in the Despicable Me franchise. Featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Miranda Cosgrove, Stephen Colbert, Steve Coogan, Sofía Vergara, Renaud, Madison Polan, Dana Gaier, Chloe Fineman, and Will Ferrell.
Gru (the ever on-point Carell) is tasked by the Anti-Villain League (AVL) to arrest the supervillain Maxime Le Mal (Ferrell) at their alma mater. The arrest was a success but Maxime eventually escapes prison, vowing to exact revenge on Gru.
Carrell is widely beloved for voicing his character but may have just met his match in Ferrell who exudes the same level of exaggeration and unrecognisability in the way his character speaks. In high contrast is Sofia Vergara (the voice of Maxime’s girlfriend Valentina) who sounds indistinguishable.
The AVL relocates Gru and his family for their protection while the Minions are sent to AVL Headquarters, where five volunteer Minions were experimented on for the Mega-Minions program, equipping them with superpowers.
Not even superhero fatigue could deter this franchise from dipping their toes into what was once a most bankable genre. If anything, the Minions prove they can do it all, even if it’s a decade too late.
The family, now living in a well-off residential town, struggle to adapt to their new indentities. They meet their new neighbours, the Prescotts, and their teenage daughter Poppy. The latter recognises Gru and blackmails him into helping her steal the Lycée Pas Bon's mascot, a ferocious badger named Lenny.
Yes, it sounds like there’s a lot going on and yes, it can seem a bit much but despite its multiple branches, this sequel surprisingly works – narrowly escaping from being a convoluted mess by connecting all prongs together in the end.
One would think the Depsicable Me films would be nothing without the Minions, even with the way this film is marketed with the yellow pills in the forefront. But having seen this latest sequel, we are reminded that the franchise has a lot more to offer – most notably other fan-favourite characters like Gru and his adopted daughter Agnes. This is, after all, a Despicable Me sequel and not a Minions sequel so it was nice to see the former supervillain in the spotlight again.
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