We’re six movies into the Despicable Me franchise, and they’ve all been a fluffy fun time at the movies. But there’s something about Despicable Me 4, especially the ending, that feels like closure. Is it time to say goodbye to Gru after all?
What’s Despicable Me 4 About?
Felonious Gru, our favorite supervillain-turned-dad and agent for the Anti-Villain League, and his wife Lucy Wilde are happily raising their family of adoptive daughters Margo, Edith, and Agnes, and their biological son, Gru Jr, with the help of their bright yellow henchmen, the Minions. Gru is a good father, but for some reason, Gru Jr. doesn’t like his Dada very much!
At the reunion of his villain school Lycée Pas Bon, Gru helps the AVL nab Maxime Le Mal, a French supervillain who was also Gru’s nemesis at school. Mal, with his insect-inspired powers, threatens revenge, forcing Gru and his family, with their three Minion nannies, to leave their home and move to an AVL safehouse in a town called Mayflower. The remaining Minions are taken in at the AVL and five of them undergo an experiment that grants them superpowers. Behold, The Megaminions!
Gru, Lucy, and the girls all have to assume new identities, make new friends, and stay under the radar—a hard job when you’re Gru! He tries too hard to mingle with their new neighbors, the country club-going Prescott family. But their teenage daughter Poppy has sinister plans of her own and seeks out Gru, jeopardizing their incognito identities and bringing Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend, Valentina, right to their doorstep!
Despicable Me 4 is directed by Chris Renaud and co-directed by Patrick Delage. The original voice cast returns with Steve Carell as Gru, Kristen Wiig as Lucy Wilde, Miranda Cosgrove as Margo, Dana Gaier as Edith, Steve Coogan as AVL director Silas Ramsbottom (hehe bottom!), and Pierre Coffin as the voice of the Minions. New additions to the cast include Madison Nolan (Agnes), Will Ferrell (Maxime Le Mal), Sofía Vergara (Valentina), Joey King (Poppy Prescott), Stephen Colbert (Perry Prescott), Chloe Fineman (Patsy Prescott), director Chris Renaud himsef (Principal Übelschlecht), and Tara Strong (Gru Jr.)
How does Despicable Me 4 End?
Despicable Me 4 ends on a rather sweet, ‘all’s well that ends well’ note.
After Principal Übelschlecht finds out through security camera footage that Gru was involved in the abduction of the school’s mascot, the honey badger Lenny, who is fitted with a GPS tracker, she immediately calls her favorite student Maxime Le Mal to tell him they have a common enemy. She then heads over to Mayflower, where she finds Margo, Edith, and Agnes at home and starts interrogating them.
Alerted by Margo, Gru and Lucy return from their tennis club date with the Prescotts and chaos ensues as they fight Übelschlecht. Amidst it all, Maxime and Valentina kidnap Gru Jr. The AVL is alerted and Director Ramsbottom brings the Megaminions out of retirement (after they trashed an entire city trying to “save” people) to help Gru.
Gru tries to chase after Maxime Le Mal’s bug aircraft, and is helped in by Poppy Prescott (who he helped steal Lenny). Even after Gru manages to crash the aircraft, Maxime almost wins by turning Gru Jr. into a superpowered insect just like him. But all the good times that Gru Jr spent with his father break the trance, and he helps his Dada put away the bad guys. The Mega Minions then arrive, completely crushing Maxime like a bug.
The Grus finally get to go back to their original home, where they have a picnic with their extended family, the Minions, Gru’s brother Dru (from Despicable Me 3), their mother Marlena Gru, and Dr. Nefario, who reverts Gru Jr. into his non-bug form!
But that’s not all! Gru visits Maxime Le Mal in prison, where he confesses to him that the thing Maxime hated him for in school—Gru stealing the song that Maxime was going to perform at the annual talent show—was deliberate. Gru tells him that Maxime was afraid Gru was a better singer.
The two then decide to have a karaoke-off in a prison talent show. And surprise surprise, there are some familiar supervillain faces from all the past Despicable Me and Minions movies, in the crowd—Vector, Balthazar Bratt, El Macho, Scarlett and Herb Overkill, Jean Clawed, Nun-Chuck, Svengeance, Belle Bottom, Stronghold, and even Mr. Perkins, the former director of the Bank of Evil.
Why the ending of Despicable Me 4 feels like closure?
Despicable Me 4 was a fun, cackling ride, as it always is when Steve Carell makes Gru hilariously adorable and the Minions just make your stomach ache with laughter over their antics. But it also makes you wonder what other frontier is there for these goofball characters to conquer.
We’ve seen Gru come so far, from the supervillain who constantly tried to find an evil purpose to fill the void in his life to a girl dad, a loving husband, a doting father to Gru Jr., and a man who uses his powers and Minion army for good now as an agent of the AVL. He has love in his life, a beautiful family, and any issues he might have had with his father, mother, and brother have shown to be healed.
What’s more, with the introduction of Poppy Prescott, you see Gru as being ready to pass on the baton to a new generation of villains with honor. She’s practically his protégé. With that final song sequence where Gru is seen making peace with all the supervillains he antagonized, it sure looks like it’s time for Gru’s story to end with a happily ever after.
Oh, but please, let the Mega Minions assemble and go forth to take on the MCU and DCEU! Superhero fatigue what?
