Family fun to be had with Despicable Me 3

I am an absolute sucker for cartoons. They’re just so consistently good. Out of all the genres of movie that exist, I bet if you added it up, animated movies would have a way higher percentage of highly acclaimed movies than any other. Cartoons are just magical!

Cartoon sequels on the other hand…

Maybe it’s just because I’m a big Land Before Time fan, and its 9000 sequels are all terrible… or maybe it’s because I was raised in the era of Disney’s straight-to-video sequel habit… but I am always incredibly skeptical of cartoon sequels, so my hopes weren’t exactly through the roof when I saw Despicable Me 3.

Now, admittedly, I knew going into this one that the Despicable Me crew had already pulled off a decent sequel with number two. But even that wasn’t enough to ward off my skepticism. Cartoon trilogies are super tough to pull off. Toy Story is the exception, not the rule. They weren’t even able to get three decent movies out of Shrek, and I definitely wasn’t sure Gru and the Minions had more to give than that series.

Besides, they hadn’t exactly instilled a ton of confidence in me with the uneven, mediocre-at-best Minion Movie. I was pretty burnt out on those little yellow buggers after that one, if we’re being real.

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But… in spite of ALL THAT… I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by Despicable Me 3!

The whole “Gru has a long lost twin” thing was actually funny, and not annoying and desperate like I’d feared, and Steve Carell does a great job with both characters. The villain (played by one of my favourite guys; Trey Parker) was great, and full of awesome 80s throwbacks for the parents to enjoy. And I think the studio was even aware of our Minion fatigue, as they gave them a little less to do in this movie to great effect.

It even set up the possibility of MORE Despicable Me sequels, and honestly, after the great refresh to the series they managed to pull off here, I might not dread the next one.

If you’re looking for a movie to bring the whole family to that parents and kids will all be able to enjoy, I’m happy to report that this series continues to offer that to you.