The Despicable Me franchise is now 14 years old, if you can believe it, and is the 6th film in the franchise counting Minions and Minions: The Rise of Gru into the mix. In this 4th outing, which takes place just after the events of Despicable Me 3, Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) revisits his old villain school, Lycee Pas Bon, for a class reunion where he is reunited with his old school rival, the French accented Maxime Le Mal (voiced by Will Ferrell). Trying to one-up Gru, who had stolen Maxime’s song for the talent show years ago, Maxime reveals that he has made himself more powerful by mutating himself with cockroach parts. Unbeknownst to his old classmates and Maxime though, Gru is an Anti-Villain League/AVL agent, sent to the class reunion to capture Maxime, which he does with help from a team of AVL agents. Despite being captured and imprisoned, Maxime escapes the AVL’s prison with help from his girlfriend, Valentina (voiced by Sofia Vergara), and vows revenge on Gru and his family.
Gru is happily living at home with his wife and fellow AVL agent, Lucy (voiced by Kristen Wiig); their 3 adopted girls, Margo (voiced by Amanda Cosgrove), Edith (voiced by Dana Gaier), and Agnes (voiced by Madison Polan); Lucky, Agnes’ pet goat from the 3rd movie; his new baby son, Felonious Gru, Jr., or Gru Junior (voiced by Tara Strong); and 3 of the Minions: Kevin, Stuart, and Bob (all voiced by Pierre Coffin), who have stayed behind to be with Gru and family. Their happy life is upended by former AVL head Silas Ramsbottom (voiced by Steve Coogan) who has come out of retirement to tell Gru and his family that Maxime has escaped and that they are now in danger and would have to be relocated via witness protection for safety. The family is whisked away to a town called Mayflower where Gru and family have assumed new identities. Despite the new identities, their new neighbors’ daughter, Poppy Prescott (voiced by Joey King), recognizes Gru since she herself is an aspiring villain. She uses her knowledge to blackmail Gru into helping her steal Gru’s villain school alma mater’s mascot honey badger, Lenny, to score brownie points for admission into the villain school.
With Maxine still on the hunt for Gru, this alone should have been the only plot for the movie, but it’s not. While Gru tries to deal with Poppy, he and the rest of the family are having problems adjusting to their new home and new identities having had to leave everything behind including Lucky, the goat. What’s worse is that Mayflower is full of rich and snooty snobs, including their next door neighbors, the Prescotts (voiced by Stephen Colbert and Chloe Fineman).
Meanwhile, all of the other Minions, minus the 3 with Gru’s family and the ones that didn’t go with Dru, Gru’s brother from the previous movie, have somehow been taken in by AVL to work for the organization. AVL recruits 5 of the Minions for their new experimental ‘super soldier’ program ala Captain America, which turns them into Mega Minions with powers you can probably pair up with matching heroes in one or more of the superhero universes. The experiment is a failure though since the Mega Minions end up destroying more than they save.
Being the 6th movie in the franchise, there are now a lot of characters in Gru’s life, besides the near infinite amount of Minions that seem to be around, and trying to incorporate them all into one cohesive movie plot is a bit overwhelming while trying to keep Gru in the forefront. All the extra subplots to incorporate the rest of Gru’s family and the main Minions armada are fun, but bog down the pacing of the movie. There are many sweet and funny moments throughout the movie though including Gru’s interaction with Poppy as well as Gru Junior. Gru is great with kids after all. Even though Gru’s relationship with Poppy starts out as antagonistic, through their planning and execution of kidnapping Lenny the honey badger, Gru and Poppy soon turn into teacher and student with mutual respect toward one another. Gru Junior starts out by being quite cold toward Daddy Gru who tries his hardest to make Junior to just like Daddy. Gru does eventually win Junior over just by being a loving and protecting dad. Maxine and Valentina are quite a wonderful pair of villains, and Will Ferrell’s performance as Maxine is stupidly great and over the top. It was also fun to finally see/hear Steve Carell partnered with his longtime comedy friend, Stephen Colbert, together again finally in the Despicable Me franchise. The Mega Minions, while a cute idea, is just a little gimmicky, and they just seem out of place in the storyline.
There hasn’t been any talk of a Despicable Me 5 yet, but Minions 3 has been slated to release in 2027. If there is another Despicable Me movie, please have a tighter script.
