despicable me

If I had minions in my office…

I need minions – an army of them. I could finally clean off my desk and defrost the freezer. Dr. Gru (Steve Carell) already has his. :)

We attended a screening of “Despicable Me” last night and though it had a slow start (and was predictable), it was fun. I think the amount of laughter it creates is inversely proportional to age (my 11-year-old was cackling and a little girl in the theater was laughing so hard I thought she might hyperventilate), but parents, you won’t be covering your child’s ears or wishing for that hour and a half of your life back. (I’m talking to you, Shark Boy and Lava Girl.) There were actually a couple of times when I suspected people were staring at me, I laughed so hard. (I don’t want to give anything away, but read all signs. :) )

I’m a fan of “The Office,” so I found that I was picturing Michael Scott doing a funny voice, which makes it even more fun, I think. (FYI, Mindy Kaling – Kelly from the Office – has a small part as well.) Steve Carell brings a sweetness to Dr. Gru that makes him, well, not despicable, even when he tries to be. Agnes (Elsie Fisher) all but steals the show as the youngest orphan and Julie Andrews (Gru’s mom) is Julie Andrews. Who doesn’t love her?

Overall, everyone in my family enjoyed different parts of the movie, but we all laughed and had fun.

Spoilerish content alert for parents of wee littles: There were a couple of uses of “Oh, poop,” one “He’s gonna kick your butt,” and a couple of instances that were rude but not awful (a minion sits on a copier to copy his rear end, kids make a crayon drawing of Gru sitting on a potty). Just stuff to know, but it did pass my cleanliness test. YMMV. It is PG for rude humor and mild action. The movie is in 3-D, which bothered me a bit during a rollercoaster scene, but I am weird that way.