NEW YORK – After a seven-year hiatus, the highest-grossing animated movie franchise of all time, Despicable Me (2010 to present), is back with a new sequel.
Opening in Singapore cinemas on July 4, the action comedy Despicable Me 4 finds reformed supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) – now a dedicated agent in the Anti-Villain League – welcoming a baby son with his wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig).
But when Gru’s former high-school nemesis Maxime (Will Ferrell) breaks out of prison seeking revenge, the whole clan – including Gru’s three adopted daughters and Gru Jr – are forced to go on the run and assume new identities.
At the recent New York premiere of the fourth film – which also features the voices of Miranda Cosgrove, Joey King and Sofia Vergara – Carell, 61, says it feels good returning to the franchise, which earned more than US$4.6 billion worldwide for the first three films (2010 to 2017) and the two Minions spin-off prequels (2015 and 2022).
And having fellow American funnyman Ferrell in the cast made it better.
“He plays this great villain and I love his character. He’s the best, he’s the funniest. He makes me laugh probably more than anyone I know,” says Carell, who worked with Ferrell on the Anchorman comedy movies (2004 and 2013) and starred in the American version of workplace sitcom The Office (2005 to 2013).
Ferrell, 56, says he jumped on board as soon as he heard his character would be French.
Another new addition to the cast, King, plays Gru’s neighbour Poppy, a teenager obsessed with all things supervillainous.
The 24-year-old American actress and star of The Kissing Booth romantic comedies (2018 to 2021) came to it as a big fan of the franchise.
“I grew up with these movies. My family and I love them, and now that I get to be in one of them, I’m just so happy. And I love my character,” King says.
“She’s so casually sinister, she’s absolutely mad and she’s funny.”
Carell’s children grew up watching the Despicable Me franchise as well, he reveals.
The actor’s 20-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter – whom he shares with his American actress-wife Nancy Carell, 57 – still love the films, and as with others who first watched them as children, there is an element of nostalgia at work, he believes.
“Kids have grown up with this series, and now they’re older and kind of passing it down to their younger siblings, but they still are nostalgically drawn to it as well.”
It was also Carell’s children who helped him come up with Gru’s distinctive voice and vaguely
East European accent.
“When my kids were little, before I went in to do the first (film), I tried out a number of different voices for them and this is the one that made them laugh,” he says.
The cast and film-makers also tipped their hats to the 500 or so animators and other production and technical staff who put the movie together.
Watching the finished product, “it’s always better than you imagine it will be”, Carell adds.
“The animators are so talented. It’s painstaking – they take the time and everybody’s doing their very best work all the time. And it’s inspiring.”
Despicable Me 4 opens in Singapore cinemas on July 4.