Illumination Entertainment Animated Movies Ranked
8. Despicable Me 3 (2017)
Budget: $80million
Worldwide Box Office: $1billion
Starring: Steve Carell, Trey Parker, Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove, Pierre Coffin, Dana Gaier, Steve Coogan, Jenny Slate, Julie Andrews
The third movie in the central franchise of Despicable Me movies and by far the third best, Despicable Me 3 is in fine company as one of only several $1billion-grossing animated movies, though much of that is due to the cultural phenomenon of the Minions.
Despicable Me 3 felt lacking in originality and some of the nuanced moments of cuteness and creativity that pushed its predecessors to such heights. This iteration of the central story still features a buzz of energy that people can associate with the franchise and, though it relies a little too heavily on slapstick humour to entertain, it’s far from an arduous task to consume it.
Despicable Me 3 may have less going for it than 1 & 2, but it certainly has a lot more to offer than its more hollow Minions spin-offs.
7. Sing (2016)
Budget: $75million
Worldwide Box Office: $634million
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Nick Kroll, Jennifer Hudson, John C. Reilly, Nick Offerman, Garth Jennings, Jennifer Saunders, Leslie Jones
What do you get when you cross popular reality TV shows with animated animals and a whole heap of licensed music? Sing.
Illumination’s 2016 animated release starring the likes of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansson was hardly a ground-breaking success for the art of animation, nor did it feel like a must-have addition to a child’s DVD collection, but it did have a little something about it even if it did seem like a movie created by committee in the search for profit rather than by artists in the search of truth.
It’s one of those films you can’t help but to smile at sometimes, and that’s okay.
6. The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)
Budget: $80million
Worldwide Box Office: $430million
Cast: Kevin Hart, Patton Oswalt, Jenny Slate, Eric Stonestreet, Tiffany Haddish, Harrison Ford, Dana Carvey, Ellie Kemper, Bobby Moynihan, Hannibal Buress, Nick Kroll
Fans of the original The Secret Life of Pets no doubt enjoyed the second instalment of pet shenanigans on offer in The Secret Life of Pets 2, the returning voices of Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish and Patton Oswalt complimented by the arrival of Hollywood icon (and Indiana Jones himself) Harrison Ford. But general audiences didn’t seem so keen. Earning $430million at the box office, less than half of what the original film made, it seems that all it took was two years for the hype of singing and dancing dogs, cats, hamsters and guinea pigs to well and truly die down.
While $430million is by no means a bad return on an $80million investment, the halving of its overall take in just two years will be cause for concern for Illumination and studio Universal, and may put a third Secret Life of Pets movie out of reach.
While the film itself didn’t offer anything fresh or new, what it did offer was good enough to be a worthy follow up to the first film; a take on the characters that may have been a little slower in pace, but was equally as funny (and worth doing impressions of) for children.
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