The first setback of Despicable Me 2, the 2013 sequel to the animated movie Despicable Me, is that it seems unnecessary. While it has a few strong moments, this feeling is inescapable, no amount of popcorn will drown it out. The fact that it follows so soon after another unnecessary animated sequel, Monsters University, only exacerbates this problem. Both will of course make an immense profit, so perhaps the vast majority of movie goers are so numb to disappointment that they don't care. Or maybe the vast majority of movie goers have children now, who knows.
In Despicable Me 2, ex-supervillain and adoptive parent Gru (Steve Carell) is reluctantly recruited by the Anti-Villain League to hunt down a new supervillain before he can put his master plan into play. Gru's mind, however, is elsewhere, on the growing pains of his young charges and the charms of fellow agent Lucy (Kristen Wiig). This is an absolute reversal of the first film. Gru’s humorous despicableness doesn't carry over, because the first film was all about the three little girls curing their father of his villainy, which they did entirely too well. Instead the sequel is mostly about finding Gru a wife so as to turn his unconventional family in to a more conventional one.