Viva The Villain: A Review of Despicable Me

Vector

Gru himself has a Eurotrash quality: scarf lazily draped around his neck, oversized turtleneck, skinny black pants and long pointy shoes. He could be any Eastern European architect or designer you know — armed with dastardly schemes and the armies of support staff to enact them, of course. And here, the armies themselves, called “minions” in the film, represent an entire new genre of visual form and character development. Optimizing the slow burn of Pixar’s Luxo Jr., they careen across the screen like burlesque honeybees. Part Oompa Loompa, part Lego block, minions are shape-shifting miniature yellow robots who multitask with beguiling skill. (In one scene, Gru shakes one until he snaps and self-illuminates: minion as glow stick, or in this case, instant flashlight.) They clobber each other with a Punch and Judy pokiness, make silly noises by the water cooler, and waltz about with the mindless intentionality of an Energizer bunny. But what really makes them irresistible is their mysterious language: minions seem to babble interminably in a kind of accelerated patter that sounds like a cross between Spanish, Japanese and your computer’s Zarvox setting upped to maximum warped speed. (Toddlers in minion costumes will be everywhere this Halloween: mark my words.)