Despicable me

Despicable Me has been a critical and box-office success in 2010. It will be interesting to see whether this animated comedy looks as good in 2D as it did in 3D, for which its creative team (American) devised some cute set-pieces and crisply-drawn cleanly-executed (in Paris) colourfulness.

The titular Me is Slav-accented Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), a self-declared superbad villain who's been out-badded by a red-pyjama-ed youngster, Vector (How I Met Your Mother's Jason Segel). He stole the Great Pyramid; Gru counters with a plan to shrink and steal the moon.

His bank manager is not supportive, Vector steals the Far Eastern shrink gun Gru had stolen, and Gru's only hope of regaining it involves a trio of orphan girls who can gain entry to Vector's heavily fortified mansion. Back at Gru's home base, an army of yellow pill-shaped minions labour comically while a dour old English scientist (Russell Brand) invents bizarre robots.

Having to adopt the girls to make use of them, grumpy Gru is overwhelmed by their childish demands, taking them to a funfair in the hope of losing them (a grand pictorial excuse for high-flying 3D tricks). Obliged to read them a bedtime story (from an amusing three-fingered children's book), he eventually, of course, starts to like and love them and their ballet classes.

Can he steal the moon and attend their dance performance on the same day? Will his monstrous Eastern-European-accented mother (Julie Andrews) ever learn to respect him? Can Vector and his banker-father overcome Gru? Can he save the girls from Vector?

The plot is as childish as the forgoing indicates, and there aren't enough in-jokes for adults (one passing reference to Lehman Brothers' Bank of Evil is a cinematic swallow that isn't followed by a Pixar-style summer of witty wordplay for grown-ups). The movie, like the girls' assorted characters and the munchkinny minions, is very delikeable but not loveable enough to warrant a rave. It ends well, with inventive 3D in the minions' stretching efforts, and a sequel featuring them is inevitable.

And in 2D? It's better: undistracted by 3D effects, a viewer can revel in the brilliant tricks of the animator's trade, including some exceptional illusions of reflections (astronaut bowls), explosions, water, hair (strands) and eyes. Chosen angles are exciting, the trio of girls are neatly individualised, Gru's bad English is occasional fun and subsidiary characters are enchanting (orphanage matron, tourists at pyramid, differing minion characters). In an ideal world, this movie could be the years's animated Oscar winner and Toy Story 3 would get the Best Film award.