Despicable Me 4 Review | Should it be More than a Trilogy? 

Universal already has a franchise with too many pointless cashgrab sequels. It’s called “The Land Before Time”.

"Should it be more than a trilogy?" I wondered the same thing when Toy Story 4 came out.

I hate to say this......Illumination announced a Minions 3 and tease a possibility Despicable Me 5. So yeah, Illumination won't let this franchise go. Illumination is making an ICE AGE franchise out of it. For me personally, the franchise should remain a trilogy and the fourth film should have been the series finale where Gru can settle down his ways as a villain and start a new chapter with his family and spend his simple life as a father of the family.

I think this franchise has run its course. Especially with a villain who's the Illumination equivalent of Le Paradox from Sly Cooper.

The fact Chris Renuard say that the girls aren't gonna age up and having a Minions 3 in 2027 Make me want to say and quote from your Rise of Gru review Oh god there gonna run this thing to the ground are they? And it kinda of odd that the SUBPLIOTS from Sing 2 & The Secret Life of Pets 2 not only entertaining but at least come together in the 3rd act. 17:00 I honestly don't blame you Still a pretty enjoyable flim 7/10

I did not realize the last movie was 7 yrs old! It feels so much more recent than that.

Now I question why I was obsessed with the Minions in elementary school. I enjoy the first two movies, but not enough for so many sequels and spinoffs

I am fine with Illumination taking a break from Despicable Me after this and focus on The Super Mario Bros and other Nintendo movies.

To be honest, Despicable Me 4 was better than the third one and this movie felt like a finale to the series

I will admit that the only one who is fun is Maxime Le Mal because he happens to be French, a great and sophisticated design and voice performance by Will Ferrell

To paraphrase your conclusion bit in your Kung Fu Panda 4 review, “If there’s one thing that’ll justify this movie’s existence other than Gru Jr, is that it did gave us the unofficial battle of Gru vs Megamind. I’m sure some will take that as a reason to bring Gru back”

I was very turned off by the idea of a Despicable Me 4, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they actually added something kind of new to the franchise. I always thought Gru having a son would make a good plotline for a film and they delivered just that! So I was happy to find out that they still maintained the same fun family entertainment the previous three films offered. However, I am not excited for the Minions cinematic universe. But as long as these films keep making money, they'll keep making them. :P

0:00 How everyone felt when they watched this movie XD

There's one thing that made Despicable Me (and Illumination in general) a household name: *MINIONS* The sucess of the Minions is extreme and historic, they are literally in every place that you imagine and that's why *"Despicable Me"* is still going

I hear that Minions 3 will be released in 2027 and there’s talks of a Despicable Me 5 Illumination is gonna just milk this franchise bone dry, aren’t they?

The 4th movie was the perfect finale IMO.

Guys, give the Despicable Me series a rest. At least you have Super Mario Bros. and other Nintendo properties to focus on.

Despicable Me doesn’t need any more sequels because of franchise fatigue and woody woodpecker needs to be back at the spotlight as universal’s true mascot.

2024 is not a good year for fourth installment animated franchises. First Kung Fu Panda 4 and now Despicable Me 4. I believed Ice Age 4 or Toy Story 4 started this trend for started a trend of animated fourth sequels. This does worried me for Frozen 4 and potential Cars 4 and Madagascar 4. At least we have good sequel with Inside Out 2 and maybe Moana 2 could be next. 👍🏻

13:32 THAT GRU FU-! 😂

I just notice he change the thumbnail

16:49 I feel as if Ferrel decided to voice Maxinme over Megamind again And made the right decision

❤️💖 Personally, a much better idea 💡 and change for the Despicable Me franchise where have all Gru's adopted daughters grown up and not any more little girls anymore. Maybe have Agnes grown up and she becomes a villain. Gru would have to faced his own daughter Agnes and he would try to reason with her that she doesn't have to be a villain just to follow her father's footsteps and she could be whatever she wants to be. Wouldn't that been a much better idea? 😃😀😄😁😊😉 👍🏻 💖❤️

I’d honestly rather have a Secret Life of Pets 3 and Sing 3 than Despicable Me 4. I’m not even joking. If there’s another good thing to take away from this film other than the ending where all the past villains show up it’s that that annoying female AVL director voiced by Jenny Slate from the third film didn’t return for this one and actually got her comeuppance off-screen after wrongfully firing Gru and Lucy for a petty reason in the last film. At least the film got ONE thing right. “You did the right thing!” - The Grinch

❤️💖 You know what could've made a much better Despicable Me spin off film? Why not focused Lucy Wilde as the main character? The franchise already focused too much on Gru and the minions. And have this Lucy Wilde movie take a break from the Minions and focused more on Lucy Wilde solo movie on how she became a spy in her origin story and how she met Gru which takes place in the events between the first and second movie. She could saved the world 🌎 from an evil villain who has connected to Lucy Wilde. Illumination did dirty to Lucy in the third and fourth movie. Lucy Wilde deserves more love and attention and she was my favorite character in the franchise. She was a sweetheart to Gru's personal life. 😃😀😄😁😊😉 👍🏻 💖❤️

Not gonna lie, I'd give this a 6/10. I went see this with my mom in the Theater and this is a Week and a half after we went see Inside Out 2. We both found this movie a Disappointment and we both love the Despicable Me movies. It has enjoyable Moments and scenes but it wasn't enough to save the movie. Two things are for certain: The Animation is always great and Pharell Williams' Music always Slaps.

Let’s hope that Despicable Me doesn’t become the next Ice Age.

I disagree about the villain. Despite being voiced incredibly well by Will Ferrell, the character himself was pretty... Boring.

I will never understand how Animatt can never see how soulless almost everything Illumination makes is

The irony of Illumination being against AI and anti-artitst movements, yet their films are soulless cashgrabs.

As a Despicable me fan, I saw the movie myself and it was fine. I would say it was the weakest of the main despicable me films, but definitely not a bad one. I had the same issues with the story as well of it feels very sloppy disorganized, and some of the characters don’t have enough chemistry to give them a purpose. I would even say Gru jr at times had some of the weaker jokes, but still I loved the comedy and animation of the film. The minion shenanigans does not disappoint me. Thank god Maxine is not the mime stereotype for a French villain. Overall I think it’s a 6.5/10 for me.

Since Illumination announced a Minions 3. Let's just hope they don't replace Gru with Harvey Weinstein.

After this movie came out, it's like people started apologizing to Kfp4.

Finally someone saying something positive about this movie,a bunch of RU-vidrs I’ve watched and get recommended to me are always so negative about it. I still haven’t seen it yet - I’m pretty sure this movie won’t be bad as people think it is - I mean Minions 3 is real after all, which means a despicable me 5 is happening too.

I will never get over how Gru's son is technically named "Gru Gru". that poor kid is never gonna live that down...

If I had nickel every time Animat praised the end credits of an animated film in 2024, I’d have two nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

The new Despicable Me movie was ok except for the fact NO ONE AGED!!! No even the people from The Rise of Gru, like the most they got was little to no wrinkles and white/gray hair.

What a surprise! Despicable Me 4 got a higher score than Kung Fu Panda 4.

To address the ending with what you said in the review, and yes spoilers. No I don’t think it’s supposed to be the end of the series since we now have Minions 3 and presumably DM5 in 2027 and later… Minions are gonna stay for the rest of our lives now.

I'm glad to see some people believe this franchise still has some momentum. Even though it may not be the strongest of the film series, it is still a worthy sequel and deserves to be seen at least once.

These films, minus Minions: The Rise of Gru, kept getting worse after the second film

I am so glad this movie didn’t get the seal of garbage as I was worried about. I really thought he was gonna give it seal of garbage like Ice Age 5 or Trolls 3 where he gave the latest installment the seal of garbage despite the other one’s haven’t gotten it. But glad none of the Illumination movies so far haven’t gotten that seal of garbage.

Thank you for a nuanced and good review.

Is Despicable Me turning into the next Ice Age?

I am surprised that he didn't give it a garbage seal. I liked it as well. Especially with Maxime le Mal. He is way better than megamind.

I for one don’t have a problem with more Despicable Me movies. More projects for Miranda Cosgrove are always welcome in my book

wow, they actually did what ice age failed to do, be successful by movie 4

13:50 So basically it’s same dynamic like in son of the mask but 100x funnier and more tolerable.

To me, this felt like the perfect finale to the series. And I loved it. It could be better than the original…maybe

Does anyone think there will be another Seal of Garbage this year hopefully another 1 or 2/10 review? Also I didn't know Sofia Vergara was in this movie

Maybe if the girls had aged in this one, it could have been something interesting. Seemed like there were a few hints they were growing up during the franchise, but then, nope, still kids.

I seen Despicable me 4 and it’s a mess of a movie. The movie is so unfocused. It feels like the movie doesn’t know what it wants to be, so many disconnected plot points that doesn’t really advance the main story. They’re very entertaining as it’s own. The villain rarely has any scene time. The ending is the best part of! Climatic and sweet. The love the cameros with the past villains. Why is he even obsessed with cockroaches. I think the 3rd is okay but there’s nothing like the first two movies. My favorite is Despicable me 2.

Maybe it will be more than a trilogy. My dad loves this franchise. What’s gonna be next for number 5? They gonna have Robo-Minions? Kaiju Minions? Dinosaur Minions? Alien Minions? Or even starring Welsh celebs like Greg Davies? Luke Evans? Rhys Ifans? Steve Speirs, or Rob Brydon? Or have the next Minions spin-off film set in the 80s where they face a young Balthazar Bratt with references to Gummi Bears and 80s music videos with Rick Astley and have the minions play Mario on the NES? Or have the next one in the 90s with references to the Sega Genesis, the PlayStation, or the Disney Renaissance? I’d sure as hell love to find out.

Illumination just announced a Minions 3

I just heard a news yesterday about minions 3 will be coming only in theaters for 2027.

Personally, as much as I slightly enjoyed this over the third main installment, not counting the “Minions” spinoffs, I’m a little worried that this new entry is closely solidifying the “Despicable Me” franchise as the next “Ice Age” and/or “Hotel Transylvania”. On a side note, this is the second Illumination film where a controversial actor didn’t reprise his role since “The Secret Life of Pets 2”.

I guess this means how you feel about this is similar to the Mario movie. It’s interesting too since the next Mario movie comes out in 2026 and that’s Illumination’s next movie

I wonder if Megamind The Doom Syndicate will be the next review

Honestly I liked the movie. It was funny, the Dutch dub with Jon van Eerd as gru and tygo Gernandt as Maxime were wonderful( for those who don’t know I’ve watched the Dutch dub in theaters ) and I found the ending pretty wholesome.

I think it's time for Illumination to move away from Despicable Me and the Minions; I want to see what else they can do with Nintendo

The one other Illumination film that I really am excited other than the Despicable Me and Minion movies, it has to be the follow-up to the Mario movie.

With the amount of side plots they have and the fact that they dont want to age the girls, it just makes more sense to make it into a series. It might even work well for the studio.

I really thought you were going to talk about the absence of Dru in this movie. I did hear he made a brief cameo.

I had a great time with this movie. Sure the story is more disjointed than before but I love all the characters so much. Plus I laughed a lot.

13:33 💀

Inside Out 2 9/10 Orion and the Dark 8/10 Despicable Me 4 7/10 Ultraman: Rising 7/10 Kung Fu Panda 4 6/10 The Garfield Movie 5/10 The Tiger’s Apprentice 5/10 Thelma the Unicorn 4/10 So what is next? What about The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie?

19:49 the sonic 06 mission clear/ super smash bros brawl-ultimate victory theme for sonic at the end?!

Honestly this franchise has been milked to death...it's also the reason why the minions have mixed reviews in the animation industry as characters with half the people finding them the most irritating characters of all time. Franchise fatigue is definitely at its worst with this one. Honestly they should've just done 2 mainline movies and 1 spin-off (minions). It's insane how many movies Illumination has made.

Seeing as they’ve clearly run out of things for the girls to do, they need to end the film franchise here, especially since admittedly, the ending musical number served as a pretty good tribute to the series with all the villains joining in. I feel like a fifth one would render that superfluous.

1:08 Didn’t seen that coming and That Gru F@&- 13:33 😂😂😂

I am waiting for Minions 3 where Gru gets replaced with Harvey Weinstein.

I enjoy watching the despicable me and minions movies and I think the franchise is doing fine

I actually watch the movie in theaters with my nieces and in-law, and I'm surprised that the alias scene almost got all of their names right.

Which ones do you hate more: Minions or Rabbids?

Who wants to bet that Minions 3 is called Minions: The Dawn of Gru

I would actually think a show would be a good idea for them like you know a show That is streaming on either a platform or even in television (but let’s be honest what are the fucking chances) 😅

I was wondering when you were gonna talk about Double Life. Everybody agrees that this a diss towards Drake.

Do you take requests?

Honestly I thought it was better than Despicable Me 3 and Minions The Rise Of Gru

Despicable Me is my FAVORITE franchise from Illumination! I loved the 4th installment because of the MEGA MINIONS and Gru. Jr!

Have you thought about doing another Pixar retrospective?

What was wrong with the old thumbnail?

Well, at least AniMat did give it a 7 out of 10.

We got a Young Rival, a Luchadore, an Ex-Child Actor, & a Bugman as the Big Bads, What's Next?, a Former Sidekick who's never in Despicable Me Lore before as the New Antagonist?

Glad that AniMat didn’t give it a traditional 6/10 unlike most of the recent Illumination movies before The Super Mario Bros Movie.

Despicable Me 4 The Story: 7/10 The Animation: 8/10 The Characters: 6/10 The Movie: 8/10 In short, I didn't have no major problems with the movie. I enjoyed the movie and had fun watching, but I expected more, in the middle because its awfully small. And the ending very surprising.

13:33 "That grew fu..."

I think if they dialed back on the minions and focused on Gru and his family, this franchise could have been fantastic. And if they love making Minions content, crank it up for their own movies. But Despicable Me is Gru’s movie and his interactions with his family

After watching the 4th film myself, it's harmless enough but personally I think this is easily the weakest of the Despicable Me franchise!! It's the same song and dance routine, but it's doing so under quantity over quality. If the creative team just gave the script one more re write and have most of the characters aged up, it could've come out more than decent. However due to having fast running time and cliche slide plots, it resulted in my viewing experience to feel betrayed no different than Kung Fu Panda 4. Either way, the folks at illumination entertainment should end the series here unless their studio is struggling behind the scenes. Seriously, I don't want Despicable Me to be another Ice age!! 😮‍💨😮‍💨

I think the series needs to be willing to get "boring." As in, focus more on the story with a few cast of characters while putting the comic relief characters on the sidelines. No need to go hyperactive, wacky, and bizarre all the time. In fact, I'd dig a TV series where Gru works with his old partners in crime (back when he was about to be part of a new wave of villains) to stop a threat only he and his friends know. And I call it Gruicide Squad.

Illumination also annoced a despicable me 5

I’m not hating but this seems like one of the franchises where the studios see/think they can do LOTS with it. So they continue. Also the stuff with the Minions In the movie: i think that’s meant to be more of a comedy plot or side plot for the minions. At 14:26-14:34 I think they were trying to make this relatable since sometimes it’s normal for kids or someone to struggle with living in a new place.

they said if a good story line crosses their heads, then despicable me 5 will likely happen

I may be late to comment but i may go and see this movie. I am not a big dispicable me guy even when the first one came. But what you said encouraged me to see this.

Speaking of the ending, am I the only one thinking that’s more like fan service like what Kung Fu Panda 4 did with the villians and the Furious Five. Aren’t conclusions of franchises the kind that represent that we say goodbye to the characters

Minions 3 is set for release in 2027

I think this demonstrates how no matter what, Illumination is allergic to quality and although I'm glad they're against AI, they sure are in favor of making soulless movies with mediocre animation and generic to unlikable characters. They're basically the LJN of animation. They had a chance to make a great movie to win me over with The Mario Movie, and they blew it.

I can probably call your Best animated movies of 2024 right now Best: Inside out 2 Ultraman Wild robot Despicable me 4 Kfp4 Worst: Thelma Megamind 2 Garfield Tigers apprentice ???

I’m pissed off he gave this a higher score than Migration. Migration is way better than this in fact it has a 72% on Rotten tomatoes while Depsicable me 4 has a 55%.

I know I’m late, but here’s my review on the 4th Despicable Me movie: While it may not be as good as the first two Despicable Me movies, Despicable Me 4 is a slight improvement from the 3rd movie. However, just like most of the Despicable Me movies, including the Minions spin off movies, the writing isn’t really the strongest as this 4th installment of the Despicable Me franchise doesn’t really have a main story to tell, but it rather packs many subplots. But what makes up for it though is the engaging action scenes, some good comedy, great voice acting (especially Steve Carell as Gru & Will Ferrell as Maxime), and a great ending (I won’t discuss it though due to spoiler reasons). And just like most of the films by Illumination, this is the type of movie where it is meant to be watched to have fun. Despicable Me 4 is another good example of a crowd pleaser, where it delivers what audiences want to see in a Despicable Me movie, rather than satisfy critics with thought-provoking writing & storytelling. Overall, I had a great time watching the 4th Despicable Me movie. I’m going to rate it a 7.5/10.