I recently saw Illumination Entertainment‘s Despicable Me. It. Was. Delightful. I really loved it. I was very impressed with the quality of product that this fledgling film production company mustered up. I mean, sure, it was started by the former president of 20th Century Fox Animation Chris Meledandri, and it’s a subsidiary of Universal Studios, so I’m sure they had plenty of resources to pump out a good product, but it was still an amazing jump out of the gates. What really surprised me was the depth of emotion the movie explores. I went in expecting a funny movie, and I left with not only that, but a touching story as well.

Steve Carell (The Office, The 40 Year Old Virgin) was great as Gru, the movie’s evil protagonist who’s sole goal in life is to be the most accomplished evil villain the world has ever seen. I got more than I expected from him, too. I knew he’d be funny, but most of his humor was very understated and subtle. He delivered moments of emotion that made me even go so far as to well up a little. While Steve was very funny, as well as Jason Segal (How I Met Your Mother, I Love You Man) in the role of his nemesis Vector, the real humor derived from Gru’s adorable little minions. The movie is worth it just to see them attempt to replicate the sound of a water cooler. Trust me.

The three girls in the movie that *SPOILER BUT NOT REALLY BECAUSE IT’S IN THE TRAILER BUT STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO RUIN THE MYSTERY BUT YOU’RE READING A REVIEW ANYWAY SO YOU SHOULD EXPECT SPOILERS SO JUST KEEP READING* adopts are also adorable, especially the youngest girl Agnes. If you’ve already seen the movie, you should know that the actress who plays her, Elsie Fisher, is damn near more adorable than her animated counterpart. Don’t believe me? Here.

Right? Adorable.

Overall, this movie was a great success in my opinion. I don’t want to go more into the plot because I think you’d better save that for yourself to discover. I highly recommend anyone to go see it. And I look forward to more from Illumination Entertainment. Apparently their future includes an animated Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, a live action Where’s Waldo, and  3D stop-motion animated version of The Addams Family, which will be directed by none other than Tim Burton (Writer: The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride). Keep them on your radar. That’s all from me, I’ll probably do more reviews of movies, and maybe even television shows or books, in the future. If you’ve seen this movie, let me know what you thought in the comments.

Catch you later.