OVP: Despicable Me 2 (2013)

Film: Despicable Me 2 (2013)

Stars: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand

Director: Pierre Louis Padang Coffin and Chris Renaud

Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Animated Feature Film, Original Song-"Happy")

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

I rarely catch sequels to films that I didn’t particularly care for, and the reason is that I feel like it’s rewarding a filmmaker for disappointing me.  There are of course exceptions to this rule-I saw all of the Star Wars prequels, mostly because I felt like I’d be left out of part of cinematic history if I didn’t.  I saw all of the Transformers sequels, but that was entirely driven by being a completist for the OVP.  And I saw the new Spider-Man, but that was due more to a healthy crush on Andrew Garfield more than anything else.

But as a whole, I don’t see the sequels to films I didn’t enjoy, which puts me in the minority it seems.  Look at the people who went out to see The Wolverine after the last couple of X-Men movies were wild disappointments.  I suspect that there would still be people who went to a Green Lantern or Daredevil sequel, even if they loathed the originals.  People like to see what’s familiar, and while that’s an article of a different color (or at least a different column), I wanted to point out that, were it not for my little cousin wanting to see the Minions and my other option for a seven-year-old being Smurfs 2, I probably wouldn’t have happened upon Despicable Me 2 unless it managed to show up on the Oscar animation shortlist (considering its mountainous Box Office, not necessarily an impossible case to make, even though its predecessor didn’t make the cut).

The film, which was a hot mess in its original format, if occasionally funny, finds us with Gru completely taken to the world of being a domestic father.  He’s given up his life of crime (a thin plot point, considering he was never believably vicious as a cartoon villain is supposed to be), and now balances parenthood with making disgusting jams and jellies.  He’s become a bit overprotective of his recently adopted daughters, who are interchangeably smart, tomboyish, and adorable (that might as well be their names), and of course a suave young man starts to woo the elder, bookworm girl.

The film also finds love for Gru, and in a plot point that was horribly offensive, he’s motivated to date her not just as much because he likes her (she’s played by Kristen Wiig-she’s hard not to like), but also because he wants a mother for his daughters.  I say offensive because these girls were orphans in the first film, and were adopted by this man from a cruel Mrs. Hannigan-style cookie salesman.  Shouldn’t he be enough?  I know that children aren’t rational, but the writers are, and did we really need this further push into heteronormative family structure, making Gru and his once promising character (I still think how odd but interesting those first few trailers for the original, and how we might finally get an animated antihero) into every other schmuck you see on the cartoon big screen.

The point of the film, of course, for anyone who is remotely aware of this film’s marketing campaign, isn’t Gru at all, but instead the adorable yellow minions that follow him around.  Here, at least, we have some fun.  The minion antics, despite an expanded presence, only occasionally get a bit tired, and they’re usually so visually arresting and fun that you can forgive them if they’re repeating jokes.  I loved that the potion that made them “purple and evil” (that heteronormative argument looking a little stronger there, oh symbolism fans?) still made them totally adorable and quite frankly, still super cuddly.  Animated films typically rely on great sidekicks and villains, and while they don’t deliver on the latter (El Macho would have been so much better had Al Pacino stayed as the villain rather than being replaced by the much softer-voiced, far-less-assured Benjamin Bratt), they at least have the former to carry us through the many dry moments.

Those were my thoughts on this unnecessary sequel (you can smell the inevitable Despicable Minions movie, can’t you?)-what are yours?  Do you wish that mainstream animated films would take more risks?  Do you think that this film would have gained from keeping Gru more on the evil side?  And are you pro or anti minion?  Share in the comments!