In the end of the first film, the girls do help Gru get the respect he's always wanted from his mother. But not because they indirectly helped steal shrinking device he's use to steal the moon; but because he became the parent to his daughters that Marlena (Gru's mom) wasn't to Gru in his own childhood.
How does Gru know every Minions' name, when there are literally thousands of them? Well, all of them have different heights, different haircuts, either two eyes or one, have different jobs in Gru's lair, and each have a slightly different quirk from the others. All Gru had to do was match each of those categories with a certain Minion and BOOM! He knows every Minion's name.
It also goes to show Gru's very impressive memory and intelligence by the fact he's able to remember which one each of them is, even if he's relying on visual cues to differentiate them.
It actually makes some sense for Gru to call the Minions his "cousins" to keep up his whole ruse with the girls in the beginning. How many cousins any person on Earth has depends on how many degrees of relation that one person is willing to claim: everyone is a cousin to everyone else within the 50th degree.
Margo, Edith, and Agnes represent the Three Wishes that Gru wanted throughout the entire movie: First, helping him steal the device that would enable him to steal the moon. Second, gaining the respect of his mother. And thirdly, something that he probably didn't want to acknowledge at first: They gave him the warmth and contentment of a family he lacked as a child.
A funny Fridge moment when you consider the hair color of the girls and their voice actors. Margo and Agnes are the brunettes and Edith is is the only blond. With their voice actors, Miranda Cosgrove (Margo) is still brunette, but Dana Gaier (Edith) is also brunette. Elsie Fisher (Agnes) is the only blonde of the voice actors.
If you notice carefully, the girls were never referred to as "sisters" in the first film by each other or even Miss Hattie. It's a subtle clue that Margo, Edith, and Agnes are not blood related siblings, but it isn't important because they all spent time together and act like sisters.
Margo's name is Greek for "pearl" (and the Greek word for pearl is "margarites"), which could allude to the type of glasses she wears are pearl. Edith's name is from Old English and means "war" which hints her fondness for destruction and love of Gru's weapons. Agnes' s name is of Greek descent and translates to "pure", which is perfect given her innocent and childlike nature. Meaningful Name must run in the Gru family.
Added on for Margo is that as the eldest of the trio, she acts (or at least tries to) as their leader and guide through the unpleasant life they live until they find their happy home with Gru. Now how are pearls made? By taking something irritating/painful and covering it with a stop measure (Margo's sarcasm and biting wit qualify for this) until it turns into something both beautiful and valuable.
Each of the girls represent some part of Gru: Margo for her Deadpan Snarker tendencies and intelligence, Edith for her mischief and fighting skills, and Agnes for her determination and gut/stomach feeling nature on certain things.
Why did Kyle run away when Agnes tried to hug him when they first met? He was used to Gru running away from him and the idea that someone was running towards him was a foreign concept; maybe he thought she was gonna hurt him or something.
This is very common in animals in general, especially domesticated ones. Animals notice whether humans are afraid of them or not, and react according to instinct. When a child who's too young to know any better approaches, looking to hug and pet the big cuddly-looking animal, the animal's perception is that a fearless human is approaching; and since humans are usually only fearless when they have an awfully good reason to be, instincts will typically indicate that the best strategy is to flee.
It should have been obvious to the girls that their adoption by Gru wasn't really legit; when Gru introduces the girls to Kyle, he calls them "guests". Guests, by definition, aren't expected to stay in your house long.
Remember the Shout-Out Edith gave about how she thought that when she and her sisters were gonna be adopted by a bald guy, it would be more like Annie? Well, their adoption was like that: An orphan (orphans) in Gru's case, adopted by a bald, rich, self absorbed man who's only adopting them for his own agenda. Then, he comes to love said orphan(s), but has to give them back at some point of the movie, but doesn't want to. In the end, they get the orphan(s) back and they become a real family.
Agnes may be following the common stereotype of the youngest child: Copying off their older siblings. Her regular shoes are white, like Edith's snow boots. Her pajamas reach down to her feet, like Margo's pajamas.
Why did Gru choose to make himself a unicorn in his book "One Big Unicorn"? Well, what was the first actual fatherly act he did for the girls? He won a unicorn toy when the Carnival Barker refused to give it to Agnes because of a rigged technicality. In a way, the unicorn is a symbol of how Gru was Becoming the Mask to his adoptive daughters. Now, why did he choose to make the girls kittens in his book? If you look closely all of the kittens in "The Three Little Kittens" all have the same colors as Margo, Edith, and Agnes.
Why were the girls upset at Gru and not Dr. Nefario, when they were returned to Miss Hattie's orphanage? Yes, Dr. Nefario did call Miss Hattie, but to the girls Gru was at fault. Why? Because the girls had started to grow father-daughter bonds with Gru, not Dr. Nefario. Plus, Gru could've said that Miss Hattie was mistaken, but didn't or at least said goodbye to the girls, but he didn't. From the girls' perspective, especially Margo's, Gru was abandoning them.
Each of the girls are represented by a color: Margo->Green, Edith->Pink, and Agnes->Blue with Yellow. The colors area symbol for traits that match the girls' personality or actions in the first film.
Margo (Green): Frankness, Security, Stability, and Wisdom.
Edith (Pink): Carefree, Confident, Energetic, and Passionate.
Agnes (Blue with Yellow): Compassion, Imagination, Optimism, and Trust.
Agnes's day clothes and pajamas are blue and yellow; for the former, she wears blue overalls, with a yellow shirt inside. And the Minions wear blue overalls and have yellow skin.
Vector says his name represents him because he has both direction and magnitude. While he certainly has magnitude, he lacks direction. He stole the pyramid, but doesn't appear to be ransoming it back. He only copies Gru, never taking his own initiative, and when he's not, he's just slouched at his lair. What makes this fridge brilliance is that Vector doesn't realize this about himself, he's just desperate to prove he's not just some nerd.
It's a quick moment, but notice how Gru cringes at one of the sculptures in the Bank of Evil: it was the legs of a man sticking out from his being completely crushed by a pillar. A subtle hint that tells the audience that for all of his villainy, Gru isn't completely heartless.
It also hints at what ruthless Loan Sharks the Bank of Evil's officers truly are; the implication here is that these are depictions of what happens to debtors who don't pay back their loans; and that last sculpture neatly parallels the object lesson the manager gives Gru by crushing an apple in his hand.
How is Gru so good at making shapes out of pancakes? In one of his flashbacks, Gru showed his mother a model rocket made out of macaroni. Gru is an artist with food!
The pancake shapes that Gru made for the girls somehow match the girls:
Margo - Skull: Skulls can be used as a logo. Like the logos she has on her shirts.
Edith - Dead guy: A dead person usually comes from violence, which alludes to her fondness for it.
Agnes - Knife: A knife is used to pierce something - similar to how anything that comes out of Agnes's mouth "pierces" anyone's hearts.
Sugar (Agnes), Spice (Edith), and Everything Nice (Margo).note Also noted from some spoofs of the girls dressed as The Powerpuff Girls at DeviantArt, prior to the writing of this point.They even have colors that match the Powerpuff Girls, but as mentioned above are switched around.
When Margo told that she and her sisters had to go to ballet class and Gru refused to, what did Margo do? She accepted it and began walking away from him, along with Edith and Agnes. A few minutes later, Gru takes the girls to their ballet class. Parents often use the "I'm leaving" strategy to their kids, when they don't want to go or do something. They pretend to leave, until the child agrees. In other words, Margo used a parenting technique to get Gru, her adoptive parent, to do something.
To make this twist even more satisfying, they weren't bluffing. The girls have been all around the neighborhood selling cookies and know the way to their classes, so they were going to get there one way or another. If the teacher asks why they're tardy, well, they can always blame their new step-dad for not driving them there.
Vector's technology and base, and indeed the technology and base of El Macho in the sequel, are all heavily stylized as per villainous showboating, whereas Gru's vehicles all look like heaped together metal monstrosities that can sometimes be useful. Yet when we see Gru's laboratories, it's all very advanced looking yet still not flashy like the other villains. The difference between his lab and his vehicles is nobody needs to see his lab and he didn't have enough money to spend on the vehicles... so they're literally the exact shape they were when they were finished, and he just had the minions heap cheap or stolen scrap over them to blend them into the world of the public! Underneath that ugly metal is the powerful technology of his laboratory.
The Irony of Gru being just minutes too late for the recital is lessened when you realize that technically, he might not have been too late at all. When Vector kidnapped the girls, it was likely in the middle of the recital, and knowing Vector, he probably went all out with the weapons and gadgetry and made a big show about kidnapping them, which would have made everyone else panic and effectively shut down the recital before it was halfway over. Gru reached the recital hall as the janitor was putting away chairs, so he would have no idea that he hadn't missed the recital—if anything, the recital missed him.
Plus, even if Vector's appearance didn't immediately shut down the recital, the fact that he kidnapped the three leading ladies meant that the show couldn't go on, so they would've had to end it early anyway.
There is a very large discrepancy between Vector's appearance and his own inventions and his actual effectiveness as a villain. He comes up with silly and ineffective weapons and is mostly laughable but at the same time has plenty of advanced tech. But what if it wasn't all his? He is the son of the Director of Bank of Evil. It's pretty obvious that he'd have access to almost unlimited funds. He probably bought most of his stuff instead of inventing and building it like Gru does.
Overkill though it might seem for Gru to go whipping out a severely overpowered fusion blaster on the rigged carnival game, notice something interesting about the result: even after he blasts that little metallic UFO icon, it still doesn't fall over until it crumbles into carbonized dust! That game was designed to be beyondUnwinnable. Blasting the rest of the stand qualifies as overkill, but destroying the game itself was a richly-deserved comeuppance to that carnival barker; on the whole, he got off pretty lightly.
By many indications, Gru was still somewhat indebted to the Bank of Evil by the end, considering what poor returns it had gotten on its "investments" in him. So how did he pay it all off? Consider all the valuable assets in his possession: he had a working space shuttle, he still had that shrink ray, and he knew where Vector had hidden the Great Pyramid of Giza he'd stolen (which he could offer to return to Egypt in exchange for a... modest finder's fee and shipping-and-handling charge). He also could possibly offer to retrieve Mr. Perkins' son from the Moon in exchange for having his debts canceled. Financially, Gru is actually pretty well-situated by the end.
The very first aquatic animal-based weapon Vector is shown using is his Piranha Gun. Male piranhas are surprisingly known for being very protective of their young. This might be a subtle foreshadowing to how much of a Papa Wolf Gru has become towards the girls by the time Vector kidnaps them.
The joke about Mr. Perkins running what was formerly Lehman Brothers may seem on the nose, but it makes a twisted kind of sense: the 2008 financial crisis caused a ton of misery across the world and especially the United States. Mr. Perkins is a man who revels in villainy, so having control of a huge chunk of the economy and bringing it to his knees would sate any sadistic urges he possesses.
Gru and Vector's upbringing differ from one another and is what leads them to become dissonant in both social life and approach to villainy.
Gru's mom didn't seem to provide any kind of nurturing environment and belittles his acts of villainy. Gru thus developed some self-esteem and personal issues, which drive him to commit acts of evil in order to oppress his father. On the other side of the coin, not having his mom's support not only forced Gru to work toward what he had but not being dependent on his mom means he has a rich social life with his Minions and Dr. Nefario being steadfastly loyal to him.
Vector seemed to have a much healthier childhood under Mr. Perkins, who was more supportive of his villain career. However, the downside of being nurtured is that Vector's social growth is a bit stunted: he doesn't seem to have close friends, he still needs his father's help to commit evil acts, and he misses social cues when conversing with Gru. Whereas Gru feebly attempts villainy to try and please his mom, Perkins less-than-ideal influence and coddling have Vector both more inclined to villainy and less inclined toward any kind of social life.
While Gru's mom was emotionally distant from her son in her youth, her modern-day contempt for adult Gru stems not from malice but disappointment. Gru's mom knows him better than any other person and realizes her son isn't emotionally cut for the life of a villain. Gru's mom belittles him in an attempt to push him toward using his talents toward something better. Her joy at getting grandbabies suggests that she would be proud of Gru if he did something better with his time and resources.
In a (failed) attempt to charm Miss Hattie, Gru says her face looks like a "burro". Which means "donkey" in Spanish. Another word for donkey is jackass. Which is a very fitting description for Miss Hattie. Gru unintentionally gave the old bat a Stealth Insult.
The entrance to the Bank of Evil is hidden in the middle of three urinals... because using the middle urinal when the other two are available is an act of true evil.
Eight-year-old Gru is inspired by the Apollo moon landings, which all happened between 1969 and 1972. That would make him a teenager when Saturday Night Fever was released in 1977. Disco may have been his first experience with dancing — and also his last, given his lack of friends his own age. So when the girls get him to join their dance party, of course he would go with the only kind he knows: dancing like Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.
Early in the film, Gru mentions that Fred's dog has been doing its business in Gru’s yard, leading Fred to apologize before Gru humorously suggests that he killed Fred's dog. While at first this looks like Gru making a dark joke to his neighbour, Fred's dog is never seen, and Gru later uses binoculars disguised as a dog, so maybe Gru's joke had some truth in it...
Either that or Kyle had something to do with it.
Word of God says the minions are genetically engineered corn kernels, but in some promos they're shown eating popcorn.
Mr. Perkins runs the Bank of Evil. For a villain to get money to fund any kind of evil scheme, they go to him. In effect, Mr. Perkins is the most powerful person in the franchise. He can select who gets the money for an evil scheme, and who doesn't. He can set up any villain he chooses, and bring down anyone he pleases. What will he do to Gru when he finds that Vector is stranded on the moon? And who is too say he hasn't already been working on a way to destroy Gru?
Gru's nonchalant reaction to Edith supposedly getting impaled by the iron maiden may hint that while he was still a villain, he wasn't above murdering children. As CinemaSins puts it:
"Sure, Gru's a villain and all, but does his villainy typically involve fucking child murder?! He's incredibly casual about this!"
When Vector uses the Squid Launcher to get into Gru's rocket, the squid sticks on to the rocket. Vector is later electrocuted by Gru and knocked off the rocket, but we never see the squid ever again. Considering that unlike Gru and Vector, the squid didn't have a space suit, what happened to it doesn't seem nice.
What exactly did Vector say to get the girls to come with him to his house?
Since the girls make no appearance in the video game, it can be assumed that they are still living at Miss Hattie's, and have to suffer her cruelty for God-knows-how-long.
I mean, it's probably in the past or set in an alternate timeline.
How easily Agnes let the destruction of her original unicorn go. One might expect a very young child to at least be upset about the loss of any toy—and that was her only toy. But besides holding her breath, she doesn't even bring it up again until the carnival. It's probably not the first time someone destroyed her belongings.
Going by how old and jaded she is and her reaction to Miss Hattie taking the girls back, ya'll might get the impression that Margo was abandoned by her birthparents.
Agnes was so excited for the chance to win the stuffed unicorn at the carnival. Depending on how long she's been an orphan, she might never have had any toys at all, aside from her handmade unicorn doll (that looks like she made it herself). Of course, that just makes it more heartwarming when Gru destroys the carnival stand just to get the unicorn for her.
Plus the loss of the original unicorn toy. It's not played for sadness, but it was her only toy and was clearly well loved. And the odds of her actually getting a new one were (from the girls' perspective) very slim.
