- Despicable Me 4
- Directed by Chris Renaud
- Written by Mike White and Ken Daurio
- Featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Will Ferrell and Pierre Coffin
- Classification G; 94 minutes
- Opens in theatres July 3
Our summer movie season is now established, and has an appearance that promises fortune; but in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes and Minions. Not to bite Benjamin Franklin too hard, but six movies deep into the Despicable Me franchise, I’m ready to wave the white flag and declare those pesky little yellow henchmen the founding fathers of 21st-century Hollywood. You’ve finally won me over, fellas! Or more accurately, you’ve beat me senseless into an adoring mush of banana-coloured pulp.
Yes, the Minions Kevin, Stuart and Bob – plus several hundred of their fellow pint-sized sidekicks – are back in the new animated feature Despicable Me 4, and causing roughly the same amount of chaos as in the first three movies, plus their two spinoff features. Yet, from my perch, the Minions’ antics have evolved from being mildly irritating merchandising opportunities to subversively slapstick-ian anti-heroes of the first order. Given that contemporary animated films operate on either one of two default modes – Pixar’s sentimental nostalgia or Disney’s theatre-kid mythology – there is something admiringly unruly about the Minions and their episodic anarchism.
Especially if the little weirdos are placed in such a bizarrely frenetic film as Despicable Me 4. The sequel isn’t a masterpiece of children’s entertainment by any stretch, but it is sufficiently bizarre and thrilling enough to turn the head of any kid, parent or – judging by my curiously populated press screening the other night – fully grown and childless adult around and around till the room resembles a Looney Tune.
Steve Carell reprises his role as super-villain-turned-super-dad Gru in Despicable Me 4.Illumination and Universal Pictures/The Associated Press
After encountering his vengeful old nemesis Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell) at a high-school reunion, super-villain-turned-super-dad Gru (Steve Carell) must enter the witness protection program along with his family, including a handful of Minions. While Gru has certainly faced off against imposing foes before, Le Mal is another breed – quite literally, as he has genetically modified his body with cockroach DNA, to genuinely grotesque results. And so begins a series of comical misadventures that are partly predictable, partly madcap and partly so intense as to require my four-year-old son to clutch my arm hard, despite having already mainlined the entire franchise several times over.
Its narrative duct-taped together with disparate pop-cultural homages – there are either deliberate or weirdly unintentional allusions to everything from The Simpsons’ episode “Cape Feare” to David Cronenberg’s The Fly to Ferrell’s own Step Brothers – the screenplay by Ken Daurio and new Illumination studio house scribe Mike White (Migration) is a total shamble.
But at least the film’s set-pieces are visually inventive – including an extended sequence in which a group of Minions receive Fantastic Four-esque superpowers – and the vocal performances are all fiercely energetic. Carell has by this point nailed Gru’s mix of boiling-point frustration and puppy-dog vulnerability, while Ferrell gives himself a refreshed spin on his old Zoolander villain. And as always, Pierre Coffin brings his own unique pipsqueak peppiness to the Minions, all while developing what might be the most famous fictional language since Klingon.
May the MCU – that’d be Minion Cinematic Universe – continue to expand. Or to paraphrase the words of Benjamin Franklin once more, love your Minions, for they tell you your faults.
Barry Hertz