Despicable Dad
“Despicable” turns out to be an exaggeration in this funny cartoon, but it’s the perfect title for both the audience and the producers, because the straight talk is often more powerful than the straight talked. In fact, the mean Grub is not mean at all, just a bit of a stubborn eccentric. What he did, to some extent, is a kind of “return to simplicity”. After stripping off the coat of social attributes, you and I are like Grub, with a naked “bad”.
The image world of Despicable Me is a partially alienated world. In addition to the world that runs according to normal logic, there is an abnormal underground world, where there are bad banks, powerful thieves, and huge secret factories built to blackmail the world. However, these two incompatible world systems exist in a form that is difficult to be detected. This obviously corresponds to the constant duality of character and thought in people, and our world is constantly oscillating between good and bad, with the only difference being that the time and scope for the pendulum to swing to the bad side is often relatively short and limited by the repairing power of human society itself. This kind of whimsical approach is undoubtedly very suitable for animation to interpret, and only animation cannot be limited by time and space to carry out the unrestrained imagination. Mr. Grub, who appears as a villain, is first and foremost a man who needs to survive. His job is to get loans from the villain bank to fund his stealing. The purpose of their stealing is to blackmail, and the targets of their stealing are pyramids, the Great Wall, the Statue of Liberty and even the moon. The same can be done easily in animated films, but the process has to be fun and entertaining.
What do animated movies really bring us compared to live action movies? I think the greatest significance of animated films is to show the world, even the ugly side, with flexibility and sensibility. There are few cartoons that directly and starkly show the terrible things in human nature, and we see them even in a somber style like Tim’s. Bolton’s animation never has shocking scenes. Therefore, if the film is a mirror of the real world, then the animated film is the most lovely fun-house mirror, to laugh at the world, to laugh at life, to happy mood. Just like Fantastic Mr. Fox, Despicable Me follows this principle to create a model story, deconstructing and alienating anti-social behaviors that cannot be found on the table in the real world, and exaggerating to illustrate a positive truth: being noble is also a passport for the despicable.
However, apart from the powerful commercial properties of Hollywood animated films, the most admirable point is that they never preach, even if they preach, you will not feel it. In the case of Despicable Me, it is clearly a movie that encourages people to do good, but with its smooth rhythm, funny plot and exaggerated characters, all the preaching is separated from the invisible. As the old Chinese saying goes, “From good to rise, from evil to collapse”, from evil to change, it is difficult to good, imagine a villain like Grub, it is difficult to do good things. However, this film, through the intervention of three children from orphanages, sooth Grub’s twisted heart with his childish innocence, thus touching the soft part of his heart unconsciously. When Grub uses “noble” as a weapon, he completely overcomes the “despicable” self in the past. So, “noble” in this moment, in the world of animation, become the pass of the despicable, when a despicable behavior of the people raised the noble flag, his heart will become happy.
Of course, Grub is not really a despicable person. He is just a poor person whose wishes are not met, and who lacks love and praise. His behavior reflects the pain in many people’s lives, which can flare up under certain conditions. Against society and against my own nature “Despicable Me” can touch people, partly because of this, everyone has a “bad” side, and “bad” in many times is a kind of emotional vent, the best medicine to cure it is love. It is often said that “love knows no bounds”. Warm love really has such power, and this does not only exist in the movies.
To be sure, there is an opportunity to make mean noble by giving love, but it depends on the willingness of many people to do it.
