It is a delicate balance to produce a movie for kids, that also keeps the parents interested, and laughing. The Despicable Me franchise has managed to do this rather well, especially in the first film, and the one that began with the backstory of the Minions. This one is better than the last one, and clocks in at under two hours, which is just as well considering the attention span of the kids. Stephen Colbert plays Perry Prescott, the yuppie tennis player and is pretty hilarious, but as usual Gru=Steve Cannell is the real star of these films other than the Minions of course. Pharrell Williams is back doing the soundtrack, and its good, but nothing as catchy as ‘Happy’ in the first film. And of course there are several familiar rock standards in this case Sweet Child of Mine and Everybody Wants to Rule the World (the latter being the grand finale in a prison no less). The new bad guy was a classmate of Gru’s in school, who comes back to haunt Gru. Dr. Nefario makes only a cameo appearance. There are the usual chase scenes, the usual Minions bashing each other to pieces, with the funniest skit being about the Minion who gets trapped inside a vending machine, and is seen reading a book about how to prepare vending food! All in all this is a nice summer diversion in a summer lacking real blockbusters, and is good fun for the whole family. Interestingly, this one was scripted, animated and produced in France. Did Illumination move to Paris?
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