Movie Project - Day 44: Despicable Me

When you watch something like Despicable Me, you need to have two things in mind. First, this movie is incredibly silly and does not take itself very seriously, and second, the old guy is NOT Eric Idle. With that in mind, my daughter is not familiar with Monty Python (yet!) and I have yet to see her take a movie seriously. In short, she thought it was very funny.

Since we watched this at home, and not in 3D, a few of the scenes did not have the same impact that they would have in 3D, such as when Gru lands the spaceship, or the rollercoaster ride. Some of those shots were pure 3D grabs, and in 2D it doesn't play as well. The story still shines through, and there is a story worth watching beneath all the crazy effects and jokes.

Being a father, I could understand some of Gru's frustrations in trying to get work done and being plagued with the incessant demands of those three girls. My girls are still quite young, and I can wait just fine until they reach the ages of the girls in the film. Erini didn't really relate to the girls that much, because she was too busy laughing at the minions.

The best comparison for those little yellow creatures with prehensile appendages, would be some sort of cousin to the Raving Rabbids only a bit more organized. Only a little though.

DESPICABLE ME: Movie Trailer 4. Watch more top selected videos about: Despicable Me, Movie Trailers

The version we watched was DVD, and the Blu-ray has more special features, such as three shorts starring the minions. And a banana. Not too sure about the details on that, but I'm told it's hilarious.

If it can be believed, we don't own a copy of this, nor do Grandma and Grandpa. It was my brother-in-law from whom we borrowed their copy, and previous to that I rented it from a local rental outlet. However, after watching it again this past week, I think we might look into acquiring a copy of it. We need to get settled in our new place, and that will involve finding a new bed for our daughter. Kijiji stiffed me on that, but we're still looking.

Cheat Code #1 - Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time

This is the third video game review I've done with my daughter's input, and I only now realized that I should have set it up as a separate series. Since I was cheating previously with the movie project by adding in those review to the Movie Project, the title Cheat Code seemed appropriate.

We originally got this game for Grandma and Grandpa Tolley, since it was mentioned that they wanted more multiplayer games for their Wii. Something that everyone could enjoy and the kids could play along too. This game delivers that in spades. This is the kind of game that you could play for hours, or just pick up for fifteen minutes. Setup takes no time at all as the extra players are added in via the washing machine that is capable of creating temporal rifts. It just pops out of nowhere, spits out a Rabbid, and then disappears again. Much like the Rabbids do as they ride this washing machine through time, making a mess of things, or just adding a story that was skipped over in the annals for history.



The entrance to the game is through a bathroom, and upon entering the main area of the museum, a roll of toilet paper gets stuck to the characters foot. I found it quite annoying at first, but when I played co-op for the first time, I saw how important it was. All the players are anchored to this roll of toilet paper, which makes it quite handy when someone doesn't want to go where you want, or in the case of my daughter, doesn't know how to handle the controls very well. You can drag these characters along, and it makes for great comedy!

Most people know the Rabbids for their unique voice, or rather scream. BWAAAAAAHHH! Erini and her cousins always mention this whenever they ask if they can play the game. In this game, that is taken up a notch. There is an area where you can do Rabbid chorus, and the tone is adjusted by rotating the Wiimote clockwise or counterclockwise.

On feature that I liked quite a bit in previous Rabbid games was the dance sequences. While it is featured in this game as well, it's not at all the same, and it seems Ubisoft directly imported some songs from Just Dance 2 into Raving Rabbids. It's still fun having the Rabbids dance to Jungle Boogie, but they take a back seat to the dance steps demonstrated on screen.

A number of mini games are hidden throughout the museum areas, such as a memory game, object chase games, even a bouncing game. The part I had the most difficulty figuring out was the flying. Erini loved it whenever I crashed, so maybe I was doing something right after all!

Some might argue that these games encourage fighting and violence because of the fact you can beat on other Rabbids at pretty much any time, and there is no penalty for it. The same argument could be said for the Looney Toons, but I don't see my daughter running off to hit her cousins with comically large weapons. At least not those that can inflict lethal damage. I would think that I've thought her well enough what is acceptable and what is not.



My daughter and her cousins love this game like none other, and it would be better if they were able to play the game with me instead of just watch. This really is a great party game, and the more people you have the funnier it gets.

That's why I figured it would be ideal for Grandma and Grandpa's house!