Finally saw Despicable Me, which I've been looking forward to for over a year. As usual Will Arnett is used only passingly and wastefully; the plot is wan (has the Last Holiday problem of the main conflict/antagonist being engaged too sporadically and weakly); and I know they're meant to be caricatures but there's a borderline nastiness to the way many of the characters are drawn.

On the plus side, I enjoyed the fact that, refreshingly, few of the characters bore any resemblance to the actors voicing them (that got old fast- I'm looking at you, DreamWorks); it was worth the price of admission for the soundtrack alone -- just astounding, like a character on its own (if a touch too... slinky? for the target audience - it's very very foxy); and the space scene was breathtakingly, even divinely beautiful - in fact the movie is pretty gorgeous throughout, with tons of eye candy in every shot.

And not that physical plausibility is a paramount concern in animation generally, but my favorite element might have been the gross improbability and inefficiency of Gru's and Vector's modes of transportation. Terrific sight gags (though I seemed to be the only person in the theater to think so - I loon-cackled alone every time they appeared onscreen).

Something about the physical oddities of the movie reminded me of Triplets of Belleville - the same cheerfully daft but also faintly sinister effect.