How good can a movie be when it has Steve Carrell and some of the funniest people alive?

Pretty darn good.

Despicable Me is about Gru (Steve Carell, The Office), a super villain whose schemes haven't all panned out the way they should have, who seeks the praise of his mother (Julie Andrews, The Sound of Music).

When a new villain named Vector
(Jason Segel, I Love You, Man) steals the Great Pyramid of Giza, Gru decides the only way to upstage him is to steal the moon. Gru adopts Margo (Miranda Cosgrove, iCarly), Edith and Agnes — around whom most of the character development takes place — in an attempt to steal a gadget from Vector and ends up taking a liking to the trio.

Honestly, before I went to see it, I
could have cared less what the movie was about, because the voice cast was enough for me. Steve Carrell, Jason Segel, Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live), Will Arnett (Arrested Development), Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) are all some of the funniest people making movies and television shows (and, in all honesty, iCarly is a very funny show as well). As if that wasn't enough, though, the movie manages to be engaging and hilarious throughout.

It's always good when kids' movies
make teenagers and adults laugh, too, and Despicable Me does just that, even in spite of — or possibly because of — Carell's accent.

David Salazar will be a senior at Santa Fe High School. You can reach him at davidjsalazar@gmail.com.