Opening today is Universal's 3D CGI feature Despicable Me and it features the voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Julie Andrews, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, and Jemaine Clement. The film is about a villain named Gru (Carell) who has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes. I saw a screening and thought it was a really sweet family film and it should do very well at the box office.
Anyway, I was able to interview producer Chris Meledandri (Ice Age franchise, Robots, Horton Hears a Who!) and we discussed making the movie, how did it change over the course of its development, how did Steve Carell find the voice of Gru and was the studio afraid of him doing an accent, the 3D, and we also talked about his future projects like The Addams Family, The Lorax, Hop, and more. It's a great interview so hit the jump to check it out. It's time indexed so you can watch the parts you're interested in:
And if you’d like to watch some clips from Despicable Me, click here.
Chris Meledandri
- How nice is it to finally be done with the project
- :50 - Where are the police in the Despicable Me universe
- 2:00 - Where was the limit of character violence
- 3:20 - With this cast, did he have a lot of friends and family want to watch the recording process
- 4:40 - How did the project change over the course of its development
- 7:00 - We talk about how Steve Carell did a voice with an accent and did the studio have issues with this
- 8:30 - 3D talk and the roller coaster sequence
- 11:00 - What projects is he attached to. Talks about Addams Family, Where's Waldo, Hop, and The Lorax
- 12:45 - Lot's of The Lorax talk - plus we talk about the challenges of adapting a Dr. Seuss book
- 16:00 - Addams Family talk
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