Like many parents, Chris Meledandri's mother was very strict about what kinds of movies she'd let her child watch at a young age. Unlike many parents, she preferred to expose her son to, say, EASY RIDER rather than BAMBI. And this explains how Chris grew up to be one of the most successful producers of mainstream, family-skewing animated films in Hollywood?
It may be difficult to find traces of Meledandri's counterculture upbringing in the films he shepherded to the screen as the founding president of 20th Century Fox Animation (e.g. ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS, ROBOTS and the ICE AGE movies), but his support of upstart animators (he brought the Blue Sky crew to the studio) and his love for the work of Dr. Seuss suggests that there's at least a touch of nonconformity present in this veteran executive's filmmaking philosophy. Actually, it's tempting to view Meledandri's disastrous $75 million gamble on TITAN A.E. as a daring act of studio sabotage, but he seems to regard burning piles of Rupert Murdoch's money as a failed professional suicide*, so let's move on.
Meledandri certainly has. In 2008, after thirteen years at Fox, he launched Illumination Entertainment, an independent production company that will provide Universal with a promising slate of family movies over the next five years. First up is DESPICABLE ME, a Grinch-y little saga from directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud about a supervillain's attempt to steal the moon - which gets complicated when he finds himself unexpectedly raising three little orphan girls. Judging from the fifteen minutes of footage Meledandri recently screened for a select group of troublemaking online journalists (including yours truly), it appears to be a smart play for a fledgling company: the concept is simple, the tone is amiable, and the voice cast is filled out with a who's who of who's hot in comedy today. TITAN A.E. this is not.
No, this is heartwarming stuff with a slightly mischievous bent. As a supervillain, Gru (Steve Carell doing an amusing vocal mash-up of Bela Lugosi and Ricardo Montalban) is less about being feared and more about being a nuisance. His proudest accomplishment thus far: stealing NBC's Times Square jumbotron. Gru's other major thefts - the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower - sound more impressive until you realize they're the miniature Las Vegas versions. Mostly, though, it seems Gru spends his time strolling around town performing acts of mild cruelty to little children, as seen in this teaser trailer...
The heart of DESPICABLE ME is Gru's unlikely relationship with the three little girls, who basically adopt him as their father. They're charmed by Gru's brusque demeanor (certainly not his intent), and successfully bully him into doing whatever they want. This includes stopping off at an oceanside amusement park, where they talk the fun-phobic Gru into riding a rollercoaster (he ultimately loves it). They also convince him to throw money at a rigged carnival game, which results in Gru blasting the entire attraction to smithereens. These may not be the most inventive scenarios, but your kids (or nieces and nephews) will probably love it.
As you'll notice from the four teaser trailers now available online, Universal and Illumination are revealing the characters and narrative of DESPICABLE ME in piecemeal fashion. Most interestingly, they've yet to introduce the girls. We had a rather candid discussion with Meledandri regarding the wisdom of this approach, and he indicated that the teasers are designed to encourage a sense of discovery in the viewer. "I like it, but what the hell is 'it'?" is the reaction Meledandri hopes to evoke at this point in the marketing process. While this may sound counterintuitive, the slow roll-out worked rather brilliantly for the first ICE AGE (which was sold first on the peripheral antics of Scrat the squirrel). Meledandri is clearly hoping the minions are DESPICABLE ME's Scrat. To be honest, I'm not crazy about the minions' bit in the teaser, but they're fairly amusing in the context of the film.
The most impressive aspect of DESPICABLE ME thus far is the animation: Gru's underground fortress is rich with activity and background detail (it's not scored to Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse", but it could be); the character designs are striking (courtesy of RATATOUILLE's Carter Goodrich); and the roller coaster sequence promises to induce a good deal of vertigo on the big screen. This is the best-looking animated film Meledandri's been involved with; if he keeps encouraging this kind of commitment to distinct visuals, I can't wait to see how Ricky Gervais's FLANIMALS turns out.
Illumination is also working on a live-action/animation mix called I HOP (starring Russell Brand and James Marsden), as well as an adaptation of Dr. Seuss's THE LORAX. Considering Melendari's track record, I've no doubt he'll rack up massive profits for Universal as he did for Fox. But does he have it in him to inspire the kinds of classics Pixar keeps churning out on a yearly basis? Obviously, with his company in its infancy, he needs to deliver box office right now, but once/if he gets settled, I'd like to see him tap into that ten-year-old kid who sat through EASY RIDER. Pleasing audiences is nice and all, but blowing their minds is where it's at.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
*I recall enjoying the film when I saw it in an empty theater on opening day in 2000, but I'm a sucker for Don Bluth.
