History YMMV / DespicableMe

%%* WTHCastingAgency: Creator/RussellBrand as Dr. Nefario.

** Also counts as one for Illumination as a whole reception wise, as it is still largely considered by many to be their best film when compared to their later work, which, while doing better financially, have received more mixed scores from critics and audiences by comparison.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Hey, the carnival barker is [[WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph Fix-It Felix]]!

** Apparently the shrink ray was created in (and stolen from) North Korea.[[note]][[CriticalResearchFailure The map depicts]] '''the wrong location''', which is really West [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokkaido Hokkaido]].[[/note]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Did Mr. Perkins [[spoiler: set Vector up to steal the moon instead of Gru to help his son remain the most successful villain, just to spite Gru, or to help cover the loss of money loaned to Gru, considering how he mentions how "lucrative" stealing the moon would be, not to mention him seeming legitimately unconvinced that Gru could pull off the heist]]?

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: [[spoiler: It's obvious Edith survived the Iron Maiden.]]

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The karaoke song about "Lola Banana" sung by one of the minions in the toy store sounds [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEqXtkDT9uM awfully familiar]].

* UncannyValley: Due to being Illumination's first full-length film, the textures and rendering are notably less advanced and detailed than other, more prolific animated films at the time, causing many of the characters to look plastic and overly rubbery. This was remedied in the franchise's [[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2 subsequent]][[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3 instalments]], which had higher budgets to allow for improved animation technology.

* EsotericHappyEnding: Barring the possibility that [[spoiler:Miss Hattie was simply too pissed off with Gru over his insulting her in Spanish to bother with any formalities, let alone verify who called to return the kids]], between the climax and [[spoiler:the epilogue with Gru and the kids which serves as the happy ending]] there had to have been some legal proceedings between [[spoiler:Gru and Miss Hattie over custody of the kids]] which, for all the film's irreverent humor, Illumination Entertainment apparently decided weren't worth depicting.

** Most "villain becomes a hero" stories have a hero to rise up against them. ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' had Fix-it Felix, and ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' had Metro Man. This movie doesn't appear to have any hero to rise up against Gru. Law enforcement is [[PoliceAreUseless mostly lacking]] in this universe, and the Anti-Villain League wasn't introduced until [[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2 the sequel]], where Gru gives up villainy entirely.

* UncannyValley: The CGI is noticeably more rubbery here than in the [[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2 seq]][[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3 uels]], causing some character designs to look plastic and kind of weird looking at times. Possibly justified given this was Illumination's first movie.

* EsotericHappyEnding: Barring the possibility that [[spoiler:Miss Hattie was simply too pissed off with Gru over his insulting her in Spanish to bother with any formalities, let alone verify who called to return the kids]], between the climax and [[spoiler:the epilogue with Gru and the kids which serves as the happy ending]] there had to have been some legal proceedings between [[spoiler:Gru and Miss Hattie over custody of the kids]] which, for all the film's irreverent humor and GettingCrapPastTheRadar, Illumination Entertainment apparently decided weren't worth depicting.

** [[https://en.meming.world/images/en/thumb/0/0d/In_Terms_Of_Money%2C_We_Have_No_Money.jpg/300px-In_Terms_Of_Money%2C_We_Have_No_Money.jpg "In terms of money, we have no money."]][[labelnote:Explanation]]An exploitable image of Gru describing his financial troubles to the Minions. While it's often used to describe financial woes, people have taken to replacing "money" with just about anything else.[[/labelnote]]

%%** "In terms of [X], we have no [X]."

** [[https://www.clipartkey.com/mpngs/m/309-3095483_vector-in-wing-suit-vector-memes.png[=VectorFlightSuit=].jpg]] / "You just got Vectored." [[labelnote:Explanation]]The image is used to describe acts of DisproportionateRetribution.[[/labelnote]]

** [=VectorFlightSuit=].jpg / "You just got Vectored." [[labelnote:Explanation]]The image is used to describe acts of DisproportionateRetribution.[[/labelnote]]

** The minion's cheering for Gru in their first appearance is a lot nicer after seeing their struggles to finding a boss [[spoiler:and meeting Gru as a child]].

* CrossingTheLineTwice: Most of the visual gags qualify as a child-friendly version of the trope. A rocket landing on a playground? Not funny. A rocket landing on the spinner thing causing it to spin incredibly fast while the children ''cheer''? Hilarious.

* CrackShip: An odd case with Margo and ''Vector''. At most, Vector is 10+ years older than her in terms of age. Not mention that he kidnapped her and her sisters and planned to keep them for who knows what.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: When the movies were first released, the Minions were reasonably well-liked, to the point of becoming the franchise's [[EnsembleDarkhorse Darkhorse Ensemble]]. However, between just how popular they are and the fact that they spawned a number of {{Suspiciously Similar Substitute}}s in other media, (such as the Happy Meal creatures in recent [=McDonald's=] ads and the lemmings in ''WesternAnimation/NormOfTheNorth''), nowadays many people find it hard to see what made them so popular in the first place. You can even see this in the aforementioned ''Inazuma Eleven'' crossovers (which were made shortly after the release of the first movie); the more recent the comments in the uploaded video get, the response to the crossover's existence gets gradually more negative.

** Having Creator/KristenWiig voice the [[{{Jerkass}} cruel]] [[Theatre/{{Annie}} Miss Hannigan]] {{expy}} Miss Hattie is this after Wiig voiced Lucy Wilde in the sequels, who [[MamaBear loves the girls]] just as much [[PapaWolf as Gru does]].

%%** “I will stuff you all in the crust!”

%%** [=VectorFlightSuit=].jpg
*** "You just got Vectored." [[labelnote:Explanation]]The above image is used to describe acts of DisproportionateRetribution.[[/labelnote]]

* HilariousInHindsight: There have been some comparisons between this and ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}''; showing a VillainProtagonist, his loyal minion named Minion, and then finding a love interest (which didn't happen to Gru until [[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2 the sequel]]). Then in 2016, Creator/{{Universal}}, owner of Illumination and ''Despicable Me'', acquired rights to Creator/DreamWorksAnimation--the studio that made ''Megamind''.

* {{Moe}}: The girls, but especially Agnes.

** “I will stuff you all in the crust!”

** [=VectorFlightSuit=].jpg

** "[[WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}} You take the moon, and you take]] [[BrokenRecord the moon...]]"
** “DO YOU WANT TO EXPLODE?”

** "CURSE YOU TINY TOILET!"
** "Does this count as annoying?"
** "Freeze Ray!"
** "''WHAAAAAAAAT?''"
** "Liiiightbulb!"
** "Knocked oooooveeeeer!"
** "In terms of [X], we have no [X]."

** "In terms of [X], we have no [X]