Despicable Me (Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, 2010)

Despicable Me is one of the cutest (and definitely bearable) family films I’ve ever seen. In fact, I think I like it more than my family do, and I genuinely laugh at what is quite clearly humour aimed at children.

The first film follows an evil supervillain, Gru, as he gets into an evilness competition with Vector, nerd-turned-supervillain. When Vector steals the pyramid of Giza, Gru decides the best thing to do is to steal the moon. He first has to get into Vector’s incredibly well protected house, but when he discovers that Vector has a soft spot for Coconutties, he adopts three of the girls selling these cookies to help him. However, he starts to genuinely like the girls, and considers calling off his moon-stealing-escapades to go to the girls’ dance recital. Agnes, the youngest girl with a small obsession with unicorns, is unbelievably cute. Of course, with this being a family film, there is a happy ending. Gru realises the error of his ways and begins to truly love the girls, becoming a happy family by the end of the film, and even fixing his relationship with his mother.

I think what makes Despicable Me so loved is almost undoubtedly the minions. Yes, it’s a half-decent storyline, yes, the youngest of the girls is adorable, but really, without the minions, the film wouldn’t have been half as successful…

Minions, small little yellow helpers, are the kind of pet everyone wants. They’re always willing to help, even if it does take them a while to put down their beloved bananas and get to it. They speak in a funny mixture of French, English, Spanish, Indian, Italian and gobbledegook (called ‘Minionese’)… so although most of what they say just sounds like obscure ramblings, there are certain words which can be picked out. Most words are food references, such as ‘potato’ and ‘poulet tiki masala’. The minions are actually voiced by the directors, Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, who:

“mix up all these ridiculous sounding words just because they sound good, not because they necessarily mean something” (Pierre Coffin)

Minions have become a hit worldwide, becoming incorporated into all kinds of things; some the best I’ve seen are nails painted as minions, and the other day I saw a little girl wearing a cute minion hat! The cake pictured was actually made by my mother for my seventeenth birthday, which looked and tasted amazing (after we were ready to cut into such a work of art).

There are thousands of minion toys and games, and of course the spin-off film, Minions, which is being released in 2015. Minion Rush, too, is the smart phone game based on Temple Run but featuring minions. Minions are also part of ‘Chiquita’ bananas’ advertising campaign, because minions love bananas!

The characters are voiced by Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, and my favourite actress of all time, Julie Andrews. I hadn’t realised how many of the voices I actually knew until I looked it up on Wikipedia.

I went to see Despicable Me 2 twice in the cinema, which is really something for me as I very rarely class a film as being important enough to spend ten pounds on. The second time, there was a power cut only five minutes into the film, but since I’d already watched it, I wasn’t that bothered. I’d already eaten all my popcorn anyway. Despicable Me 2 introduces Lucy Wilde, who eventually becomes the children’s mother when Gru falls in love with her… Yet again, the perfect happy family ending.

Thoroughly Modern Millie (George Roy Hill, 1967)

Julie Andrews, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, is without a doubt my favourite actress. In my mind, she is completely flawless. So this weekend, when I’ve been ill and confined to bed, I’ve watched several Julie Andrews films to make me feel better… Every film she’s been in seems to be ridiculously cheerful, so once I’d finished the obvious ones, like The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, and the Princess Diaries, I went on Wikipedia to see what else she’d been in, and discovered Thoroughly Modern Millie.

It’s such a classic Julie Andrews film; a light-hearted musical, complete with an intermission… I love intermissions in films, I think they’re sweet. It makes me sad that we don’t seem to have them anymore.

There were even intertitles to show what Millie was thinking, like any good old-fashioned film. This one, although it is relatively new, was set in the 1920s, so it seemed to fit.

It deals with typically ‘girly’ issues, such as how to dress and which boy to choose, yet also has a sub plot about white slavery. Honestly, I found the entire thing rather bizarre.
Millie meets an incredibly naive rich girl called Miss Dorothy Brown who then checks into the same hotel Millie is living in, where the house mother, unbeknownst to Millie, is selling her tenants into white slavery.
As usual for a musical, it has a cheerful ending; Millie marries the ‘good guy’ and everyone ends up happy.
The film is almost painfully predictable, but it was a good film to watch when I didn’t feel too great. Julie Andrews’ wonderfully polite accent never fails to cheer me up.

The film started off in a way I wasn’t expecting; there were a lot of close ups, which meant it was difficult to follow what was happening. Only feet and hands were shown, no faces; this left me totally unsure as to what was going on.

Secret Voices Of Hollywood

Anyone who knows me well is all too aware of how much I love musicals. So when I saw a documentary about musicals on iPlayer, I couldn’t resist… ‘Secret Voices of Hollywood’ talked about my favourite musicals, ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and ‘The Sound of Music’, and my favourite actresses, Julie Andrews and Audrey Hepburn. I found it interesting, so I thought, why not blog about it?

‘Secret Voices of Hollywood’ revealed one of Hollywood’s best kept secrets: the voices behind the songs. Many major musicals used ghost singers to sing the songs the actors couldn’t manage, without them ever being credited. For example, Christopher Plummer (The Sound Of Music), by his own admission, ‘didn’t even sing in the shower’. He was ghosted by Bill Lee, one of the more well-known ghost singers.
This is a link to Christopher Plummer’s own recording of Edelweiss: http://vimeo.com/73063831.

The Sound of Music is sometimes referred to as the film that saved 20th Century Fox. I don’t know anyone of my generation who likes it, but it was a big success when it was first released in 1965, winning five Academy Awards. However, the famous seven Von Trapp children were actually the eleven Von Trapp children; the seven seen on screen and four who sang the songs. Even the mother superior, played by Peggy Wood, was ghosted by Margery McKay. Julie Andrews, however, sang all her own songs, having been on Broadway for many years of her career.

Julie Andrews is undoubtedly my favourite actress ever. She is, to quote Mary Poppins, ‘practically perfect in every way’.

Marni Nixon also appeared in The Sound of Music as Sister Sophia. This was the first time she was in front of the camera. Before that, she was a ghost singer in many famous musicals, such as West Side Story, My Fair Lady and The King and I. The songs in My Fair Lady were performed by Marni Nixon (dubbing Audrey Hepburn), who has only recently received recognition for her work.

Often, ghost singers were used to get the musical to the highest possible quality. Most of the actors could sing, but the directors usually didn’t think they were quite good enough. Robert Wise always had Marni Nixon on hand, just in case.

Ironically, Singin’ in the Rain is about ghost singers and the use of new technology in the 40s and 50s… Debbie Reynolds played a ghost singer, but in one song, her young teenage voice couldn’t quite hit the notes, so she too had a ghost singer, who was never credited.