First Take: Despicable Me 4 - sometimes minions can’t save a film from daddy issues

SYNOPSIS: Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run.

Illumination have had a cracker of a summer - big box office returns with this film, and on account of their animation studio being based there, the Minions featuring during the opening ceremony of this year’s Olympics in Paris. But Despicable Me 4 is a release which proves that overusing a franchise, even if it hasn’t had a main line entry since 2017, can be a bad idea.

Returning to direct this one is Chris Renaud - a man who went over to fellow Illumination IP The Secret Life of Pets for a few years - and while it comes in at 1 hour 34 minutes, it is a bit on and off at times, feeling like it has no idea what kind of film it wants to be, mostly due to its script from Mike White and Ken Daurio. This is the same Mike White who co-wrote The Emoji Movie. Just let that sink in folks. It is cliched, predictable, and even with the Minions providing much needed comic relief, it is, quite simply, a mess. It genuinely feels like they had one idea, abandoned it mid-production and decided to run with another plot entirely - one with some BLATANT shots at more successful, rival films (super serum is all I shall say). Saying that, the team at Illumination Paris have done, as ever, a fine job animating this, and the now traditional Heitor Pereira/Pharrell Williams collab for the score just about does the trick.

The voice cast do an alright job, obviously the regulars of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove and Steve Coogan carry this one (with Pierre Coffin voicing the Minions as usual), Will Ferrell uses one of the most bonkers French accents I’ve heard for a long time, Sofia Vergara gets a big billing on the PR but barely any lines, with the cast being rounded out by Joey King, Stephen Colbert and Chloe Fineman. To put it simply, there is too much going on in this film, which is a good thing for its main audience (family/children) but this is a true case of sequel bait - Illumination know this is gonna do well at the box office, and having seen some much better made, solo animated shorts fairly recently as part of LYIFF coverage, I’m now of the belief that Despicable Me as a franchise has run its course.

THE VERDICT

Unlike earlier films, Despicable Me 4 is mostly forgettable. Considering Illumination’s work over the last few years it properly feels like they prioritised Migration, and especially last year’s Mario movie (likely at Nintendo’s request) and just worked on Despicable Me when they could. Somehow it’s been a box office success, but the time has come to let this franchise have a good amount of time away. They need to rest.

RATING: 2.5/5