Gru meets his long-lost charming, cheerful, and more successful twin brother Dru who wants to team up with him for one last criminal heist.
Despicable Me 3 returns reformed supervillain Gru to the big screen alongside the Minions, while bringing back other characters from previous films and throwing a few new ones into the mix including Dru and the villain Balthazar Bratt.
Series mainstay Pierra Coffin is on board as director as he has been in the two previous films, alongside writer Ken Daurio, and the consistency in the creative talent behind the series is notable.
Despicable Me 3 is a great looking film, the animation is crisp, and the art style is effective in elevating the comedic sensibilities of the film. It’s highly entertaining and will struggle to find an audience that doesn’t have a fun time with it.
There are some fresh story ideas with the introduction of Gru’s brother Dru, not to mention an effective main villain that works as an inexhaustible resource for jokes and clichés that the film makes great use of. Balthazar is a standout character, similar to Jason Lee’s performance in the Incredibles all those years ago, Trey Parker’s take on the villain is excellent.
Overall the plot is generic and a bit uninspired, but the film’s use of its characters are what makes it work, they make it funny, entertaining, and allow for the comedic flourishes to shine. The Minions of course are used to capitalise on their popularity over the years and here they are used enough without oversaturating the film.
Despicable Me 3 is going to work well for fans of the series, the downside is that it doesn’t do anything particularly new. It bucks the trend in that it maintains the quality of what’s come before and on that basis alone it is an easy film to recommend. Kids and adults can get a laugh out of it, however it doesn’t manage its delivery of content for dual audiences quite as well as well as what’s been achieved elsewhere.
I’m giving it 6.5 out of 10, Despicable Me 3 is out in cinemas from Thursday 15th June 2017.
