By Charly SHELTON

In 2010, the world was introduced to Gru (voiced by Steve Carrell), the world’s greatest villain. Or so he thought. A younger villain surpassed him in his heists and took the title. Gru hatched an evil plan to use three orphan girls – Agnes, Edith and Margo (voiced by Elsie Fisher, Dana Gaier and Miranda Cosgrove respectively) – to infiltrate his rival’s compound. But the plan backfired when he fell in love with the three girls and they all became an unconventional family.     “Despicable Me 2” opens on a scene showing the repercussions of that backfired plan – Gru is the happiest dad ever, playing fairy princess at Agnes’ birthday party while trying to juggle barbecuing for the party, wrangling in Edith from being a ninja and attacking guests and all the while managing a lucrative business, using his once nefarious laboratory and little yellow minions to make a line of homemade jams and jellies.

That is, until the government gets hold of him. Gru, being an ex-villain, is in a perfect position to help the Anti Villain League find and stop a new villain who stole a top secret serum that transforms anyone it touches into a giant crazed purple monster. It’s up to Gru to stop this serum from getting out and doing untold damage to the world.

The movie has a great message. As a film, it may not be as great as the first one, but the message of this film is great. I can’t say what it is because it will give away the ending, but it’s basically that family is the most important thing in life – even more important than making an evil army to take over the world.

For kids, this movie is a lot of fun. The minions are back and more over-the-top than ever. For those who haven’t seen the first film and don’t know what a minion is, it’s a little yellow pill shaped worker that works in Gru’s evil lab, creating the many evil inventions dreamed up by Dr. Nefario, Gru’s partner (voiced by Russell Brand). They speak in a gibberish language that is high and silly, making them great comic relief. They have a penchant for singing songs in this gibberish language that are more jokes for adults than kids – at one point in the film, three or four minions come out singing “YMCA” by The Village People with one minion dressed as an Indian, one as a biker, one as a construction worker, etc. I’m sure kids laugh at that but this is the kind of humor that can appeal to kids and adults alike for different reasons.

One piece of advice: after the movie, don’t take the elevator back to your car. You don’t want to be trapped in there with a bunch of kids endlessly quoting the minions gibberish. Take the stairs. It’s worth it.

Rated PG, this film is good for kids of all ages, be they 5 or 50. I give this film 3.5 out of 5 stars.

  Charly Shelton