Seera Akra - Critical Essay 2 (Despicable Me)

The Essay:

Art critics usually accuse Hollywood for producing “commercial rubbish”. This could be true, yet to a certain degree. Critics, usually, over-generalize this accusation to include all Hollywood movies. Nevertheless, Despicable Me, a Hollywood cute and comic animation, directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, presents entertaining content to audience of a wide range of ages, and, yet, it is not rubbish. Surprisingly, Despicable Me illustrates important social and psychological concepts. Through the relationship between its protagonist and his mother, the movie shows how a child’s development is affected by observational learning, modeling, and parental nurture. 

Despicable Me is about Gru, a looser villain raised by an evil mother who always turns him down and discourages his achievements. He engages in a plan to steal the moon trying to impress his mother and compete with the smart villain, Vector. He adopts three orphan girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes, in order to use them in his plan. However, the girls’ presence changes Gru, bringing out his inner goodness. (Hoffin and Renaud, 2010)

During his application of his plan to steal the moon, Gru remembers a scene from his childhood that shows the way his mother talked to him, deeply affecting his personality. According to David Myers (2002), the author of Exploring Psychology, “parents do matter.” (81) The movie attempts to show this and to make people aware of the devastating effects parents may have on their child. In the movie, the child Gru excitedly tells his mother: “Mom, someday I am going to go to the moon.” His mother replies: “Uh, am afraid u’re too late son, Nasa isn’t sending the monkeys anymore.” Innocent Gru looks heartbroken and deeply disappointed. (Hoffin and Renaud, 2010) Another scene also shows the mother showing total carelessness to Gru when he showed her his achievements. At the same time, the movie shows old Gru as a failure. Through these demonstrations, the movie sends messages to its audience about the effect of parental nurture, specifically verbal encouragement. Negative comments towards a child’s or his/her achievements, reduces a child’s confidence and self-trust.

At the beginning of the movie, Gru receives a call from his mother that demonstrates how the mother’s personality has inspired Gru’s life. Gru’s mother is a violent and evil personality who encourages and practices villainy in different forms. First of all, she calls her son to laugh happily at his failure. Second, Gru attempts to convince her of his ability to succeed in a future big theft and she sarcastically replies “Huh, good luck with that.” Lastly, when the mother is done with the call, she hits a boxing bag and throws away someone standing behind it. (Hoffin and Renaud, 2010) These acts clearly demonstrate an exaggerated level of evilness and violent behavior. At the same time, the whole movie revolves around Gru’s attempt to prove his evilness. The personalities of Gru and his mother, the connection they have, and the explicit relationship shown between the two, are all to prove one personality as the cause of another. The movie attempts to show how a mother affects her child through, “observational learning” and “modeling.” (Myers, 2002) According to Myers (2002), the author of Exploring psychology, observational learning is “learning by observing others.” (245) Moreover, modeling is observing that leads to imitating a model. (Myers, 2002) Since, parents are the first models in the life of their children, children always learn from and imitate them. Obviously, Gru’s model is his mother, thus he grows up to become like her.

When Despicable Me illustrates and makes people aware of the importance of nurture and modeling, it is more efficient than any lecture or book. This is because it plays on the subconscious and spreads the information in an entertaining and memorable manner. It is not necessary for a movie to be non-understandable sophisticated one in order to have effects on people, make a change, or be called high art. Junk is sometimes useful!

Work Cited

Cohen, J., Healy, J., & Meledandri, C. (Producers), & Coffin, P., & Renaud, C. (Directors). 
          (2010). Despicable me [Motion picture]. United States: Universal Pictures and

           Illumination  Entertainment.

Myers, D. (2007). Exploring psychology (7th ed.). United States: Worth

           Publishers.

The Directors:

This is a picture of the directors, Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud. Renaud is at the right and Coffin at the left.

Pierre Coffin directed the short film, Gray's Fall and the animation Sea Squad. He is also an actor and an artist.

Chris Renaud won an academy Award in 2006 for producing No Time for Nuts. He is also a storyboard artist, a writer, a producer, and production designer of other famous animation movies. For instance, he was a stroyboard artist  in Ice Age 3 and Horton Hears a Who!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0719208/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1853544/