Felonious Gru, alternatively spelled as Felonius Gru[1] and typically referred to simply as Gru,[2] is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Despicable Me film series. Voiced by American actor Steve Carell, he has appeared in all five films in the series. Gru is a grouchy, quick-witted and cynical former supervillain, who serves as a secret agent in order to fight other supervillains.
Gru is the son of Marlena and the Bald Terror (real name Robert), twin brother of Dru, the adoptive father of Margo, Edith, and Agnes, father of Gru Jr., husband of Lucy, and boss of the Minions.
At the beginning of the first film, Gru is an ambitious supervillain who constantly seeks approval from his mother, until the adoption of his daughters convinces him that their happiness is important.
In the second film, Gru leaves his villainous past behind to care for his daughters, but then soon joins forces - unwillingly - with secret agent Lucy Wilde, whom he later marries.
In the third film, after he and Lucy are fired from their jobs at the Anti-Villain League, Gru learns that he has a twin brother, Dru, whom he never met due to their divorced parents raising each child separately. Along with Lucy and the girls, Gru meets Dru at his mansion in Freedonia, and they form a brotherly relationship over the course of the film. Gru and Lucy are also later rehired by the Anti-Villain League.
In the fourth film, Gru has a blood-related child called Gru Jr.
Development
The character that would become Gru was conceived by animator Sergio Pablos, who envisioned him as a Dracula-like character, but the directors of the first film, Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin, later opted for a more sleek character that would echo "the world of James Bond", with Auric Goldfinger being cited as a particular influence.[3][4] Gru also bears some design similarities with British comic-book character Grimly Feendish and with the pre-Crisis version of Lex Luthor.[5]
The use of flashbacks to characterise Gru in Despicable Me was compared by Variety to those used in Pixar's 2007 film Ratatouille to characterise Anton Ego.[9] Gru was cited by Katy Marriner, writing in Screen Education, as one of the premier examples of a protagonist in an animated film who reforms themselves, in contrast to the traditional animated film protagonist who remains heroic throughout.[10] Gru was psychologically analysed by Nofika Dewi of Universitas Pamulang, who found that his rude and ambitious qualities represented his Id; his villainy and tenaciousness represented his Ego, while his competence as a parent and bravery were part of his Super-ego.[11]
Gru has also been interpreted as a Russian stereotype, with a 2017 study stating that elements of his characterisation had been designed to support supposed American political agendas that label Russians as backwards and violent.[12]
^Baxter, Joseph (May 14, 2015). "The Full Minions Trailer Is Really Goofy". CinemaBlend. Retrieved November 23, 2016. [...] well before the days of their tenure with Felonious Gru […]
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