Balthazar Bratt

"I've been a baaaaaad boy!"

- Balthazar Bratt's catchphrase. "You know Clive, playing a supervillain on television was fun, but playing a supervillain in real life is so much better!"

- Balthazar Bratt to his sidekick Clive.

Balthazar Bratt is the main antagonist of Illumination's 8th animated feature ''Despicable Me 3. ''He is a former child star turned supervillain and the arch-enemy of Felonious Gru.

He was voiced by Trey Parker, who is best known for voicing half the characters of South Park, including Eric Cartman, Stan and Randy Marsh, Scott Tenorman and Mr. Garrison, as well as voicing Kim Jong-il in ''Team America: World Police. ''

Past
During his youth, Balthazar Bratt played a character called Evil Bratt in his own self titled series, which revolved around him performing various evil deeds (such as robbing banks, defeating armies, destroying cities, etc). Although the series was beloved worldwide, during the third season, Bratt hit puberty and the series fell from popularity and was cancelled soon after. Bratt, having his reputation and career destroyed by his fall from grace, immediately turned to a life of crime, believing himself to actually be Evil Bratt.

Feud With Gru and the AVL
After his turn to villainy, Balthazar Bratt quickly rose to the top of the Anti Villain League's most wanted criminal list and fought with them on various occasions, particularly with Felonious Gru, an ex-supervillan and the AVL's newest member as well as his partner/wife Lucy Wilde.

Attempting to Steal the World's Largest Diamond
Bratt, along with his robotic sidekick Clive (who was also in the television series), robs a ocean liner transporting the the world's largest diamond, the Dupont Diamond, using his rapidly inflating bubblegum to turn the ship airborne. Balthazar then gets into a fight with Gru, and, after disarming each other, begin "dance fighting", although Gru seemingly knocks him out. As Gru prepares to turn the diamond back to the authorities, Balthazar gets back up, stating that he was only pretending to be knocked out, and blows Gru away using a sonic keytar, publicly humiliating him in the process. Before Balthazar can get away, numerous AVL agents swarm the liner, forcing him to escape. As punishment for failing to capture Balthazar, both Gru and Lucy are fired from the AVL by the new and overly harsh director Valerie Da Vinci.

Retaking the Diamond and Plotting his Revenge
After escaping Gru, Bratt realizes that the diamond he attempted to steal was actually a fake and poses as an overweight jewel inspector in order to gain access to and steal the real Dupont Diamond from a museum in Paris. The next day, Balthazar Bratt's diamond heist makes the first page of the news, infuriating Gru. Later, Balthazar trains for "the big day" and watches an episode of his television series in which Evil Bratt attacks a city with a giant robot and uses his expanding bubblegum to float the city into space, with Bratt planning on doing the same thing to Hollywood as revenge for them cancelling Evil Bratt.

Against Gru and Dru
In order to get his old job back, Gru plots to steal the Dupont Diamond back from Balthazar with the help of his twin brother Dru (who believes them to be stealing it as an act of villainy, not heroism). After making it to Balthazar's bedroom, they narrowly avoid waking him up and alerting him before he wakes up himself and continues working on his giant robot. After Dru accidentally alerts Bratt to their presence by nearly choking on his expanding bubblegum, Gru throws the gum at Bratt, sticking him to the wall while they take the diamond and narrowly escape his fortress.

Attacking Hollywood and Defeat
Despite having the diamond stolen from him, Bratt improvises by disguising himself as Lucy (gagging and stuffing the real Lucy in a closet), taking the diamond back and kidnapping Margo, Edith and Agnes. Bratt then initiates his plan and attacks Hollywood with his giant robot version of himself, shooting his expanding gum all over the city. Edith demands Bratt to release her and her sisters, and Bratt complies by casually placing the girls on the ledge of a building in order to give them a perfect view of the destruction he is causing. After shooting enough of the gum, Bratt uses the robot's diamond powered laser cannon to begin separating Hollywood from the ground in order to let it drift off, although he is intercepted by Gru, Dru and Lucy, with Dru realizing his plan due to having watched Evil Bratt. Gru and Dru shoot Bratt's robot with a number of missiles, however, they prove to be ineffective and Bratt has his Bratt-Bots (modified Evil Bratt dolls) bring down Gru and Dru's plane. As Gru lays on the ground unconscious, Bratt begins firing his laser towards him, although, before Gru is destroyed, Dru destroys the robot's control panel, causing it to explode.

Whilst trying to search the wreckage for his brother, Gru comes face to face with Balthazar, and before he can use his keytar to blow him away, Gru initiates another dance fight. After a brief fight, Gru snatches Balthazar's keytar and uses it to both blow him away and humiliate him in a similar fashion to how Bratt had previously done to him, leaving Bratt floating away in his own gum while the Minions manage to pop the rest of it. Bratt's ultimate fate is unclear although it can be assumed that he was arrested by the AVL as four helicopters arrived to intercept his location as he curses Gru for foiling his plans although it is possible he could have been unseen by them and simply floated away until the rest of the gum popped, either way it is possible for Bratt to appear in a sequel, although unlikely.

Personality
Balthazar Bratt was nothing more or less than a pure megalomaniac with 100 percent egoism. He is a pure egotist as he thinks almost only on himself and only on his actions. In addition to him being a megalomaniac and egotist, Bratt is really ruthless and destructive individual, showing no mercy towards his enemies especially when he attempted to destroy Hollywood and mostly, he enjoys wreaking havoc and destruction.

Yet, Bratt sees no evil in his actions, which means that he is a delusional individual who had lost faith in the world, and also he is extremely vengeful as all he wanted was to destroy Hollywood as revenge for cancelling his TV show. In addition to this goal, Bratt sought what all super-villains sought; to gain world domination after he destroyed Hollywood.

In addition to his megalomaniacal, evil and destructive personality, Bratt is a man who lost his time so he always lives in the bubble of himself, which means that he always listen to music from the 80s, act and look like a man in the 80s.

Bratt is also an extremely manipulative and cunning individual, for example, when he uses his skills of mastery of disguise, he was disguised as Lucy Wilde and succeeded to manipulate Gru.

Trivia

 * Balthazar's plan to float Hollywood into space is very similar to Ultron's plan in Avengers: Age of Ultron, however, while Balthazar only wanted to float Hollywood away, Ultron wanted to crash Sokovia into the Earth and wipe out humanity.
 * Balthazar Bratt is very similar to the Batman villain Baby Doll.
 * Both are former TV stars who turned to a life of crime after the cancellations of their television series'.
 * Both shows were cancelled because of the stars themselves (Bratt entered puberty and Baby Doll quit because she believed that her spotlight was being stolen).
 * The partners of the heroes watched their TV show prior to encountering them (Dru had watched Evil Bratt, Robin had watched Baby Doll).
 * Both use technology and gadgets, both themed around their TV series and an era of their life (Bratt uses weapons and gadgets themed around Evil Bratt and the 1980's, Baby Doll uses weapons and gadgets themed around Baby Doll and childhood).
 * Both are Delusional.
 * Both attempted to destroy a city in an act of vengeance (Bratt tried to destroy Hollywood for cancelling his show, Baby Doll attempted to destroy Gotham in a Nuclear Meltdown as revenge for both the humiliation she received and Killer Croc cheating on her).
 * Balthazar Bratt's name is likely a reference/shout out to Benjamin Bratt, who voiced El Macho in Despicable Me 2 or more likely his name is a pun of the word brat meaning spoiled, obnoxious child which is rather fitting for him being the star of the show "Evil Bratt".
 * He bears a striking resemblance to Randy Marsh from South Park, another character that Trey Parker voices. It is possible that Trey Parker (being an animator himself) could have had some influence on Bratt's design, although this remains unconfirmed.
 * He is based on Micheal Jackson; potentially the one of the most famous and iconic artists of all time.
 * Balthazar Bratt is generally considered by critics and moviegoers to be one of the best and funniest parts of the film (partly because critical and general reception has been fairly mixed).
 * Balthazar Bratt is potentially the most destructive and dangerous of all of the villains in the Despicable Me franchise, as he was shown nearly destroying an entire city (although, realistically, Gru and Vector Perkins would be the most destructive since they stole the moon, an act that would result in untold amounts of natural disasters and, in a physical sense, El Macho was far more dangerous).