Ex-villain and mastermind Gru (Voiced by Steve Carell) returns to the world of criminal superhero activity. The film continues where Despicable Me 2 left off: Gru is currently spending life with his wife, Lucy, and his three little girls, continuing to fight against any villains. 

Gru’s world begins to fall apart after a mission to capture the well known 80’s child star turned villain, ‘Balthazar Bratt’ (voiced by South Park’s Trey Parker), results in failure. As a result of this mission, both Gru and Lucy are relieved of their duties. As Gru deals with many changes, he soon discovers his long-lost, charming, cheerful, and more successful twin brother, Dru (also voiced by Steve Carell), who desires to team up with his brother for one last criminal heist.

For me personally, I can understand why the ‘Despicable Me’ franchise has been successful. With a total of four films now (including the crafty spinoff prequel film ‘Minions’) Despicable Me has won fans with their continuous random humour (which you can mostly thank the Minions for). The films always end with a great message for children (and some adults). Similar to other successful DreamWorks films like Shrek, many of the jokes here will go over the heads of younger audiences and please the older cinema crowd. Our new villain, for example, is an 80’s child star and naturally dances to songs that only an older generation can understand.

The biggest downfall in Despicable Me 3 is the writers appearing to aim for a much bigger and wider plots and side story within the film. Throughout the film, many key characters have ‘other’ interests/side stories but the end results are only minor character developments and even this character development never really feels complete or successful compared to the previous films. By the time the film ended, there were multiple side stories that made me question “What was the point of that side story… and where did it go?” But of course, when you’re watching a film where yellow creatures get tattoos of bananas on their bottoms (hehehe bottom) what else would one expect.

Despicable Me 3 will please fans. Actor Steve Carell provides double the amount of talented voice work thanks to the new addition character. I also enjoyed the new creative super villain that goes up against Gru. My biggest disappointment is the resolution of selected subplots and the characters. Nevertheless, I feel most fans will be pleased.

6.1/10

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Review Written by Peter Walkden