It may be a long time since Minions invaded pop culture, but Despicable Me 3 is still able to capture all ages and avoid the pitfalls of being a sequel.
Minions took the world by storm in 2010 with the first Despicable Me movie, and haven’t left pop culture since. But don’t let the popularity of Minions fool you. At first glance, Despicable Me might seem like any other animation franchise that just keeps perpetuating itself until nonexistence, but it has actually succeeded in a way few others have.
Sequelitis, the dreaded disease of franchises, has almost always marked big animated films. Usually, further installments tend to get progressively more formulaic, adding new characters to mix things up. Inevitably, these characters are either a love interest (if there wasn’t one in the first movie) or long-lost family.
That means that Despicable Me 3, with its plot centered around Gru’s reunion with his long-lost twin, Dru, hardly seems remarkable. But where others have failed, it manages to surprise and even delight — by focusing on positive moments instead of negative ones.
(Some non-specific spoilers below.)
Despicable Me 3 is the rare sequel that actually is fun for the whole family. Instead of picking a more adult-oriented storyline, or sticking to a childish one, it puts characters of different ages in the spotlight, and gives us a chance to get to know all of them better.
Gru, Lucy and the girls are all going through vastly different challenges, but we follow all of them because they are all given equal importance. Agnes’ quest to find a unicorn isn’t any less important than Lucy’s desire to be a good mom, and Gru’s mission to get his old job back isn’t any more important than the happiness of his Minions. By valuing everybody involved, the movie becomes relatable to people of all ages.
And of course, Balthazar Bratt, a frustrated former child star who thinks he still lives in the ‘80s, is an excellent villain that gives way to plenty of hilarity. All the Michael Jackson and Rubik’s Cube jokes may go over children’s heads, but they make the experience laugh-out-loud funny for adults.
(At the same time, there are just enough tiny, disturbing details — like a swarm of tiny robots, and the blank eyes of a massive robot — to even leave an impression on adults.)
For a trilogy that hinges on the idea that villains are real and can do things like shrink the moon or steal a pyramid, Despicable Me is surprisingly profound. Even with all the fun moments, the movie doesn’t feel vapid — but it doesn’t feel needlessly dramatic, either.
Usually, when it comes to family animations with a middle-aged main character, sequels focus overwhelmingly on family drama. But the writers of Despicable Me 3 didn’t resort to classic clichés, misunderstandings or jealousy; Gru’s story doesn’t need that. Instead, the members of the family are loving and accepting, which allows us to enjoy the sweet moments and still feel safe during the action.
Any moments of sadness or jealousy are relatively short-lived, though always meaningful, and negative emotions are always abandoned in favor of building the silly but heartfelt relationships between the characters. Instead of relying on sad moments for the climax of the story, the movie focuses on making the positive ones memorable: moments when Gru and Dru learn to accept each other, when Agnes loves her ‘unicorn’ despite its faults, and when Lucy manages to succeed in parenting.
It’s a great example of good storytelling: we don’t always need terrible family misunderstandings to tell the story of a family, and not all sequels need to follow the same formula. Despicable Me 3 doesn’t let the audience linger on sadness or suffering — you’re here for a fun ride and you’ll get it, but you’ll also get a healthy dose of love and cuteness that’s open to all ages.