It’s kind of vague as to how it happened exactly, but it now seems that animated features have become the new event films that invariably get labelled “must see”. Possibly the fact that they spend such a long time producing them and spending silly amounts of money on making them look pretty has something to do with it.

2010 has already seen a couple of real corkers released, most notably How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3. And with Dreamworks releasing their MegaMind before the year’s out, it’s been a bumper year for colouring in within the lines.

You would therefore have to be braver than the bravest badger in the world to release a feature against such fierce competition, or more than just a little cuckoo in the head. Universal’s Despicable Me is probably a mixture of the two; and who wouldn’t be curious to see a badger with a touch of the cuckoo about it?

Gru (Steve carell) has strived hard all his life to be the best at what he does. This kind of attitude would normally be applauded; however Gru’s chosen career path isn’t one that would see him getting a pat on the back from Joe Public. Gru is a villain. In fact, he’s no normal villain, he is a super villain. And that’s something he’s very proud of.

Imagine his horror then, when a new baddie on the block shows up and steals the only thing that really matters to Gru – his limelight. Vector (Jason Segel) wants to be the world’s number one supervillain so badly, that he doesn’t care whose superbad toes he steps on to succeed.

Gru may be down, but he’s not quite out yet. Not only does he have an army of Minions on his side, but he also adopts three young orphan girls; with their unwitting help, he will once again regain his title as numero uno super-villain-o.

What he doesn’t plan on however is that these three orphans have strange, peculiar powers all of their own, and the more time he spends with them the more they become like human kryptonite to his super-evilness. Will evil trump evil? Or will good knock evil’s heads together and come out on top?

Despite being a tad late to the CGI party, Universal’s first computer animated film makes a fine debut. Although Mac Guff of Paris sounds like a perfume (“the scent to put the wind up you – Mac Guff, Paris”) they’re the monsieur animators responsible for the look and feel of the film.

Considering it was made by a bunch of creative Europeans, it’s disappointing to see that Despicable Me looks like any other CGI effort. Obviously when compared to the films of Pixar and the like, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but in an increasingly homogenous CGI world, it would have been nice to see a hint of originality in its presentation.

That said, it pushes the 3D boat out further than any other recent animated title. Bearing in mind the extra cost of watching the 3D versions of films, you’ll definitely feel like you’ll be getting your money’s worth at least. Yes some of the effects are obvious and silly, but it doesn’t deter from the fact that they’re highly enjoyable.

Having Carell on board must have felt like a coup at the time; however, his voice is almost unrecognisable, disguised as it is by a weighty and slightly warped impression of The Count from Sesame Street.

The premise is certainly a fun one though. The problem is, as soon as the orphans are introduced to the story, everything soon becomes overly sugar-coated. Would it have been so wrong if Gru had blasted the three kids into a trillion pieces? This isn’t a Disney film after all. Unfortunately everyone plays it safe and the ‘heart-warming’ orphans certainly keep proceedings kiddie friendly. Considering Gru is supposedly the greatest villain of his generation he’s just a bit on the squeaky clean side; his actions after adopting the girls are those of a man who has clearly had a few operations, where his back bone and testicles have obviously been removed.

One really grey area is with the inclusion of the Minions. Sure they’re fun enough and are certainly the butt of many a great gag, but there’s something not quite right about them. It’s probably their remarkable similarity to Rabbids that feature in a number of video games. They may look different, but the way they sound and act is definitely Rabbid country. What’s more, the company that make the game Ubisoft, are a French company. Animators Mac Guff as we have already established, are also French...It’s surprising then that Ubisoft haven’t gotten onto their lawyers tout suite in a Rabbid frenzy.

Despicable Me then certainly ticks all the right boxes. But in doing so, it does little to make itself stick out from the animated crowd.