Gru and his Minions return with a fiendishly funny follow-up to the 2010 hit. Having set aside his megalomaniac tendencies and become a devoted father, former supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) is called upon by the Anti-Villain League (AVL) to find out who has stolen a powerful chemical from a lab in the Arctic.
Reluctant at first, Gru is soon using his evil experience to identify skulduggerous suspects from among the shop owners at the Paradise Mall. Could Mexican restaurant owner Eduardo Perez (Benjamin Bratt) be the culprit? Or is it wig merchant Floyd Eagle-san (Ken Jeong)?
As Gru's sleuthing senses start to tingle, he also begins to fall for AVL agent Lucy (Kristen Wiig). But before he can act on his feelings, she is captured by Perez (now revealed to be supervillain El Macho) and suddenly the race is on to save his girl and stop El Macho using the mutagen to turn thousands of friendly yellow Minions into frenzied purple fuzz balls.
After setting the bar high with their 2010 hit, the creative geniuses behind Despicable Me have managed to top their original efforts with this superb and high-spirited sequel. Proving that the confines of animation are not limited to kids' entertainment, Coffin and Renaud have produced a film that crosses the divide of age with aplomb.
A stand-out performance from Bratt should not go unmentioned, especially given his very late entry to the line-up, replacing Al Pacino, who left the project over "creative differences".