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Despicable Me 4 Movie Review

Despicable Me 4 is a 2024 animated family comedy film directed by Chris Renaud and starring Steve Carell. It’s the weakest entry in this series to date.

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“I sell solar panels!“

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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. This is the first movie in this series after the last one was released seven years ago, if you don’t count the second Minions movie. And it’s the worst one, even weaker than its predecessors that aren’t great either. This franchise has become stale by now and the best route is to either kill it entirely or make short movies or television shows out of it.

My main issue with this movie is its structure. It felt so episodic and so haphazard in its nature that it really should have been a television season instead of a movie. There are at least three different storylines going concurrently and none of them were all that interesting to me. Lucy was somewhat sidelined here, which was a real shame. The hairdresser gags were very funny, but otherwise she did not get much to do this time around.

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The kids also did not anything to do and the choice to give the baby more screen time than the other kids was not a good one. Gru himself is still extremely likable and well performed, but even his story seems to have ended before and not much else is left to do with him.

I really disliked the new characters that they added. I would prefer that they stick with the original cast of characters and not add new ones, especially if they aren’t going to work. The villain was quite bad and that entire storyline with the cockroach villainy was too goofy and dumb. Poppy got some solid moments for herself, but for the most part this girl who wants to be a super villain wasn’t as fun as that role demanded.

The voice cast in Despicable Me 4 is great, but they weren’t given anything interesting to do. The Minions themselves are quite funny at times (the tennis sequence was absolutely hilarious), but for the most part they were sidelined and I would have preferred for them to be a bigger focus in these movies, especially if the others are not going to step to the task with their mediocre arcs.

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But even the Minions got that awful Mega Minions arc that really should have been scrapped entirely. The animation is colorful and fun, but safe and tired. The soundtrack is typical, the editing and pacing overly frenetic, and the dialogue and humor are for the most part very mediocre. I really did not care for this one. It’s strictly for the little ones.