Despicable Me 3: Minions, Brotherly Love & Fab 80’s Music

Universal Pictures recently invited me to attend a media screening of Despicable Me 3 & the movie is super fun & filled with plenty of 80’s references to keep adults entertained.

Are you a fan of the Despicable Me movies? If you are, you’re really gonna enjoy the latest installment of this beloved movie franchise; and even if you haven’t seen the other two, this movie is so fun, relatable and entertaining on it’s own.

Despicable Me 3 is the story of former villain Gru (Steve Carell) who is in the midst of a major identity crisis, but when he learns that he has a long-lost twin brother named Dru (also voiced by the brilliant Steve Carell), a brother who desperately wishes to follow in his twin’s despicable footsteps, one former super-villain rediscovers just how good it feels to be bad.

For me, the highlights of Despicable Me 3 were Gru’s sweet relationship with his daughter’s, Gru’s playful banter with the goofy and affable Minions and especially his relationship with Gru, his newly found twin brother but his polar opposite. I loved getting the inside scoop about these characters from Steve Carell during the press junket and enjoyed hearing about how he differentiated between portraying both of these animated characters: “Dru was fun to do because I hadn’t done it before. And it was fun to just come up with a different voice that was similar to Gru’s voice but not exactly the same. And I differentiated, or tried to, more in their demeanor than an accent. I think Gru is kind of a grouch, and Dru is really effervescent and silly.”

When we asked Steve if he tapped into his own sibling relationships to help him better understand the relationship between Gru and Dru, he shared: “In terms of like best friends and the fun that you have, you know, on walkie-talkies at night, I definitely related to that. This guy has never had that kind of relationship, certainly not a sibling relationship. And I think you would yearn for that if you had never experienced it. And there are things that you can say and do to your brothers that you can’t say or do to anyone else in the world, and there’s stuff you can get away with because you know you’re still going to be brothers. There’s that underlying love.”

I absolutely LOVED the villain in this movie, Balthazar Bratt who was portrayed by Trey Parker of South Park fame. This fabulous super villain is a former child star who can’t let go of the character he played in the ’80s and he is bent on world domination. Balthazar wears fierce shoulder pads, uses bubble gum as a weapon and he enjoys partaking in 80’s music dance offs when fighting his enemies. As a Gen-X babe who grew up in the 80’s, the numerous references to this iconic era were clever and beyond entertaining. The eighties music really brought me back to a fun and care free time in my life.

During their interviews, both Kristen Wiig and Steve Carell also shared some fond memories of the eighties era. Kristen recalled watching MTV music videos, owning cassette tapes and she liked the fab 80’s fashions. And Steve even chimed him and let us know that he wore MC Hammer style pants and he thought that they were fashionable and cool back then. Both of these comedic actors were really down to earth and fun to interview.

In addition to seeing the movie and interviewing the stars, we also attended a fun activity filled breakfast in the morning prior to the screening hosted by Bounty, Yummy Spoonfuls, and Kellogg’s.

During breakfast, we had the opportunity to meet Ace of Cakes celeb baker Duff Goldman and got to decorate silly Minion cupcakes with him. Luckily, there were plenty of Despicable Me Bounty Paper Towels on hand to clean up our messes and frosting mishaps 😉

And how fab is this Bounty Paper Towel Cake that Duff created in celebration of it’s branded partnership with the movie?!

During the event, I also had the opportunity to speak with the gorgeous, lovely and super down-to-earth Camila Alves, owner of healthy organic kids food brand Yummy Spoonfuls. She was at this media breakfast celebrating her collaboration with Despicable Me 3 too! Being a mom of 3, Camila is super passionate about feeding her kids high quality foods made with top notch ingredients and that is why she became a partner at Yummy Spoonfuls many years ago.

Despicable Me 3 opens in theaters nationwide on June 30, 2017. Checkout this trailer to get a sneak peek of all the fun, silly antics and adventure in store for you when the movie opens at the end of the month.

I would like to thank Universal Pictures for hosting this media screening of Despicable Me 3 as well as the event sponsors Bounty, Yummy Spoonfuls, & Kellogg’s for the fun activities & tasty treats.

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