DESPICABLE ME 4 movie poster | ©2024 Universal Pictures

Rating: PG
Stars (voices): Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Patrick Coffin, Joey King, Will Ferrell, Sofia Vergara, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Madison Skyy Polan, Steve Coogan
Writers: Mike White and Ken Daurio
Director: Chris Renaud; co-director, Patrick Delage
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Release Date: July 3, 2024

The animated DESPICABLE ME franchise began with the 2010 original, and has subsequently brought forth DESPICABLE ME 2 (2013), DESPICABLE ME 3 (2017), two MINIONS spinoffs (2015 and 2022), plus assorted animated shorts, theme park rides, and more.

Now there is DESPICABLE ME 4, which services multiple plotlines well enough. It’s amusing without being especially memorable.

Viewers who haven’t played close attention may need reminding that the main characters in the DESPICABLE ME series are actually reformed super-villain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) and his adopted (formerly orphaned) daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove, who has voiced the character in all of the films), Edith (Dana Gaier, who has also been voicing the character throughout), and Agnes (Madison Skyy Polan, new to the franchise, as she was not even born when the first two films were released), plus wife Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig, who has been voicing the character since her introduction in DESPICABLE ME 2) and a new baby.

The reason viewers may need reminding is that the most memorable aspect, by far, of the DESPICABLE ME films is the gaggle of anarchic Twinkie-shaped Minions. These creatures (voiced by original DESPICABLE ME co-director Pierre Coffin) are ostensibly Gru’s helpers. They are certainly on Gru’s side, and can save the day on occasion, but pretty much everything they do is by accident.

In DESPICABLE ME 4, Gru and his family are put in witness protection after his school-years archnemesis Maxime le Mal (voiced by Will Ferrell) breaks out of prison. Gru winds up with a teen neighbor (Joey King) who is keen to become a supervillain herself.

Meanwhile, Gru’s counter-terrorism bosses, headed up by Silas Ramsbottom (voiced by Steve Coogan) decide to make a squad of enhanced Super-Minions, which goes about how we might predict.

Indeed, even though most of what happens in DESPICABLE ME 4 is unexpected in the most literal sense (a la the Spanish Inquisition in MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS), once whatever it is begins, we can pretty much anticipate how it will go. Add a Minion to any situation and it will spiral out of control; nothing too ghastly will actually happen to anyone; family will triumph in the end, no matter what.

The most surprising factor may be in the conception of Maxime. Granted, he is an adversarial cartoon bad guy, and we expect them to be kind of icky, but Maxime has decided to emulate the indestructible cockroach. Tactically, this makes sense – that species has often been cited for its likely ability to withstand a nuclear holocaust – but in audience terms, this may be a bit bolder than DESPICABLE ME consciously intends. When you’re going for broad appeal, having a giant human cockroach (plus lots of regular cockroaches, albeit animated ones) on screen for large stretches of time is at least theoretically edgy (and possibly overly squicky for some).

There’s some pleasant whimsy here now and then, and the Minions are in their usual form. Viewing choice comes down to whether one wants essentially more of the same or not.

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