Despicable Me 4 runs 94 minutes and wants to be a family comedy with stakes, but the stakes keep getting diluted by the jokes. This is the fourth main entry in the Despicable Me franchise and the sixth overall, and it leans on the same formula: Gru as a reformed supervillain, Lucy as the patient wife, and the three girls as the reason he can’t stay evil. The film adds a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and it introduces a superhero initiative called the Mega Minions. It is a sequel built to please fans of the series, and mostly it does.
Trailer, via Illumination.
Gru’s Return to School
The film opens with Gru attending a class reunion at his alma mater, Lycée Pas Bon. There he runs into Maxime Le Mal, a former classmate who thinks Gru stole his talent show act. That feud sets the plot in motion, and it gives the film a personal angle. Maxime has enhanced himself with cockroach body parts, which is a silly premise, and he uses a ray gun to transform people into cockroach hybrids. His target is Gru’s infant son, Gru Jr.
The Mega Minions Experiment
The AVL takes in most of the Minions, and Silas Ramsbottom selects five of them for a superhero initiative called the Mega Minions. The idea is that augmented Minions could help fight crime. But the initiative fails badly: the group unintentionally causes significant collateral damage in a nearby city, and the project is shut down. That failure is a small victory for the film’s sense of scale, since the Minions have always been its comic heart.
A Safe House in Another Town
Silas informs the Grus that Maxime has escaped prison and that the AVL will have to temporarily relocate the family to a safe house in another town under new identities. The family moves to a well-off residential town, where they meet the Prescotts, a wealthy family whose teenage daughter, Poppy, recognizes Gru from his villainous past. Poppy threatens to blow Gru’s cover unless he helps her steal Lycée Pas Bon’s honey badger mascot, Lenny.
Poppy Prescott’s Heist
Poppy, an aspiring villain, threatens to expose Gru unless he helps her steal Lycée Pas Bon’s honey badger mascot, Lenny. With the help of two Minions and Gru Jr., they succeed. But the collar on Lenny contains a tracking device, and the school’s principal, Übelschlecht, identifies Gru via security camera footage and contacts Maxime to inform him about Gru’s whereabouts. That device is the film’s weak link: it exists to put Gru in danger, but the danger feels contrived rather than earned.
The Voice Cast
The voice cast is strong across the board. Steve Carell returns as Gru, Kristen Wiig as Lucy, Miranda Cosgrove as Margo, Dana Gaier as Edith, and Madison Polan as Agnes. Will Ferrell joins as Maxime Le Mal, Sofía Vergara as Valentina, Stephen Colbert as Perry Prescott, and Chloe Fineman as Patsy Prescott. The casting is a selling point, and the film leans on it heavily.
Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams
Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams returned from previous installments to compose the score and write original songs and themes, respectively. Their work holds the film together on a technical level. The songs are catchy, and the score gives the action sequences weight.
What Works and What Doesn’t
The film’s best stretches are its quieter scenes, where Gru interacts with his daughters or with Lucy. Those moments feel grounded and warm. The action set pieces are competent but forgettable. The film’s humor relies too heavily on sight gags and one-liners, and some of the jokes land flat. The pacing drags in the middle stretch, where the Mega Minions experiment and the Prescott subplot overlap without much cohesion.
The Bottom Line
Despicable Me 4 is a solid, if unambitious, addition to the franchise. It respects the characters and the world it has built, and it gives the voice cast room to perform. But the film lacks the spark of the earlier entries, and its plotting is overly convoluted for a 94-minute children’s movie. It is funny in patches, and it has a few great sequences, but it never quite reaches the heights of the films that came before it.
| Element | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Voice cast | Strong ensemble, particularly Carell, Wiig, and Ferrell | Some jokes land flat |
| Plot | Personal stakes with Maxime Le Mal | Middle stretch drags, tracking device feels forced |
| Humor | Catchy songs, warm family scenes | Sight gags and one-liners fall flat |
| Mega Minions | Amusing concept | Initiative fails badly without consequence |
Despicable Me 4 earns a 7 of 10. It is a competent, enjoyable film that will satisfy fans of the series, but it does not push the franchise forward. The Grus are still funny, the villains are still menacing, and the Minions are still delightful. Just don’t expect the next big thing.
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