Review of Despicable Me 3 (2017) by Sean L — 13 Nov 2017

Gru, his family and the minions are back to make a new friend and confront a new foil. This time, the opposition is former child star Balthazar Bratt, stranded deep in the 1980s, who takes out frustrations about an ancient sitcom cancellation on jewel owners and Hollywood big-spenders alike.

Played with energy by Trey Parker and swathed in a dense cloak of pop culture references, Bratt brings a fresh new dynamic to the franchise that gives this third installment just enough of a boost to feel necessary.

Most of those cultural winks were completely lost on my kids, of course, but they still appreciated his silly wardrobe, fly dance-fighting moves and crafty arsenal of unlikely weapons. There's a side story with Gru's forgotten twin brother Dru (both played by Steve Carell, of course), and a sweet arc that finds Kristin Wiig's special agent Lucy seeking a relationship with the reformed villain's three girls, but those feel like slight retreads and don't have the new criminal's panache.

Clearly, Illumination was having a good time with Bratt, while the other plot threads were more like obligations. It's fun, with some great bits of physical comedy and a necessary return to the heartstring-plucking of the first film, though overall it lands in somewhat shallow waters.

An improvement over the underachieving Despicable Me 2, if not quite up to the original's snuff.