The Despicable Me franchise has garnered a lot of attention and fans since its first movie in 2010. Its success has grown a stupendous amount, to the franchise gaining three more movies, as well as two spin-offs, all contributing to the development of the series’ story. It is the highest grossing animated movie franchise in the world, generating more than 5 billion U.S. dollars.
Its latest movie, Despicable Me 4, debuted in New York City in June 2024, and was released on Netflix late February 2025. This part introduces a new part of Gru’s life—raising a baby in the suburbs which appears to be a difficult task for the reformed villain. Issues arise when his latest enemy comes to fight him, Maxime Le Mal and his evil girlfriend, Valentina.
Straight from the get-go, we see the tense rivalry between Maxime Le Mal and Gru, worsening when Le Mal wins the golden alumni award. He soon gets sent to prison by the Anti-Villain League, only to break out a few days later. Every movie that comes along in the franchise, there is always a new opponent for Gru to fight, often following a similar plot line with endearing humor.
Gru’s family, under distress, soon dramatically leaves their home in the town, but are not safe there yet again. Having to face troubling neighbors, and new identities, there is so much going on that it’s overwhelming.
Again, the Despicable Me movies always have a flair for doing so much that it’s always overwhelming—however, that is the case with several children’s movies and it ends up being successful. I personally felt as if the movie was trying a bit too hard to be funny that it ended up falling flat. Entertaining, yes, but too dramatic.
Some of the scenes did end up being quite hilarious, like the chase scene of the crazy lady from the salon at the supermarket. The thrill and action made it a great laugh especially as the audience gets more scenes of the minions and their shenanigans.
Although the scenes were thrilling and action-packed, I felt as if the plot of the show was quite scattered. On one hand, the plot focused on Gru’s family adjusting to a new place, isolated from everyone. On the other hand, there was another sub-plot where Gru was helping his new neighbor plan a heist. The storyline of the movie was out of the place, and I wished there were more scenes on Maxime Le Mal’s backstory.
I also expected more scenes on his rivalry with Gru, as it seemed like a big plot in the story. We already saw a scene of them battling it out at a talent show—where Gru ‘accidentally’ sang the song which Le Mal was going to sing. In this clip, their dynamics are explored, but there is a lack of depth which the entire movie lacks.
It was a change seeing Gru and his family try to be normal in a suburban home, but I personally believe it shouldn’t have taken up the majority of the movie. The film could have used more scenes of Agnes, Margo, and Edith’s experiences at school, or more of a look at the minions and how they coped without Gru.
Despicable Me 4 was a pretty satisfactory movie, although I wish that it stuck more closely to the actual plot of the movie. Nevertheless it’s a great movie to watch with family and friends as its scenes are full of action, comedy and many unexpected plot twists.
