Viewed – 02 March 2011  Blu-ray

In a world where animation house Pixar gets all the best press (ahem, Toy Story 3 Oscar) it’s possible to forget there are other equally as talented animation studios around churning out movies year in year out.  Dreamworks usually gets all the remaining publicity with the Shrek franchise, leaving smaller movies to fall under the radar.   This should not be one of them however.

Gru (Steve Carell) is an evil super villain hell-bent on committing the ultimate crime, but has often failed to grabs the world’s attention.  When another villain gets away with stealing a Pyramid, he realises it’s time he did something everyone would sit up and take notice of.  Namely stealing the moon!  Full marks for thinking big then, but as can be expected this master plan isn’t without a few problems, and in his pursuit of a prototype shrink-ray to aid him in his plan, he stumbles upon three orphaned girls.

This energetic, funny movie offers a unique spin on the James Bond super villain character.  It’s refreshing and brilliantly made with excellent animation and an eye-catching art style reminiscent of Tim Burton.  I was impressed how much heart was in the story with some moments actually being quite emotional, and along with some great action, plenty of very funny situations and heart-in-mouth ‘whats going to happen?’ moments, not to mention quality voice acting throughout (with Julie Andrews and Russell Brand popping up) – this was a surprising and thoroughly enjoyable 90 minutes.

Verdict:  5 /5

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