Despicable Me 2 (2013)

I dug “Despicable Me,” the animated jab at movie villainy played like a Mel Brooks classic made for grade schoolers. Its master stroke: Every movie fan knows it’s more fun to be the bad guy, so why not make a movie about him? There, egg-shaped Eastern European criminal mastermind Gru saw his plans to steal the moon sunk after taking in three orphaned girls with big, wet eyes. Watching him squirm to do anything right was a blast. In “Despicable Me 2,” Gru is back and he’s good from the start, so good, he’ll dress like a pink fairy to give his youngest girl a smile. When he’s recruited by a MI5-type group to take down a new villain, we have no doubt that Gru won’t dream a little Blofeld dream. That sucks the fun out of this story. The movie’s wonderfully done in eye-popping CGI with endlessly funny blink-and-you-miss-it sight gags, and Steve Carrel is a blast as Gru, but we are watching an after-thought. The main point of interest hangs on Gru finding love … or not. Go on, guess. B