**Despicable Me's mischievous characters enhance and strengthen its heartwarming family-focused story.** Despicable Me completely took me by surprise! Steve Carrell leads this heartwarmingly delightful, funny film with a fresh premise different from other kid's movies, hilariously lovable characters, and superb execution. Being one of my three-year-old's favorites, I have seen this movie 100 times, and it doesn't get old. Cartel's voice acting is as entertaining as possible, and the Minions are just a masterstroke of brilliance that my daughter exclaims, "it's so cute!" every time they're on the TV. But this animated heist film becomes much more as three orphaned girls warm the heart of criminal mastermind Gru as he grows from an evil loner to a caring father. Despicable Me was as touching as hilarious, and its creativity and fantastic characters make it my absolute favorite animated film of all time.

I’m not sure he’d be terribly flattered by the comparison, but I kept seeing a skinny-legged Terry-Thomas every time I watched the dastardly “Gru” plot his latest scheme to prove he is the most evil of criminal masterminds. His latest plan is to steal the moon! Thing is, he needs a gadget that is being kept in the highest security by “Vector” in his fortress-like home. Try as he will, he simply cannot overcome the defences and so he has to think laterally. The result? Well that involves some cookies and three orphans. They will wheedle their way into the heart of his home and then the robotised cookies will do their stuff. Of course, not only doesn’t that work but poor old “Gru” starts to find himself feeling an uncharacteristic affection for these rugrats. Indeed, they start to become even more important than his grand design. How can he possibly capture the gadget, steal the moon, cement his global reputation and keep the children (and his army of minions) all happy, too? I don’t usually take to films with children in them, but I really did quite enjoy this crime caper with a difference. The “Gru” character is a masterpiece of increasingly soft-hearted wickedness; there are enough gadgets and gizmos to keep “007” busy for years and the story races along for ninety minutes of fun, menace and even a bit of inappropriate photocopying from his yellow perils too! It’s a characterful animation that innovates as it entertains and even I, who always thinks the baddie should emerge victorious, couldn’t begrudge the sequel-inviting conclusion.