94 min | PG | July 3, 2024 | Universal/Illumination
Gru gets a baby. The Minions get superpowers. Illumination gets another billion dollars. The franchise runs on fumes and merchandise.
Gru and Lucy have a new baby named Gru Jr. who hates his father. A villain named Maxime Le Mal from Gru’s past resurfaces with a grudge and a cockroach-themed scheme. The family goes into witness protection in a suburb. Some Minions get injected with a serum that gives them superpowers. These are three different movies crammed into ninety-four minutes and none of them get the attention they need. The Despicable Me franchise has always been a delivery mechanism for Minion content. This fourth entry does not pretend otherwise.
Steve Carell voices Gru with the same accent and timing. Kristen Wiig voices Lucy with manic energy. Will Ferrell voices Maxime Le Mal with theatrical French villainy that is occasionally funny. Sofia Vergara voices his girlfriend Valentina. The voice cast is professional. The characters are thin. The baby exists to create physical comedy. The Mega Minions exist to sell toys. The suburban neighbors exist to be suspicious. Every element serves a commercial function rather than a narrative one.
Chris Renaud returns to direct after Despicable Me 3 and the film has the same bright, fast, frictionless quality that defines Illumination’s house style. The animation is polished. The set pieces are competent. The Minion sequences deliver the slapstick the audience expects. The pacing never slows enough for anything to land emotionally. The film moves from gag to gag with the urgency of a product that knows its audience has a short attention span.
The first Despicable Me had a premise about a villain adopting children that was genuinely sweet. Four films later the sweetness has been processed into sugar. The franchise delivers exactly what its audience wants and not a single thing more. Children will laugh. Parents will survive. Nobody will remember anything specific a week later. Illumination has perfected the art of making films that are pleasant in the moment and evaporate on contact.