Gru – Despicable Me
Of all the criminals on this list, Felonius Gru is possibly the most ambitious. Not aiming for money or a body count, not wanting to take over a city or even the world, Gru has his sights set on something much higher: Gru is planning to steal the moon. He also randomly freezes people in the coffee shop for no reason (freezing the people in the queue is perfectly acceptable), threatens to kill the neighbour’s dog, and makes a balloon animal for a boy who’s dropped his ice-cream, which Gru himself then pops.
Gru’s most nefarious moment, however, is his decision to kidnap three girls. Whereas Léon tried to keep Mathilda out of his criminal activities, Gru actively sought out some children because they’re essential to his plan. He then proceeds to fail spectacularly at looking after them and once their job is done, attempts to abandon them at a theme park. He truly is – as he so proudly claims himself – a supervillain. And this is exactly his charm. Voiced superbly by Steve Carell, Gru’s belligerent attitude is the reason we get such brilliant lines as (in response to his neighbour telling him that dogs go wherever they like) “Unless they’re dead,” and (when asked by the girls if their beds are made of bombs) “Yes– but they are very old and highly unlikely to blow up….try not to toss and turn.”
Gru does, of course, become super-dad in the end, his eventual affection for Margo, Edith and Agnes leading him to willingly hand the hard-won moon over to his arch-nemesis in return for their safety. Gru is also the only one of our collection of characters here who actually reforms entirely; he goes to work for the Anti-Villain League, which is where we meet him again in Despicable Me 2 – and which actually provides a very neat little piece of evidence that characters in their semi-criminal form are often the most likeable. It was a brave move of Illumination Entertainment to make an animation as its first film, especially when there are the likes of DreamWorks and Disney Pixar prowling around (and they do not – share – power) – but it was a very smart one to make Gru the sort of character that he was. The film was an instant hit, and carried on well into its sequel, aided of course by the excellent supporting cast of the three girls and the batshit insane genius that is the minions. But the studio’s cleverest move so far has been their passing on of the franchise baton to the minions themselves. We will always love Gru as an accidental super-dad – but there’s only so much nice we can take.
