Despicable Me

I love this movie! It was so adorable, so charming & the writing was absolutely terrific! I love the animation & the characters (including the minions) were all fantastic! A MUST WATCH!

Since Toy Story 3 is in theatres, it's rather knee-jerk to compare Despicable Me to the animation giant. But you shouldn't. Despicable Me doesn't have the heavy, dark tones of the final Toy Story and, therefore, is probably better suited to smaller children. As with the best family films, though, adults will love this story as much - if not more - than their little ones.

And here's why. It is incredibly rare to see a single dad portrayed in such a positive light. While Gru has an admittedly "bad" vocation, there are unbelievably sweet moments between him and the three children, probably aided by the juxtaposition of tiny girls to a large, "bad" guy.

The nepotistic supporting cast from Saturday Night Live (even Jack McBrayer works for Tina Fey) is fantastic. One pleasant surprise was from Gru's minions: they did not steal the show. Not that they should've- the little yellow guys were funny and entertaining, but one would expect from the previews they would ultimately be the best part of the film... and I'm happy to report that wasn't true.

Despicable Me is LOL funny throughout, warm, goofy, and will not disappoint. I'd say you're a despicable parent if you don't take your kids to see it immediately.

When one pyramid of Egypt is stolen, the despicable suburban villain Gru feels frustrated since he considers himself the greatest criminal mind ever. However he plans to steal the moon, in the greatest heist of history, with the support of the evil Dr. Nefario and his army of minions. Gru intends to hire a loan in the Bank of Evil (former Lehman Brothers) to build a rocket and steal the shrink weapon to reduce the size of the moon. But the banker Mr. Perkins intends to invest in the young Vector, who actually had stolen the pyramid. When Gru robs the shrink weapon, Vector steals it from him and kept the weapon in his impenetrable fortress that is protected by state of art security system. Gru sees that the orphans Margo, Edith and Agnes from Miss Hattie's Home for Girls have full access to Vector's house to sell cookies. Gru plots a scheme, adopting the three girls to use them to recover the shrink weapon from Vector. But the three little girls change the behavior of Gru and his minions.

"Despicable Me" is a sort of contemporary version of the Charles Dickens' classic novel "A Christmas Carol" and a highly entertaining animation with one of the sweetest villain ever, three adorable little girls and a group of adorable minions. The story is not corny but human, and the jokes with Bill Gates that is the source of inspiration of the nerd Vector and with the investment banking Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. that declared bankruptcy in 2008 and affected the lives of small private investors are witty. In the end, Gru is not the criminal mastermind that he supposed to be. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Meu Malvado Favorito" ("My Favorite Meanie")