Despicable Me 3

Of the many films Illumination has animated over the years, their most well-known are related to the Despicable Me franchise. So far, this series has spawned three movies and a spin-off, though nothing that could quite capture the magic of the original Despicable Me film. The most recent entry, Despicable Me 3, prominently advertised Trey Parker’s involvement in early trailers. While the most recent outing is more ambitious in its plot, it too ultimately falls short of the original.

Following the events of Despicable Me 2, Gru (Steve Carell) is working with Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) from the Anti-Villain League (AVL) to prevent a supervillain named Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker) from stealing the world’s largest diamond from a cargo ship. Although Gru prevents Bratt from stealing the diamond, he is unable to capture Bratt himself. As he has continually been unable to capture Bratt, the AVL fires Gru and Lucy, leaving them jobless until they can find something else to do. Because Gru refuses to return to villainy, all but two of his Minions (Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud) leave him. In this time of need, Gru learns of the existence of his long-lost brother Dru (Steve Carell), who leads a wealthy lifestyle in the country of Freedonia. Meanwhile, Lucy is trying to adapt to her role as mother for Gru’s adopted daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Nev Scharrel).

Gru (Steve Carell) learns of his brother Dru (Steve Carell) and
decides to resume his previous life of villainy.

Although the story presents some interesting ideas, the presence of six plots, one main plot and five sub-plots, leads to some issues. Despite Illumination’s best efforts to balance all of them within 90 minutes, they all end up diluting each other as they fight for precious space. For instance, two of the sub-plots, which are related to Lucy’s plot of becoming a mother, resolve themselves very quickly and end with the introduction of what they may hope is another marketable character. Additionally, although the Minions are handled a bit better here than they were in their own movie, their plot escalates rather quickly each time they’re onscreen until they inevitably become relevant to the main plot again. The end result might have been stronger if they had removed at least one sub-plot to better develop the others. Either way, it may be worth noting that Edith has had the least character development of the three girls after three movies.

The most prominent plots involve two original characters, Balthazar Bratt and Dru. Dru’s existence is a bit surprising, partially since it comes from a pool of stories usually reserved for when you’re out of ideas. For the most part, he and Gru have a chemistry (helped by Steve Carell voicing both characters) and have a number of differences which help them feel different from one another. When all is said and done, however, it seems that Illumination plans to have Dru appear in a potential Despicable Me 4, which may feel like a blessing or a curse depending on how the viewer reacts to Dru’s personality. Still, Steve Carell is able to voice the brothers differently enough in tone and mannerisms that they are distinct from each other in conversation.

As for supervillain Balthazar Bratt, he is by far the most entertaining new addition. He has a very interesting backstory as a child star who suffered endless mockery in puberty, angering him to the point where he actually believed he was the supervillain he played on TV. His obsession with the 1980s ties into this, being when he was at his peak, and gives him an interesting array of gadgets, including a smoke bomb triggered by a self-solving Rubik’s Cube, and his habit of singing and dancing popular songs from the decade. Trey Parker is a perfect match for the character, as his voice acting makes him a very likable villain. However, viewers familiar with his previous work may recognize his distinct vocal range, which may make one very small twist in the middle of the movie less effective. I’ll also admit that my enjoyment of Trey Parker’s character may be informed at least somewhat from being a fan of his more adult-oriented collaborations with Matt Stone, including South Park, Team America: World Police and The Book of Mormon.

Trey Parker is entertaining as supervillain Balthazar Bratt.

As with other movies from Illumination, the animation is rather impressive, especially with their ability to make certain shots feel like they’re in 3D even though it’s a 2D print. However, while downplayed from previous installments, Despicable Me 3 still unnecessarily indulges in toilet humor every once in a while. Additionally, as more of an observation, it continues the trend of using Pharrell Williams for pop songs.

Despicable Me 3 is an immediate improvement over Minions, but still cannot completely recapture the magic of the original Despicable Me. Both the stellar animation and Trey Parker’s enjoyable take on a creative villain are not enough to balance out the film’s overabundance of diluted plots. While the ending somewhat overtly sets up a sequel, one can only wonder what direction a Despicable Me 4 could possibly go in. If you’re a fan of the Despicable Me series and can’t get enough of it, this is the movie for you. Alternatively, if you’re a fan of Trey Parker, you’re in for a great performance.

Team America: World Police

Note: The following review was written prior to Sony deciding to release The Interview in a limited theatrical run and on VOD. We decided that the reasons for posting this review of Team America: World Police were still valid.

On December 25, 2014, Sony Pictures planned to release a movie called The Interview, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, about two guys who are sent into North Korea for an interview with Kim Jong-un and are ordered by the CIA to assassinate him. When only previews were shown of this film however, North Korea launched a cyber attack on Sony Pictures, leaking over 100 TB of data in the process. This data included information on its past and present employees, internal emails and entire films that Sony had planned to release in the coming months. When North Korea, under the guise of the “Guardians of Peace”, threatened terrorist actions on theaters nationwide, several chains opted out of screening the film, ultimately resulting in Sony cancelling both the premiere and theatrical release of The Interview. In response to this, some theater outlets planned to show Team America: World Police, by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame, but unfortunately Paramount Pictures, who originally released Team America in October, 2004, nixed those plans. This inspired us at Trophy Unlocked to finally watch and review Team America: World Police to take a stand against censorship. This is a movie that I had planned to see at some point anyway, which I couldn’t do at first due to my age when it first released, but the recent events regarding The Interview offered a golden opportunity to finally do so. Suffice to say, I was not disappointed.

Gary Johnston (Trey Parker) is a skilled Broadway actor who has just made his debut with the musical Lease. After his show ends, he exits into the alleyway and is approached by Spottswoode (Daran Norris), who manages to convince Gary to enter his limousine to offer him a job opening. As the two of them talk, Gary is taken to Mount Rushmore, the home base of Team America, a team of skilled professionals who police the entire world. After meeting the rest of the team, Gary is told that he was chosen for his college majors in Theater and World Languages, which qualifies him to become the ultimate spy. When he finally joins, he is sent with Team America into Cairo, Egypt to foil a terrorist plot which promises to be “9/11 times a hundred.” Unbeknownst to the team however, Kim Jong-il (Trey Parker) is using the terrorists to support a much larger plan which will throw the entire world into chaos.

Team America (left to right): Joe Smith (Trey Parker), Gary Johnston (Trey Parker),
Chris (Matt Stone), Lisa Jones (Kristen Miller), Sarah Wong (Masasa)

The story of Team America is actually pretty good as it takes every action movie cliché it can and lampoons it in a way that fits in line with Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s style of humor. Gary is fleshed out pretty well as the audience comes to understand the sort of person he is through his ups and downs and the other members of Team America are given enough background to know who they are. However, a couple of them are pretty underdeveloped beyond clichés, though this was likely intentional, and Gary’s reason for not initially joining Team America ends up being so tragic that it’s funny. Also notable are the portrayals of several celebrities, especially those in the Film Actors Guild (F.A.G.). The members of F.A.G., which includes Alec Baldwin (Maurice LaMarche) and George Clooney (Matt Stone) among others, wish for world peace and dislike the approach of Team America, who they see as a reckless group that causes more damage than the terrorists they fight. Kim Jong-il’s portrayal also ends up being one of the funniest in the movie, as the filmmakers get a lot of mileage out of him. Equally funny is when countries apart from America are depicted, with stereotypes that are applied to outlandish degrees and distance always given in relation to America.

While I did find the film to be very funny, there are a couple scenes which made me turn away, one of which was an extensive shot of Gary vomiting and the other being a sex scene between Gary and Lisa Jones (Kristen Miller). Both seemed a little unnecessary, since the former went into the realm of gross-out humor that I don’t enjoy anyway and the latter I understand was only in there to distract the censors from the rest of the film’s content.

As for pacing, I have to commend Team America for moving at a pretty comfortable pace. It moves by pretty quickly, faster than one would expect, yet still hits the notes that it needs to when it needs to in order to move along without wasting much time. The message that the film ultimately gives, that while violence isn’t always the answer, it sometimes is, is also executed well and feels pretty important. America being the world’s police isn’t a new concept, but the way this movie handles it is interesting anyway.

The voice acting is pretty good in that it provides most of the humor. Trey Parker and Matt Stone give some of the best work in the film while supporting talent from the likes of Maurice LaMarche and Daran Norris only add to the pool of talent at hand. I also found the score by Harry Gregson-Williams to be pretty good, though the original music is great as well, with hilarious songs such as “I’m So Ronery” and “America (F*** Yeah)” standing the test of time.

I also have to give props to the puppetry and sets. The sets are very detailed, with little things that help sell the stereotypical nature of certain countries and showing off the talent of the designers. Add to that a scene where Gary visits actual American monuments and you have great comedy to boot. The puppets are pretty cheap-looking, you can even see the strings, but the puppeteers did an excellent job with the purposefully terrible movements as well as the scenes that actually show off more of their real capabilities.

The sets in Team America can be elaborately detailed.

Lastly, I want to address the references this movie makes. Team America makes fun of Pearl Harbor, Michael Bay, the Iraq War, Kim Jong-il and many other targets. However, most of these references are firmly rooted in 2004, the year in which this film was released. As a result, watching Team America can be like looking into a time capsule of 2004, so viewing it with a lens of that time frame may help with understanding some of the humor on display. Thankfully, it is also possible to watch Team America for some of its other elements, though I can’t help but wonder if this movie will be less funny to audiences years down the line; I suppose only time will tell for that.

Though not the greatest movie, Team America: World Police is still very good. The plot is clichéd while managing to be fresh and moves along at a great pace, although a couple scenes could’ve been cut without really missing much. Both the music and voice acting are great and the puppetry at work is commendable. Most importantly, the political satire is excellent and is very much in line with what Trey Parker and Matt Stone have expressed through South Park. In fact, the movie feels a bit like South Park with puppets at times. If you’re looking for a comedy that has mostly stood the test of time, watch Team America. However, children definitely shouldn’t be watching this despite the use of puppets and those seeking a smarter comedy should look elsewhere.

Second Opinion - South Park: The Stick of Truth

While I hadn’t seen much of South Park beforehand, having seen a handful of episodes and the movie (South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut), it wasn’t until I saw a preview of the then-upcoming game, South Park: The Stick of Truth, the subject of this review, at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, that my interest grew. From what I had seen in that preview, I knew it would be imperative for me to see every episode of South Park I could in order to get the most out of the game, which I did over an extended period of time. While the preview I saw was from THQ, the company would unfortunately go bankrupt, causing the game to shift hands to Ubisoft for release, in turn leading to a number of delays (to the point where the penultimate 3 episodes of Season 17 (“Black Friday”, “A Song of Ass and Fire”, and “****ies and Dragons”) that lead up to the game, collectively known as the Black Friday Trilogy, made numerous jokes about it). Even then, from the small snippet of gameplay in 2012 to the night before the game’s release in 2014, I knew it was a game I wanted to play. Having played the game, with this review delayed by school work and my Bionicle Heroes review, I would say the overall investment in South Park was worth it to the very end.

You play as The New Kid, whose appearance you get to customize, who has just moved into the quiet little mountain town of South Park. When The New Kid’s parents insist he go out and make friends, he comes across Butters Stotch, who takes him to see Eric Cartman, the Grand Wizard of the Kingdom of Kupa Keep, who currently holds the Stick of Truth as part of a LARP campaign. Soon after The New Kid joins in the game, the Stick of Truth is stolen by the Drow Elves of Larnion, the enemy of the Kingdom of Kupa Keep, and Cartman tasks him to retrieve the Stick. What starts out as a fairly simple game of LARP eventually turns into something much bigger than anyone involved could ever think possible.

The eponymous Stick of Truth, right before being stolen by Drow Elves.

Due to having heavy involvement from series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the story of The Stick of Truth feels and plays out just like an episode of South Park, especially in how the characters interact and how everything blows further out of proportion the more events play out. Numerous references and call backs are made to the show throughout, so only those who have already seen the show will get a good number of them, but they are still inserted such that prior knowledge is not required in order to enjoy the game. Of course, with South Park being a comedy series, the game is extremely funny, with every humorous moment, of which there is plenty, hitting more often than they miss; the show has its own ups and downs in regards to its humor, but, like the Black Friday Trilogy preceding it, this is one of South Park higher moments when it comes to laughs. Some of the jokes are based in pop culture references that will eventually make the game more of a product of its time, but the way they are executed is so hilarious that, unlike other games that do this, I don’t really mind it in the slightest. In essence, if you play this game, you are definitely guaranteed a laugh.

Once you join Cartman’s ranks, you not only get to choose your name (though everyone else calls you a different name(s) anyway), but also your Class, of which you have a choice between Fighter, Mage, Thief, and Jew (if you play as a Jew, damage output increases the lower your health is); I chose the first, mainly because I haven’t played many RPG’s that use a Class system. You can also customize your armor and weapons as you go, mainly to befit your Class, although the leveling-up system (not to mention some side quests) may require you to change your equipment a number of times over the course of the story. Certain scenarios in combat may also make you change out your weapons a few times as well, but you will find a strategy you’re comfortable with in no time. Interacting with residents of South Park also nets you Friends on Facebook in-game, allowing you access to Perks that can really help you depending on your play style.

Combat itself is similar to that of Penny Arcade’s Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series, having the turn-based system of Rain-Slick 3 and 4, but also having timing-based attacks like Rain-Slick One and Two. When you or your buddy (one of a select group of South Park characters) initiates an attack during combat, timing is very important, in that you have to press a button(s) at just the right moment in order to maximize the damage you deal to an enemy. These attacks can either target single enemies or a whole group of them (when multiple are present), and the ever-changing tactics of some enemies can make you make some important decisions on how to approach a given situation, including whether to use a ranged or melee weapon on a target. Some special attacks require PP to pull off, but they are often worth it in the end, such as being able to jump and perform a massive ground pound or having Princess Kenny summon a unicorn to ram an opponent(s). You can also use your Mana to fart on enemies (this game’s form of magic), with stronger farts requiring increasing amounts of Mana; this is the only stat that does not regenerate after an encounter. Certain residents of South Park can also be summoned, such as Jesus, in order to take care of an enemy, but only once per (in-game) day; they also all give their own excuse for not being able to take on bosses (some of whom are actually pretty easy to take down, even on a higher difficulty).

A small sample of combat in-game.

There are also a number of collectibles to be found in the game, including Chinpokomon and a number of useful items. Some of these items, however, are very miss-able, meaning you can’t go back and retrieve them once you’ve gone through certain story points, which can hamper one’s experience with the game a little bit. To this end, learning from my brother’s frustrations with this during his playthrough, I tried to get everything I could whenever I could, though I also used an online guide to make sure I grabbed everything.

The graphics of this game are very impressive, especially considering an engine capable of advanced 3D graphics was used to accurately replicate the 2D construction paper cut-out look of the show. This helps the game look and feel just like an episode of South Park, further increasing enjoyment of the writing and gameplay. Due to Parker and Stone’s ties to the development of The Stick of Truth, the two of them, alongside the returning South park voice cast, give performances that help the whole experience feel even more authentic. This is not getting into the background music, which generally would not sound out of place within the show (it even includes the show’s signature banjo music and ending credits theme), along with some (often humorous) recycled sound and music clips from the show that offer extra enjoyment for dedicated fans of South Park.

Once you find Jesus (among others), you can summon him during
combat once per day.

South Park: The Stick of Truth is not only a great South Park game, but also an amazing RPG experience in general. The whole thing feels as if it was ripped straight out of the show, providing a faithful South Park experience to those seeking it out. Prior experience with South Park is not required to have fun with the game, so fans of, or newcomers to, RPGs (within the appropriate age group) can safely be encouraged to seek it out, as it is very accessible to players with little to not experience in the genre, although watching the show beforehand is a necessity to understand and laugh at the numerous references and call-backs to previous episodes (I would highly recommend watching the Black Friday Trilogy at a minimum before playing The Stick of Truth for the first time). Admittedly, the game doesn’t take that long to get through, clocking in at roughly 12-15 hours depending on your actions, but getting the full South Park experience alone makes it all worth it in the end.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

In August, 2012, I wrote a review of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, declaring it one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. In that review, I mentioned South Park: The Stick of Truth, the subject of this review, as though it was going to be released in 2013. Though the game was certainly announced before I watched the movie that time, and I saw a preview for it at San Diego Comic-Con 2012, it wasn’t actually until last week that the game came out. This is due to multiple factors, the main ones being that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone kept rewriting the script and that THQ, the original publishers of the title, unfortunately went bankrupt, forcing them to sell off all of their assets and original IPs; in the end, Ubisoft gained the rights to The Stick of Truth. So numerous were these delays that South Park itself lampooned them during Season 17’s Black Friday Trilogy (“Black Friday”, “A Song of Ass and Fire” and “****ies and Dragons”). Some good did come out of these delays though, as it gave my brother and I more time to catch up with the entire run of South Park as well as see The Book of Mormon at the Pantages (long story short, go see The Book of Mormon). In true South Park fashion, we even finished catching up with the show the night before the game came out; there are still only three episodes out of 247 that we haven’t seen because Muhammad (“Super Best Friends”, “200” and “201”), so we’ll probably need to invest in the season sets to try and rectify that (though we did settle with text summaries). Since the game finally came out, I actually had a lot of free time, so after we rewatched the Black Friday Trilogy, I sat down and played through the whole game in the span of two days [Note: This review was delayed due to the reviews of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection]. Would I consider all of that effort to catch up worth it in the end? Yes.

The original box art from when THQ was to publish the game.
It also would have had Kinect functionality so you could berate Cartman.

The New Kid (You) has just moved into South Park and is tasked by his parents, especially his dad, to go out and make friends. Soon after he leaves the house, he is greeted by Butters Stotch, who leads him to Eric Cartman’s house to join the Kingdom of Kupa Keep. When the New Kid successfully joins Cartman’s group, he ends up being roped into a city-wide Live-Action Roleplay (LARP) campaign revolving around an object known as The Stick of Truth. The Stick has great power, as whoever holds the stick controls the universe. Things go south when a rival faction, the Drow Elves of Larnion, successfully steals the stick. Cartman orders the New Kid to go and retrieve the Stick and, during his quest to become cool, what begins as a simple game escalates to a level that no one could ever have anticipated.

The Kingdom of Kupa Keep.

Through the course of the game, the plot plays out exactly how an episode of the show would. Over the course of three days, the New Kid experiences one strange event after another, culminating in one of the biggest, funniest and most ridiculous plot twists I have ever experienced in a video game. I really enjoyed the escalating antics of the story, as it really helped the immersion and the feeling that this really is an episode of South Park. Every single person in the game is completely in-character, with nothing about them out of place. The story is tightly written and I really can’t find any flaws with it.

One of the highlights of the script is its comedy. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have become two of my favorite comedians, though I’ll admit that not every episode of South Park can be a winner, and The Stick of Truth does not disappoint. Just about every single line, in some way, is funny. Almost everything the characters say is funny, the NPC reactions are funny, even one-off lines, sound clips or descriptions of items can be funny. Simply put, it is one of the most humorous video games I have ever played and I seriously could not stop laughing at times, especially when I had someone else in the room to laugh with. This is in part due to all of the references made to the show, all of which I understood due to my one-and-a-half years of binge viewing the series in my free time. However, if I had to find one flaw it would be that there isn’t enough dialogue during fights or within the world, such as during a specific mini-game. Eventually you begin to hear the same things being said repetitively, which dulls the sensation a bit until it gradually just ceases to have any humor value. In most cases the dialogue is varied enough that recycling through them can still lead to some great gems, but I think some work was needed in other areas.

Because of all the LARPing in the game, it’s only natural that The Stick of Truth would be a full-blown RPG. It has everything, from quests and collectibles to shops and item management. It all begins when you first enter character customization. The customization isn’t as deep as one would find in other games, mostly due to the art style of South Park, but there is still enough to make the New Kid resemble you if you’d like. When you join the Kingdom of Kupa Keep, you also pick a class, with a choice between Fighter, Mage, Thief and Jew (a “high risk high reward” class where the damage increases the lower your HP is); I chose Fighter because I like to focus on attack power in an RPG. Upon selecting your class, you are given a set of armor and weapons matching your class, but throughout the game you’re allowed to customize your character further by swapping out your weaker equipment for more powerful sets. Some pieces of equipment can even have items like stickers attached to them to grant additional effects, such as higher damage or siphoning an amount of health from a Bleeding enemy. The initial customization may be impressive, but the depth added over time during actual gameplay definitely is.

Combat in The Stick of Truth is turn-based, using mechanics which, from my experience, are similar to Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden. Apart from a Health meter, the player, and their buddy (a selected South Park character), also has PP and Mana meters. PP is used to pull of special attacks, with different attacks costing a different amount of PP to activate. These attacks range from a rain of arrows to a buffing/debuffing blow horn or even Butters in his Professor Chaos persona inflicting a random effect determined by a spinning wheel. The Mana meter is used for casting magic, which in this context is how you manipulate your farts (believe it or not, farts are very important to the game). When used right, magic can be very useful and powerful, but unlike Health and PP it doesn’t regenerate after battle, so consuming mana potions (gassy food) is the only way to replenish what you’ve lost. All attacks, like in Barkley, require the completion of a short mini-game or timed button presses to determine how successful the attack is and how much damage it inflicts on a target. Summons, including Mr. Slave and Jesus, are also available once per in-game day, except against bosses, by completing a sidequest; afterwards you just need to talk to the character to regain their summon item. This system works well and the controller-friendly approach to it helps it be as smooth as possible.

What combat generally looks like.

While I do like the gameplay systems in general, I do have a few complaints. Sometimes while I’m fighting, the frame rate will dip for a second or the game will lag, causing me to miss important attack or block timing; sometimes the command wouldn’t register at all. I’ve also had the background music for fighting completely disappear, necessitating a reboot or a reload of my progress. In addition, the game in general is a bit easy overall thanks to the dynamic difficulty, where the game’s enemies level up with you. The most challenge it ever got was from a specific boss fight, and even then it was an optional one reached through a sidequest. That is not to say the final bosses weren’t challenging, but they weren’t on the same level as the optional boss. There’s also the collectible aspect, which is actually perfectly fine save for the fact that some are missable, such as six of the Chinpokomon. I missed two of them, so if I wanted to have them all, I’d need to restart the game from scratch. Some might also complain about the short length of the game, about 12-15 hours depending on how much you do, but personally I feel that the game doesn’t overstay its welcome and if you wanted to replay the game as another class, or to get every collectible object, it won’t take terribly long to do so.

Also, this area from the THQ version no longer happens.

The most notable thing about Stick of Truth however is how involved creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were during the process. Disappointed by the quality of the South Park games on the market, the duo were actually more hands-on with the game Oblivion was trying to make by providing assets from the show’s entire run as well as offering advice on how to help the game stay true to the spirit of South Park. Oblivion even went so far as to modify the engine so that production of the game could be similar to an episode of the show, including the ability to change the look of a single object across the entire game with minimal effort. Fittingly, an engine normally used for 3D games, the Dungeon Siege III engine, was used to perfectly capture the 2D cutout look of the show. Parker and Stone also provided completely original voicework and wrote the script for the game, allegedly starting out at 850 pages before being trimmed down for production; there’s even a lot of original songs and music from the show used as background music, including the distinct banjo chords that open most episodes. As a result, the game feels exactly like an episode of the show, at times even feeling like you’re watching South Park before the time comes to remember that it’s a game. This is The Stick of Truth’s greatest feat, which I think will be very hard for future video game adaptations of TV shows to accomplish.

South Park: The Stick of Truth is not only one of the funniest games I have played this year, but also an early gem for this year. The turn-based combat, though simple, is fun and I felt totally immersed by the world presented. There are a few flaws here and there, including the sometimes inconsistent frame rate, but these are forgivable in light of how perfectly the source material is translated to video game form. Due to all of the references and callbacks the game makes to the show, I can only really recommend this to already existing fans of the show, as the uninitiated may be confused by these same references that can be important to the story. It may be possible to enjoy the game solely based on the mechanics, but it is most definitely made to cater to those who are already familiar with the show. In either case, I’d recommend watching the Black Friday Trilogy right before giving it a go; it’ll transition well into the plot and will get you into the right mindset to play.