Despicable Me 3 Movie Review

Despicable Me 3 is the third installment in the hit Despicable Me franchise about reformed supervillain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) and his new wife, Lucy (Kristen Wiig), who are both Anti-Villain League agents. This time around, Gru, Lucy and their three girls are invited to Freedonia to meet Gru's long lost twin brother, Dru (also Carrell). While the violence is mostly cartoonish and silly (think super sized, sticky chewing gum; violent action figures, and dart guns), it does include high-tech weapons and a destructive super-sized robot with lasers. There are plenty of chases and explosions, and generally it feels a bit heavier on action than the previous movies. Language is mild ("loser," "failure," and "screw up," plus "boobs" in Minion-ese), but the minions occasionally look partially nude (buttocks, etc.), as do Gru and the movie's villain after a weapon blows off their clothes, leaving them strategically covered in pink bubble gum. As with all the Despicable Me films, you can expect strong messages about the power of family and friendship, as well as teamwork and communication. Lucy is a positive female role model, but the cast isn't particularly diverse otherwise.

Like the previous ones has been produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Studios. The film is directed by the same director of the previous deliveries Pierre Coffin. Alongside Coffin, the film also directs Kyle Balda who coincided with him in the spin-off "Minions" (2015). To this pair of directors also have been added Eric Guillon, director debutante that already has worked in several of the films of the franchise in the department of animation.

WHAT'S THE STORY?
In DESPICABLE ME 3, Anti-Villain League agents Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) and Lucy (Kristen Wiig) are now married. They team up to take down the latest supervillain to pose a worldwide threat: Balthazar Bratt, former child star of a short-lived 1980s TV show called Evil Bratt. Emotionally stuck in the '80s, Bratt (Trey Parker) wants to make Hollywood pay for cancelling his show and turning him into a has-been. Gru and Lucy successfully capture the diamond Balthazar was after, but they aren't able to arrest him. So the new head of the AVL fires them, leaving Gru restless and jobless. All but two of his minions leave Gru's side when he won't go back to being a villain, and then he's informed of something unthinkable: He has a long-lost identical twin, Dru (also Carell), who was brought up by their father (Gru thought he had died) in the foreign country of Freedonia. Gru, Lucy, and the girls set off for Freedonia, where they believe Dru to be the country's richest pig farmer. But then they discover that he's secretly hoping to be a villain like his late father and twin brother. Gru uses Dru and his secret lair full of high-tech weapons and vehicles to stop Balthazar, while Dru believes they're on a twin mission to become villains.

MOVIE INFO
Rating: PG (for action and rude humor)
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Kids & Family
Directed By: Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin, Eric Guillon
Written By: Ken Daurio, Cinco Paul
In Theaters: Jun 30, 2017
Runtime: 90 minutes
Studio: Universal Pictures
Cast: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Trey Parker, Russell Brand, Michael Beattie, Dana Gaier, Andy Nyman, Nev Scharrel