History Headscratchers / DespicableMe

!!The effects of the Shrinking ray
* Why didn't Vector know the shrinking ray would stop working? In the beginning of the movie, we see him shrinking his toilet and his sink and his toothbrush. Are we to assume he never noticed it coming back to size again?
** The Nefario principle states that the bigger the mass, the shorter the duration of the shrink effect. This works pretty well for all shrunken objects, the sole exception is a minion that grew back to normal too early. But perhaps it wears off on living beings faster, too?
** He probably just threw the shrunken objects out and got new ones. He didn't see them because they were at the dump.
** [[FridgeHorror Good thing we don't know what happened to the elephant in Asia, as it was likely taken out of that big room and placed ]] [[AndIMustScream in a small box or something.]]
*** Wouldn't the force of a quickly growing elephant break the box?
*** Indeed, it would. It would probably injure the elephant slightly, but it wouldn't get stuck inside.
!!What happened to that painted pyramid?
* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse Did they get the pyramid back?]]
** [[LampshadeHanging No,]] [[RuleOfFunny but it made a great]] BrickJoke.
** Would that be a [[IncrediblyLamePun sandstone block joke]]?

* Here's a trickier question: how the heck did Vector manage to snatch that pyramid out from under everyone's noses in the first place? It was obviously a quiet heist, since nobody realized the pyramid was missing until the blow-up replica collapsed. He does have some incredible equipment, but none of it looks sturdy enough to move such a massive object all the way to his house ''on the other side of the globe'', let alone do so stealthily. That shrink ray he and Gru were trying to steal would make shipping such heavy objects easier, of course, but Vector didn't have that at the beginning.
** I'm only revealing the secret because I don't want that little weasel getting unfair credit. [[AssPull He never stole the Pyramid of Kheops.]] Instead he had a replica built behind his house, spray-painted it blue, and then ground the original pyramid into sand-sized particles (using his patented Barnacle Blasters to quickly degrade the stone blocks into grit). Surely you noticed the surrounding dunes were a little higher than they should be? This way he gets all the credit for the theft, then can hold the fake for ransom, then double-cross the Egyptian government with his ersatz tomb.
--> '''Vector:''' ''Unpredictable!'' Oh yeah!
** ...I just thought he stole it in the middle of the night when no one would be around and then just regrew it.
!!The number of eyes
* Why do some of the Minions only have one eye like a cyclops, while the others have two eyes? What determines how many eyes they have? I'd think it's genetic, but assuming they're all the same species I'd think they'd at least have the same basic facial structure.
** I have no real evidence, but I think it's gender. Didn't the mommy minion have only one eye while the daddy and baby minions had 2 (I honestly can't remember)?
*** The mommy and daddy minions were both guys (based on their names), and it also seems that maybe all the minions are guys (again, based off of the names.)
*** I wonder why some of them didn't have three.
*** At one point a blueprint for minions is visible in the lab, implying that Gru ''created'' them all. It's probably just a design feature - he built them to avert OnlySixFaces.
*** I believe their eye count in related to their age, the parent minions in the shopping scene had 2 eyes and the baby one had 1 eye.
*** [[RuleOfCool 'Cause it's cool.]]
** Come to think of it, all of the one-eyed minions look exactly the same. Why are there no fat or tall one-eyed minions?
*** Possibly they are the first generation and Gru was still practicing it and improving his skills, thus making copies if the same blueprint untill he became better and putting variance into his work.
!!The Jumbotron heist
* Gru ''stole the Times Square Jumbotron''. That isn't Supervillainy? Granted, it's not the Pyramid of Giza, but still...
** It ''was'' supervillainy. (And it was hilarious.) That might have been one of his few profitable ventures that Mr. Perkins mentioned.
*** If Gru still has it, how did anyone profit?
*** You know how expensive a decent plasma tv is? Five finger discount to the max on this one.
** He was also able to steal those landmarks from Vegas. Granted, they're not the real versions that are worth millions, but the miniatures have got to be a big deal.
!!Anti-Gravity and outer space
* The anti-gravity minion drank an ANTI-gravity serum, so he gets repelled by gravity, but why was he able to just hover around the moon when he should've been repelled by it?
** He wasn't drifting that close, and the earth could be seen in the background, so he just got caught between the two gravitational fields. Also, RuleOfFunny.
** Like many {{Mad Scientist}}s, Nefario seems to be of the "mix it up, see what happens, and give it a name" school, rather than developing hypotheses from coherent models. So perhaps he actually developed a hover-around-the-moon serum — it would have the same effect.
** My guess is that it inverts gravity's pull. So on Earth the now gravity push is enough to send him in space. On the moon it's barely enough to make him float some meter over the ground.
** He did develop the principle of turning the Minions back yellow.
!!The innocence of children
* Did the girls ever figure out Gru wasn't really a spy? I wonder if Margo caught on, but played along and didn't tell the others because he was a good dad.
** The answer's no, because his lab looks identical to the spy lab sequences in Bond films.
!!Does Gru know how banks work?
* What possessed Gru to go to the bank with nothing in hand? I mean, getting the money for the rocket isn't necessary to steal the shrink ray. Exposition I guess, but still.
** Maybe the money would have helped with the shrink ray heist, even if it wasn't crucial.
** He didn't go with nothing in hand; he had blueprints and a convincing presentation. Making sure the money's there for the rocket before starting the plan isn't a terrible idea. Stealing the shrink ray would have been the easiest part of the plan if Mr. Perkins hadn't sent Vector to get it first.
----
* For that matter, why does Gru need to get a loan from a bank? Can't he just ''rob'' a bank? In fact, when he first mentioned getting money from a bank, that's what I thought he meant.
** Maybe it was a [[RuleOfFunny joke]]
** Robbing banks is for ordinary, everyday, ho-hum villains. Gru is a ''super'' villain.
** Or maybe the Bank of Evil secretly controls ALL the Banks. Everywhere.
*** I guess the banks figured that after so many robberies; if you can't beat them, join them.
*** "Bank of Evil: Formerly Lehman Brothers." Besides which, bank robbing is risky business for a (relatively) small reward; probably not enough to finance a moon shot on its own.
** Whether or not the Bank of Evil controls ''all'' the other banks, it's likely that it's the only bank cartel large enough to be capable of funding anything as big as Gru's moon shot. Consider also what happened to that carnival barker who [[MuggingTheMonster tried to scam Gru out of his money with a rigged game]], and then realize that Gru, for all of his deadly weapons that can annihilate whole buildings, is afraid of the bank manager! In all likelihood, the Bank of Evil's security forces are better armed than Gru or any of the other super-villains they finance are; and if they're also using those weapons to defend the more "legitimate" banks fronting for their operations, woe to any petty criminal who [[RobbingTheMobBank made the mistake of taking up bank robbing at what he didn't realize was one of their bank branches]]. One of the silver linings to the CrapsackWorld of ''Despicable Me'' is that it probably doesn't have very many bank robbers or other petty criminals in it anymore...
!!It's a MOON, not a toy
* How come they treat the shrunken moon like nothing more than an exotic golf ball? It's the freakin' MOON. If anything it should be an extremely dense exotic golf ball.
** That's actually justified. Whatever comic book science the shrink-ray runs on seems to decrease mass somehow as well. Note how the shrunken minion is able to be both flicked around, and casually held with one hand.
*** ShrinkRay, item 3. This isn't the first work in which "shrinking an object shrinks its mass as well" occurs, and probably won't be the last.
** Dr. Nefario said "The larger the mass of an object, the quicker the effects of the shrink ray wear off!" He should have said ''original'' mass.
** The problem is, if he somehow made the moon that much less massive, it would have to move a lot faster to conserve momentum.
*** Again, {{Supervillain}} ShrinkRay. [[MST3KMantra Conservation of momentum? What's that?]]
*** No, the momentum went the same place the mass did.
!!Dance Lessons
* Dance lessons are kind of expensive. The three girls have obviously been going for some time, but... would an orphanage ''really'' put out the money for that? Especially one run by Miss Hattie?
** Well, some activities give some organizations a discount and even let some under privileged kids learn free. Miss Hattie might have let them take dance class so they could get out of her hair when they aren't selling cookies. All the activity would make them tired. Also, a regular activity would make Miss Hattie look like less of a monster to the public. Though we don't buy it.
*** "All the activity would make them tired"? Actually, this user does a ''lot'' of activity every day and it ''doesn't'' make me tired.
*** Miss Hattie seems to be the type to stick them in a box of shame when she wants them out of her hair. The dance classes and inconvenient recital seems to be there only because the script calls for it.
*** Unless the dance school teaches Miss Hattie's future minions agility and coordination to prepare them for mastering fighting skills later on.
*** You, sir or madam, deserve some kind of a prize.
** Alternatively, Miss Hattie wants more income from cookie sales, and the dance lessons allow the girls to sell to more parents.
** Miss Hattie's basically a BadBoss who is only in the orphanage business for the money.
** It's likely Hattie's orphanage has some kind of institutional sweetheart deal with the studio/school where the girls take their lessons (so the lessons aren't that expensive after all), and in addition to being a convenient gathering of potential customers for the cookies, it's also a great way to market the girls themselves. ([[ImTakingHerHomeWithMe Think the kid's cute and wish you could take her home with you?]] Hattie may just be able to arrange that for you.) It's likely she gets paid for every girl she gets adopted, so the many quickie adoptions she's arranged through this deal more than pays for whatever nominal fee the dance instructor's studio/school is charging her.
!!Why didn't he retaliate?
* Why Gru didn't punish Dr. Nefario after finding out that he called Miss Hattie to get the girls?
** Because he thought Nefario had made a painful, but necessary decision.
*** Not to mention Nefario helps at the ends without hesitation.
*** Also Dr. Nefario did previously say "If you don't do something about it (about the girls distracting him from his job), then I will". Gru only said "I understand" meaning he agrees with Dr. Nefario's action.
** For my part, I wondered that as well, and wondered why Gru didn't remind Dr. Nefario just ''who'' was supposed to be working for whom.
*** Because Gru is a decent man, the kind that knows his minions' names and families, even when they are just DNA slaves for menial jobs. Dr. Nefario is a resourceful scientist that spent his best(?) years working on Gru's moon stealing plot, and clearly they are friends, or at least confidents. Gru just had to set his priority straight: either you enjoy your new family and discuss the plan delay with your staff, or you follow the plan and explain the girls that they have to wait for him to finish an important business. Working dad standard issue.
!!That pyramid again
* The pyramid just stands there in Vector's back yard, yet, apparently, the authorities have failed to find it. Wha-a-a?
** Didn't you noticed? He ''repainted'' it! [[RuleOfFunny Nobody would be able to find it that way!]]
*** No one seems to notice Gru's or Vector's ''obviously out-of-place lairs'' in pleasant suburban neighbourhoods; seems like a reasonable case of the WeirdnessCensor gone amok.
*** Also, at the end the reporter saying authority are "baffled" when the moon was returned, and wonder who the hero is. Apparently no-one saw or bothered to report a friggin' rocket coming out of the ground minutes before the moon disappeared.
!!How's he supposed to survive in space?
* Vector has no air tanks in his suit, and however rich his father is, there is no way he could launch a rescue mission immediately (that is if he would intent to rescue the loser at all). Are we to assume that right after his dancing number Vector died a slow, agonizing death of suffocation?
** The anti-gravity minion seemed alright, although maybe [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace these minions can breathe in space]]?
** Suffocation isn't that agonizing.
*** Can't say I speak from experience, but supposedly air-hunger ''is'' extremely unpleasant. Though on the moon it would probably be over pretty quick.
*** Assuming this is referring to carbon dioxide poisoning causing you to pass out before suffocation becomes a concern if there is a sufficient initial source. Though, it is possible Vector did have air tanks since he intended to hijack the rocket.
** Why do people forget that this movie runs on cartoon physics?
*** The ''Minions'' movies posit that they're indestructible. I ain't got an answer for Vector but, since they're really close, maybe Perkins went to save him offscreen.
!!Missing Boogie bots
* Why weren't the dozen boogie robots at the end dance scene?
** Holy crap this so hard. I came here to post that.
*** Ooh, I know. Nefario took them apart to build the cookie robots. Gru had financial issues at the time, and those boogie robots weren't immediately useful.
!!Jerry and Stuart?
* After the shrink ray heist, where did Jerry and Stuart go? They kinda just disappeared up until the part with Mr. Perkins. Poor guys didn't even get to go to Super Silly Fun Land.
** There is a sitting room area/compartment inside Gru's car, where the girls sat just before going to Vector's house to sell cookies. Jerry and Stuart probably sat there with the shrink ray to guard it on Gru's orders while he and the girls were gone. As for returning to the house, Gru probably planned to let the girls in first so that he can deal with sneaking back in Jerry, Stuart and the shrink ray in a discreet way so that the neighbours wouldn't see them.
!!The oblivious Nefario
* Why didn't doctor Nefario notice Gru's ship returning to its normal size (it almost impaled the minions playing with the photocopy machine), and only realized the temporary nature of the Shrink Ray's effect when Gru's minion grew big in front of his eyes ?
*** It's simple, Old Doctor is Old, hearing (as evidenced by the Fart Gun), vision, all the senses start to slip
** Also regarding the shrink ray, the "Nefario principle" about the relation between an object's mass and the duration in which it remains shrunk is not entirely accurate. Dr. Nefario concludes that the more mass an object has, the faster it recovers its original form. Gru's ship was shrunk near the beginning, and only returns to normal towards the end. The moon returns to its original size (probably) half an hour after being shrunk. However, Gru's minion (which should stay shrunk for a VERY long time, as he is a lot smaller than the ship) grew big again a lot earlier than should be expected.
*** No one said the relation was linear.
*** Maybe Nefario knows only about some aspects of the Shrink Ray workings. Perhaps, there is more to it than just mass. Maybe components also matter.
!!Minions' Fam
* Gru asks one of the minions "How's the family?" ''Minions can have families?''
** Well, since all of the minions are grown from the same DNA, and share a 'father' (Gru), they could be considered 'brothers' of each other. That or the minions are all assigned into arbitrary "family units" somehow.
*** They're supposed to be genetically modified ''corn''. Not families, but ''cobs''!
!!Being minus the luna
* It's hard to say exactly what would happen if the moon were made to instantly disappear (an equivalent to the shrinking effect, because the mass went away along with the volume). Arguably, it's nonsensical to model such a situation without including a plausible cause for it. (For example, exactly what ''direct'' effect would something capable of destroying/pushing the moon have on Earth?) But here's what ''wouldn't'' happen: [[ArtisticLicensePhysics waves instantly collapsing]]. '''Waves are not tides'''[[note]]Tides are the gradual daily changes in sea levels, and the moon is just one of several factors that add to them. Waves are caused by plain ol' wind.[[/note]] and of course the loss of tides wouldn't be '''instantaneous'''. This one bothers me because of the perpetuation of that common conflation (tides are waves) and related misconception (the moon causes waves) — Even I held that last notion until writing this and researching! (I was originally just going to complain about the speed of the effect.)
** Addendum: In any case, the tides would be less of an immediate big deal than the (however slightly delayed) change in readings for all the various scientific instruments pointed at the moon. Why no footage of a humorously bewildered NASA?
** Furthermore, the Sun also causes tides.
** Actually, take a look at that scene again, and you can see it ''wasn't'' just the waves that collapsed; the ''tide'' is what went out, and so suddenly that one of the surfers actually fell and hit his head on a rock several feet below him; something that might happen if there were, say, some violent earthquakes and tsunamis due to the sudden loss of a gravitational influence on the planet's tectonic plates. Maybe there was more of the InferredHolocaust that ought to occur in the sudden absence of a celestial object than the rest of the movie seemed to acknowledge.
** It's RuleOfFunny. That, and ViewersAreMorons. Not a lot of people realize the stuff you just typed down.
!!Recyclable minions
* On this [[http://www.nick.co.uk/a/despicable-me/characters.aspx character interview thing]], Gru says the Minions are ''recyclable''. Just...''[[FridgeHorror what?]]''
** [[Film/TheMatrix Watched them liquefy the dead so they can be fed intravenously to the living...]]
** Given the WordOfGod that the Minions are genetically modified corn kernels, Minions might be recyclable in that if they die, they can help contribute to the growing of more genetically modified corn via becoming compost.
* If Minions were kernels, then that means they came from an island full of corn, as lampshaded in the prequel's trailer.
!!Gru vs Miss Hattie
* Towards the end of the movie, Gru sends his adopted daughters back to the orphanage from whence they came. Then the girls are kidnapped by Gru's arch nemesis, and Gru rescues them during the big damn climax. Then in the last few scenes of the film, [[PlotHole they're a big happy family again without any explanation]]. It's nice that Gru realized what mattered to him, and all, but he'd still given up custody of the girls, and for bonus points, told the (evil) woman who ran the orphanage that she resembled a donkey. Was the explanation cut for some reason, or did the writers just forget?
** Gru probably decided to just freeze ray the woman and take the girls back home. He may have rescued and love the girls, but that doesn't mean he's instantly turned into a saint. Guy freezes people so he doesn't have to deal with the annoyance of standing in line at the coffee shop, imagine what he'd do to someone keeping his kids from him.
*** They still deliberately set this up as a source of conflict and then glossed over it, [[UnfortunateImplications as though it was somehow obvious that he'd get his girls back the moment he decided he wanted them]]. Also, the question of whether Gru's association with these girls would make him into less of a bad guy was the whole point of the film, so it's sort of weak that they omitted the scene if he ''did'' just steal the girls back, because that would have actually been relevant to the question of exactly how reformed he really was by the end of the film.
** Avoiding EndingFatigue
** Gru probably threatened to have the orphanage exposed for exploiting and abusing the children under its care. And if it bothers you that he left the place running, just say that he went and told anyway after getting the girls back. But yes, the whole point was not that the place tore the kids away from him but that he was willingly giving them up. Gru had to grow into the kind of person that would fight for them. Showing him fighting the corrupt orphanage after everything he went through with Vector would be redundant. We already know he's become a dedicated father, there was no point adding any more to that.
** Hattie had already demonstrated a mercenary attitude toward her business during her first interview with Gru and a complete lack of concern for the girls' well-being. Even ''after'' finding out about Gru's little StealthInsult at her expense, it's entirely possible she just gave the girls right back to him in exchange for another paycheck. Besides, judging by the sheer number of pictures of other girls she has hanging on the walls of her orphanage (indicating she's usually able to get kids adopted out pretty quickly), Margo, Edith, and Agnes seem to have been problem cases to her and she was likely happy to have them off her hands for good this time.
* The orphans selling cookies thing is quite clearly a thing that the orphanage does to raise funds and whatnot - and yet Gru's big plan hinges on the girls selling cookies AFTER THEY ARE ADOPTED. WHAT THE HELL.
** Children sell cookies for all kinds of stuff. Mostly charities or to finance the trip of their scout troop to a gathering.
*** Still, we didn't see them signing up for another group, no groups I know of sells cookies all year long, and the oldest girl would have noticed something was fishy if they weren't signed up for another cookie-selling group but expected to sell cookies anyway. So the whole thing is kind of confusing. Like the dance lessons.
*** I was under the impression that they were delivering cookies he had already ordered from them the first time, when Gru saw them allowed in. Not selling new ones. Girl scouts don't drag around boxcars full of cookies, they have an order form, you order, they come back a week later.
*** Really? When I was in Girl Guides, we had boxes of cookies to cart around.
*** Every experience I've had with girl cookie sellers had us signing up for boxes and getting them weeks later. It's easier to sell a bunch of cookies in one go when you're not at risk of running out of your merchandise at the time of selling.
!!''Despicable Me'' Merch
* Where is all the merchandising? I want my Minion toys dammit!
** I saw someone on WWF beat up someone with giant minion, so they are out there.
** The only merchandise that can be found are the video games, Minion dolls and toys, and the Temple Run-esque Minion Rush for handhelds.
!!Alphabetized customers?
* The girls mention that they sell the cookies in alphabetical order: they oppose selling to Vector first because his name starts with V, not A. What kind of sense does this make? How likely is it that all those houses have people living in alphabetical order? Wouldn't they have to walk all over the city several times? Wouldn't it make more sense to do a whole neighborhood at a time?
** If you had nothing to look forward to but returning to [[ChildHater Mrs. Hattie's]] House From Hell, wouldn't you come up with a plan that took as long as possible? Trying to stick to it with Gru was just habit by then.
** Margo may be the oldest of the girls, but she's still young so she may still want to do childish things like delivering cookies to customers by their name in alphabetical order just because it's fun.
!!Act your age, Margo?
* Margo is obviously much older and mature than her sisters, yet she still wants a bedtime story for 2-year-olds and goodnight kisses. Is she just not as old as she seems, or is she just weird?
** Kids in the foster care/orphanage system can be incredibly mature and savvy beyond their years. But like most human beings, they still want signs of affection, such as bedtime stories and kisses. Or maybe she accepts them because it feels like she's being loved by a parent. Besides, she doesn't seem to be THAT much older than Edith and Agnes.
*** I think that she didn't really love the story as much as the younger ones but insisted on it for their sake, surely she knew that THEY loved it.
** Firstly, there are some people (myself included) who enjoy "little-kid" entertainment. Maybe Margo just really likes cats? As for the kissing, Margo just said in a neutral (not happy ''or'' sad, indifferent) voice, "he's not going to kiss us goodnight, Agnes". Edith didn't say anything and it was ''Agnes'' (who is six or seven) who was asking for kissing. Margo didn't seem to care about whether or not she was kissed.
*** Another explanation for this is because, being orphaned (somehow), Margo likes the idea of the stuff that most families/parents do and, for a lot of people, bedtime stories is common thing. That said, another layer of this is that Margo might remember what life used to be like with her birth-family before whatever happened happened.
!!Cookie bots
* Why do the Cookie Robots betray Gru and lock him in Vector's fortress? Vector is confirmed to be unaware of the entire situation, so he couldn't have reprogrammed them, and Nefario's strong loyalty to Gru makes it unlikely that he would either.
** I thought they were on a timer, and Gru took too long.
*** That makes sense. The robots were most likely programmed to close the hole they made after the heist, so it would take longer before Vector would realize somebody had broken into his house. Unfortunately for Gru, they did this too soon.
** I just figured [[AIIsACrapshoot they were badly programmed]].
!!The Nefario Principal
* According to the "Nefario Principle," it takes a shorter amount of time for bigger objects to regain their normal size. But the ship was the first thing to grow back, and the much-smaller Minion was the second. Huh?
** The principle states that objects with greater mass return to normal size faster. The ship is obviously heavier than the Minion.
** That doesn't change the fact that the minion, which has a much, much smaller mass than the ship, returned to normal size before the moon did. If anything, the minion should still be tiny while the moon was returning to normal size.
*** That montage takes place over nearly two weeks. The minion had that much time to return to normal. The ship reverted about two days before him.
!!Gru vs Miss Hattie, round two
* Why did Miss Hattie let Gru adopt the girls? I thought the whole reason she was keeping them there was so they wouldn't squeal to the authorities.
** Judging by how she let someone with a shady background adopt the girls (his resume should have been a massive red flag), Ms. Hattie probably didn't care what happened to the girls after they were adopted out. I'm guessing stuff like the ballet classes were there to give a positive image, and it would be easy for her, as the person in charge, to use fear to keep girls from blabbing. Even after being adopted, I'm pretty sure that even Margo would have very little wish to talk about her time at the orphanage, and the issue would never come up.
*** Which would explain the earlier question, how does Gru get the girls back? Well, if Hattie didn't care the first time why would she the second?
*** I don't think he adopted them again. Vector kidnapped them after their recital, and Gru saved them. He probably just took them home right after.
*** A social worker came and visited in one of the shorts on the Blu-ray (on separate disk for DVD). That indicates that either the girls were never officially "unadopted" or Gru adopted them back.
*** Or, he just had the girls record a description of life at the orphanage. Add a few choice photos of the right locations, and voilà! Instant blackmail material.
*** He just broke in, Freeze-rayed Hattie and got the girls back.
** It's possible that Ms. Hattie gets some kind of bonus/benefit for every child she adopts out. As for preventing the girls from saying anything... First off, children don't always know their rights. Second, most if not all of the girls at the home probably never had much in the way of a healthy family life. Things like the Box of Shame could just be seen as normal things to them. Third, the evil you know is better than the one you don't. Even if the girls did know Ms. Hattie's treatment was unacceptable, there's always the fear that they could get someone worse.
** Most likely, she's only in the orphanage business for the long green; and judging by her apathetic approach to Gru during that first interview (even snarking about his resume being too long), whatever government agency is supposed to be monitoring her and her orphanage isn't doing a very good job of that either. With no one keeping her honest, Hattie probably shuttles girls through her institution into dubious adoptions at an appallingly high rate.
*** DepartmentOfChildDisservices.
!!Doctor Nefario and gru
* Who is Dr. Nefario, why is he there, [[HoYay and why is a picture of him in a bathing suit on Gru's phone?]]
** Dr. Nefario is some nearly senile, old, mad scientist that Gru probably hired a long time ago. As for the photo, that was probably a vacation photo that Gru thought was hilarious and wanted to be reminded of repeatedly. Heck, it was probably one of the few photos he had of the demented doctor.
!!Vector's alias
* Why would someone called Victor (which is Latin for WINNER) adopt the alias Vector? While it certainly is a clever name - far fewer people would get?
** 1. Victor sounds like and is a regular name, which is comparatively boring. 2. Who is going to make the connection between a name and what it technically means? A real alias at least makes people think about why he calls himself 'Vector'. Also, if you're a super-villain would you rather go by your real first name or a "cool" super-villain name of your choosing? (Although Vector doesn't sound that scary or intimidating for a supervillain's name, except to Vector himself)
** Vector seems to be a straight up nerd (hence his glasses and nasal voice) who uses logic and science to conduct everything. He explains in-detail to his dad why he's so proud of his name - "It's a mathematical term. A quantity represented by an arrow, with both direction and magnitude."
!!The Moon getting big again
* How was the moon able to return to its normal orbit by the end of the film? Even with that orbit placing it closer to Earth than it would be in real life, which I'm willing to accept, we see it being propelled up past the clouds by Vector's escape pod, and then we hear an explosion offscreen as it reaches its largest size...and when we cut to it again, it's back to the way it was. How could it have gotten that far away from the Earth again when it destroyed the escape pod with its ever-increasing size?
** There was... the orbital velocity was restored by... you see, the escape pod's engines... uh... [[StatusQuoIsGod witchcraft.]] Yeah.
** Easy: [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 Chaos Control]].
!!Cookie bots = Shrink Ray
* When Gru finally got the shrink ray by using the cookie robots to break into Vector's vault, he panics when his cookie robots close up the hole in the wall made to get inside. Doesn't Gru realize he could just use the shrink ray to shrink Vector? Then Gru could just walk out the front door. Instead, Gru chooses to hide from Vector and escape through the ducts.
** Two possibilities: 1. Gru has his morals, if he didn't, Nefario would have been "let go" the first time he screwed up a plan and he would not have taken all the crap he got from his mother. he doesn't know what would happen to Vector if he was hit with the shrink ray and didn't want to find out. 2. Gru and his minions were panicking and didn't think of doing so.
*** Morals? Gru just shot Vector in the face with his freeze ray out of jealousy. Why would Gru feel guilty about shrinking Vector as well? He even tried killing Vector with rocket missiles in the sky.
*** Gru knows for a fact his freeze ray is not fatal, and the point about Nefario an his mother still stands.
** Gru probably didn't want Vector to know anything about him stealing the shrink ray back, so he tried escaping his lair without letting him know he was there. Maybe he would've shrunken him down if he'd gotten cornered and things came to that, but they didn't, so there was no need.
** Vector is Mr. Perkins'son and Mr. Perkins is the owner of the Bank of Evil, the primary financial source that Gru relies upon for funding his evil plans. Although Gru didn't know that Mr. Perkins and Vector were father and son at the time, he did know that Mr. Perkins had great admiration for Vector because Perkins boasted to Gru about his son's evil accomplishments. Gru may have figured that if he shrunk Vector, then Vector can just rat him out to Mr. Perkins and Perkins would terminate all business ties with him - therefore no money for the rocket to the moon.
!!They could get a babysitter
* Why couldn't Dr. Nefario convince Gru to just get a nanny or a babysitter to look after the girls since he considered them a distraction? It would have been a better choice than to send the girls back to the orphanage.
** 1) They're established to be pretty strapped for cash. Gru has an entire army to feed and shelter, and Dr Neferio isn't going to get rid of a few minions to get a babysitter. In his eyes its a lot easier and cheaper to get rid of the girls than get ANOTHER person here. 2)The girls were in their house less than a week and discover a lot of their secrets. What if the babysitter did, you know, an adult that can blab to the authorities? 3)By the time the girls were a distraction, Gru had gotten attached to them. He wasn't going to let a stranger take care of them.
** Gru's house filled with spikes, a killer piranha-like dog, weapons laying around and death traps everywhere definitely does not scream "Welcome visitors" to anybody, including a babysitter.
!!Nefario vs the Girls
* Where did Dr. Nefario get off saying that the girls were an distraction to Gru and an obstruction to their plan when he was also guilty of wasting time misunderstanding Gru's orders on what to invent? Isn't that a bit hypocritical coming from him, even though he didn't mean to make those mistakes?
** I wouldn’t call it hypocritical. It’s because there’s a difference between misunderstanding something and other people (albeit unintentionally) hindering your goals. Nobody was interfering with Nefario’s part in the plan except himself, whereas for Gru, other parties were interfering with Gru’s role without a care. It also helps that ''the girls shouldn’t have been interfering with Gru while he was working in the first place'' and that Gru told the girls many times to not disturb him while he was trying to work on his plans, but the girls nonchalantly refused to listen to his pleas. It’s like working at an office job with two problematic employees: an intern who has issues understanding things due to being a new employee and an experienced mother who constantly brings her children to work with her, and said children are making it hard for the mother to complete her tasks by constantly distracting her. It would make much more sense for the intern to come off as more sympathetic than the children of the mother in this scenario, because despite the children’s behavior, the mother still has the power to keep them in line. Also, like I was saying before, ''the children shouldn’t even be at work with the mother in the first place,'' anyway because children can be a detriment to the parents performance. So if you think about it, it’s not too hard to see why Nefario came to that conclusion even though he’s acting like TheLoad himself.
!!The Girls and the Plan
* Why did Gru think he had to adopt the Girls to get them to sell cookies to Victor/Vector again? It seems like the girls have a daily routine of selling cookies. Why not just wait until the girls come to Vector again? It's better than going through the hassle of interviewing with Miss Hattie, the minister of the orphanage. Is he just too impatient?
** Gru's plan to recover the shrink ray from Vector required him to be as inconspicuous as possible, and this was on top of the time crunch he had to retrieve the ray, get the loans, and build the rocket in time to steal the moon. Gru may have figured the most ideal way to get the shrink ray without running into any more setbacks was to actively involve the girls in his scheme so he can sneak the cookie bots in their stash. Something as simple as programming the cookie bots to sneak into the girls' cookie wagon as they entered Vector's fortress would have gone south quickly if one of the girls were to take notice, so my best guess is he wanted to at least take a crack at adopting the girls first before trying anything smaller.
!!Why didn't he just shoot his ship?
* While chasing Vector through the sky to retrieve the Shrnking Ray, if Gru was about to shoot Vector's ship down before Vector shrunk his ship with the ray while standing on his ship, why Gru didn't just shoot Vector's ship down while he still had the opportunity? Vector could have killed him and his minions by shrinking their ship and it's a miracle that they survived.
!!Super Silly Fun Land
* When Gru tried to leave the girls alone at Super Silly Fun Land, didn't he think that he would most likely be arrested later on for child abandonment? Even if the girls could get into the game alone without the company of an adult, the operator had seen that Gru was accompanying them and would surely give his description to the authorities as soon as he saw that Gru had left and did not return for his daughters.
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* Upon going to Super Silly Fun Land, when Gru resolves to destroy Space Killer due being rigged by the carnival barker, why anyone at the park did not flinch at all from watching one of the games in the park being blown up by a man with a nuclear weapon. Why they didn't call the authorities nor approached the barker to see if he was okay?
** Maybe the carnival barker had a reputation of scamming all guests so they hated him and just didn't give a damn for his misfortune?
!!Why didn't he stop Miss Hattie
* When Miss Hattie comes to pick up the girls due Nefario's call, why Gru let her do it? He could have said something like "Sorry Miss Hattie for the misunderstanding, but I didn't make that call. The girls are okay with me and I still want to be their father". After all, Miss Hattie hated the girls and would surely have no interest in bringing them back to the orphanage...
** Mentioned in another headscratcher above. At that point, Gru's conflicted but accepts that Nefario's decision to send the girls away is for the best because they ARE a distraction.
!!Vector kidnaps the Girls
* I have always had this impression since I saw the film, but maybe Vector was responsible that the "Swan Lake" recital ended early? When Gru flew the rocket back to the Earth to go to the recital, he noted that he still had time to arrive at the recital, but the janitor tells him that the recital had ended once he enters into the auditorium. Maybe Gru did arrive in time but Vector caused such a mess to capture the girls? I don't think he just took them with him once the recital ended, as he couldn't lie that he was their father because the girls are orphans and the ballet instructor likely was aware of it.
!! Vector meeting Gru
* What exactly was Vector trying to accomplish in the scene where he first meets Gru? He's clearly getting uncomfortably close for someone that's a complete stranger, and trying to show off. But for what reason would he want to impress a random old man in the bank waiting room? It makes even less sense when it's revealed he's Mr Perkins's son: If we assume he knows of Gru from Perkins talking about him, why show anything but hostility towards your competition?
!!Where's Perkins?
* This last headscratcher must have been in all people's heads since the film was released, but...[[WhatHappenedToTheMouse what happened to Mr. Perkins following Vector's defeat?]] Is he still running the Bank of Evil? Is he even aware of what happened to his son? If the latter is the case, shouldn't he have sent a rocket to rescue him or try to get revenge on Gru in case Vector is dead?
** Vector may not be dead. Realistically, he would, but this is a cartoon. In the AVL files of ''Film/DespicableMe3'', it's noted that Vector can still be seen as an orange dot if viewed through a telescope. But that doesn't mean that he is still alive, as it could still be there his lifeless corpse...

*** The ''Minions'' movies posit that their indestructible. I ain't got an answer for Vector but, since they're really close, maybe he went to save him offscreen.

*** Another explanation for this is because, being orphaned (somehow), Margo likes the idea of the stuff that most families/parents do and, for a lot of people, bedtime stories is common thing. That said, another layer of this is that Margo might remember what life used to be like with her birth-family before whatever happened happened.

*** DepartmentOfChildDisservices.

** Vector seems to be a straight-up {{nerd}} (hence his glasses and nasal voice) who uses logic and science to conduct everything. He explains in-detail to his dad why he's so proud of his name - "It's a mathematical term. A quantity represented by an arrow, with both direction and magnitude."