Movie review - Despicable Me 2

Whoops, this is a delayed review after the excitement of all the work, travel, and bike falling. A sequel to the 2010 movie (which I don't seem to have reviewed), Gru (voice of Steve Carell) has retired from being a super-villain and is happily living the suburban life. Raising Agnes, Edith, and Margo, whom he adopted in the first movie, Gru's many minions and Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) are no longer developing evil weapons and have been put to developing new fruit jams and general housekeeping duties. But a mysterious villain has stolen an entire secret laboratory and the Anti-Villain League (AVL) decides that Gru, paired with undercover agent Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) would be able to use his knowledge of villainy to identify the perpetrator.

It feels a bit funny saying this about a movie that's only 98 minutes long, but this was a fast-moving, action-packed film! Thinking back, there was a lot that happened throughout the movie that kept me laughing through out - whether it be suburban family competitiveness, what is the most macho possible way to die, to jokes about Australia being so damn far away. There were some bits that were cloying to me, but then, I'm a cold-hearted person :P

Basically, if you liked the first movie, you'll love this one. Why? Well the creators have taken what worked in the first film and expanded them in this one without going overboard. Firstly, the animation has maintained the distinctly bright appearance with retro styling of objects and plenty of fluffy unicorns. The voice actors and new characters are great fun, in fact, reading stuff about the movie, I would never have guessed that Benjamin Bratt, voice of new character Eduardo, was brought in after the character had already been fully animated! Fans of the minions will be thrilled as they absolutely provided what was the most random and hilarious part of the movie...

Their cover of All-4-One's early 90s song 'I swear'. 

SPOILERS IN THE VIDEO

I think we nearly all died laughing when that came on and we were certainly talking about it for days afterwards.

Solidly enjoyable, Despicable Me 2 is fun for all.
8/10