Despicable Me (2010) - Renaud & Coffin's wonderfully conceptualized animation family comedy

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1 Film Excess nomination:

Best Animation (lost to Toy Story 3) 

+ Best New Franchise of the Year

The infectiously happy, effective poster for Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin's Despicable Me

Gru is an old-fashioned super-villain, who is getting overtaken by young up-and-comer Vector and his shrink ray. To get his cool back, he will have to steal the Moon, using the shrink ray and the help of, among others, his three sweet daughters.

Despicable Me looks somewhat similar to the great Megamind (2010), but it isn't quite as funny. The star-studded voice cast here mainly have the effect of making someone like me wonder which star is what character.
As the three girls move in with Gru, the story gets more sympathetic, although it never attains the heart of some of Pixar's best films, (Toy Story (1995) or Finding Nemo (2003), for instance.) On the other hand, the yellow minions and the hipster villain created here are rather funny.
The Despicable Me animation style and universe is full of fun and colors, 3D eye candy that will woo kids and a general upbeatnes that makes it hard to object to for anyone, though there might be those that will find it too much. I am full of admiration for its well-polished concept; an admiration similar to the one I felt for the first Transformers (2007).
Despicable Me is written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (The Lorax (2012), both) and directed by feature-debuting Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud (Despicable Me 2 (2013)).

Related posts:

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Pierre Coffin: Minions (2015) - Inocuous fun for kids (co-director)
Coffin and Chris Renaud: Despicable Me 2 (2013) - Fun craziness for everyone

Watch the amazing trailer for the movie here

Cost: 69 mil. $
Box office: 543.2 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Despicable Me premiered July 19 at the Moscow International Film Festival and runs 95 minutes. It is the first feature from Illumination Entertainment, and the film was heavily promoted and merchandised through Universal, NBC and connected companies. The general North American release was July 9. The film opened #1 with a 56.3 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, where it grossed 251.5 mil. $ (46.3 % of the total gross), becoming Universal's biggest domestic hit since The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). It became the 2nd highest grossing animated film in North America of the year behind Toy Story 3, and the 4th highest worldwide, behind Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After and Tangled. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets for the film were the UK with 32.2 mil. $ (5.2 %) and France with 28.5 mil. $ (5.2 %). The film was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Golden Globe, losing to Toy Story 3. Its success spun the Despicable Me franchise that has resulted in Despicable Me 2 (2013), Minions (2015) and in 2017, Despicable Me 3. Despicable Me is certified fresh at 81 % with a 6.8 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Despicable Me?

2001: A Space Travesty (2000, video) - Nielsen and Goldstein's sci-fi spoof flop

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The undeniably silly-looking but also worryingly inept poster for Allan A. Goldstein's 2001: A Space Travesty

A clone of Bill Clinton has taken over the governing of the United States of America, and agent Dick Dix has to solve this by bringing back the real Clinton from his imprisonment on the Moon.

Travesty has little to do with Stanley Kubrick's (The Shining (1980)) science fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which the title parodies, and it is populated with b-actors in c- and d-material, incomprehensible gags and embarrassing 'comedy'. The only remedy in the SF spoof/farce is Leslie Nielsen (Airplane! (1980)), the wonderful Danish/Welsh/Canadian actor turned comedian.
Brooklyn-born director Allan A. Goldstein (Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994)) is a fringe director if there ever was one.The film is scripted (poorly) by Italian Vince Di Clemente (The Lost World (1998), additional dialogue) and Alan Shearman (The Shrimp on the Barbie (1990)).
2001: A Space Travesty is not worth writing home about. A film mostly for Nielsen completists.

Related posts:

Mentioned film: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or, Humanity and Space

Watch Leslie Nielsen enter space in this 4-minute clip from the film

Cost: Estimated 26-45 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown (likely a mega-flop)
[2001: A Space Travesty premiered 31 October (Tokyo, Japan) and runs 99 minutes. It was shot from July - September 1999. It wasn't released theatrically in many countries, including the US, where it was rolled out direct-to-video. Nielsen himself allegedly called his experience on the film, "the worst experience I have ever had." The film must have been a huge commercial bomb as well, although without any numbers, it is impossible to say just how big of a flop it really was. Goldstein returned with One Way Out (2002, video) and theatrically with Pact with the Devil (2004). Nielsen returned in The Wonderful World of Disney (2000, TV-series), Pumper Pups (2000, TV-series) and theatrically in Camouflage (2001). 10,797 Rotten Tomatoes users have given 2001: A Space Travesty an average rating of 2.2/5.]

What do you think of 2001: A Space Travesty?