Despicable Me

STARRING Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett
DIRECTED BY Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
WRITTEN BY Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul

There are no superheroes in the 3-D animated comedy Despicable Me, just dastardly villains. Chief among them is Gru, a round-bodied baddie who develops an elaborate plot to steal the moon. ”He’s an evil mastermind with a heart of bronze,” says Steve Carell, who voices Gru with an ”Eastern European-esque” patois. ”The accent falls someplace between Bela Lugosi and Ricardo Montalban,” says producer Chris Meledandri (Ice Age). ”When [Steve] came up with the voice, it just stuck.” Other despicable characters include Gru’s archnemesis Vector (Jason Segel), who possesses the shrink-ray that Gru needs to snatch the moon; and Vector’s father, Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett), who, Meledandri explains, ”runs the Bank of Evil, formerly Lehman Brothers.” Worst of all is Gru’s withholding mother, voiced by Julie Andrews. All the bad behavior became quite addictive for Carell, who isn’t generally known for playing evildoers. ”Not yet,” says Carell. ”Just wait. It’s going to get really ugly. It’s always fun being cruel to children in film.”