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Villain Overview

Next, we are going to steal... pause for effect...the MOON! And once the moon is mine, the world will give me whatever I want to get it back, and I will be the greatest villain of all time! That's what I'm talking about.
~ Gru announcing his plans to the Minions.
As a supervillain, if you name it, he stole it. As an agent for the AVL, if they stole it, he caught them.
~ Gru narrating his AVL Agent File

Felonious Gru, better known by his surname Gru, is the main protagonist of Illumination's Despicable Me franchise.

He was originally an infamous supervillain with goals of becoming the greatest villain of all time, until he retires from villainy and becomes a family man after adopting three adorable orphan girls. After meeting Lucy Wilde, whom he later married, he becomes a heroic agent for the AVL (Anti-Villain League), a top-secret organization whose goal is to apprehend villains worldwide.

He is voiced by Steve Carell, who also voiced his twin brother Dru.

Personality

At first, Gru is a sneaky, dishonest, manipulative, and somewhat cold-hearted man who is determined to become the greatest villain in the world. He hates children, being easily irritated by Agnes, Edith, and Margo. He is self-centered, pompous, and vain, and he only adopts the girls so that he can break into Vector's vault and steal the shrink ray to advance his agenda.

He is also rather cruel, arrogant, flagitious, and even sadistic; he enjoys using his Freeze Ray (his signature weapon) and freezing people just for the sake of it.

Despite these traits, Gru is shown to be good friends with those he usually works with, such as Dr. Nefario and his Minions, referring to each one of them by name instead of just treating them like slaves. However, he also says that he has no intention of giving his minions a raise.

As time goes on, Gru starts to enjoy spending time with his three adopted daughters, and he eventually grows to genuinely love them, putting aside his dream of stealing the moon and risking his life to rescue them from Vector. Dr. Nefario disapproves of the fact that Gru's warmer and compassionate side is starting to reveal itself and sends the girls back to the orphanage. Though Gru doesn't attempt to stop Miss Hattie from taking them, he is clearly upset about them leaving and later says that giving them up is the worst mistake he has ever made. He also does his best to attend their dance performance after stealing the moon and is upset when he discovers that he is too late, before subsequently dedicating himself to rescue them.

Gru has a tendency to say "light bulb" whenever he has an idea. He also speaks in an unusual accent (probably East European) which was described as "a mix of Ricardo Montalban and Bela Lugosi." When being asked about his accent by Ellen DeGeneres, he says that he was from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and he asks Ellen not to push this topic any further. After the end of the first film, Gru eventually quit villainy.

Enemies/Villains defeated by Gru (in Order)

So far, Felonius Gru has defeated fifteen enemies.

  • Scarlet & Herb Overkill - As a child, Gru freezes them and walks away while stealing Queen Elizabeth II's crown from them.
  • The Vicious 6 - Gru uses the Zodiac Stone to turn the Vicious 6 permanently into Rats and have them arrested by the AVL.
  • Victor Perkins - At the Bank of Evil, after realizing Vector stole the pyramid, Gru angrily freezes his head. However, Vector survives this and jumps on Gru's rocket to sabotage Gru's attempt, but Gru defeats him again with electrical countermeasures, causing Vector to be sapped by power pylons. Vector returns and kidnaps Gru's adopted daughters, but Gru, his minions and Nefario save them before the moon can expand, ultimately defeating Vector & trapping him on it for eternity.
  • Antonio Perez - After Antonio dumps Margo and breaks her heart by dancing with another girl, Gru freezes Antonio as revenge.
  • Evil Minions - Gru, along with Margo, Edith, Agnes and the reformed Dr. Nefario, defeat the Evil Minions with jelly guns, so the Minions can return to normal (except the one who appears in his & Lucy's wedding).
  • El Macho - After drinking the last cup of PX-41, El Macho turns into a giant purple beast. Gru runs out of ammo in his jelly gun and a showdown occurs. When El Macho tries to kill Gru, he is delayed by a freeze ray before being paralyzed with Gru's lipstick taser. Nefario, who aided Gru earlier in the fight, later knocks out El Macho with a fart gun.
  • Clive - Clive is presumably defeated by Gru when Balthazar Bratt's robot falls, as he is not seen in Gru and Bratt's final showdown.
  • Balthazar Bratt - After successfully stealing Bratt's keytar from a dance fight, Gru uses it against Bratt to blast his clothes off and make him get stuck to one of his bubblegum balloons.

Gallery

Trivia

  • Despite being an original character of his own, some viewers believe Gru might be based on the Sonic villain, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, seeing that both have lanky arms and legs attached to their roundish torso and both are bald with a similar shaped head, have a pointy nose, and both can be hybrid heroes/villains.
    • Additionally, Dr. Eggman's appearance in Sonic Boom which show was produced 4 years after the film was released, has somewhat of a strong resemblance to Gru himself for having the similarities said above and most notably his body being an upside-down egg rather than the opposite of his game counterpart. If one removes his moustache and eye wear, his face looks strongly similar to Gru, which can be seen here.
      • Going along with all of that, in fact, that incarnation of Eggman has a shapeshifting robot from an alternate dimension created by the Sonic Boom world reality's version of himself who goes under the name Morpho and is referred to as the former's ''brother'' is almost identical to him and has blonde hair, with Dru who is Gru's almost identical twin brother, also having blonde hair. It's currently unknown if any of this was intentional in any form.
  • Although never specified, his accent and dressing style implies he is either of Russian or German origin. The third installment of the franchise reveals that Gru's family is from the fictional nation of Freedonia, which is implied to be based on Dusseldorf in Germany.
  • Gru can be seen as the black sheep of his bloodline, since he rejects the tradition of villainy that dated back centuries in his family. Fortunately, his twin brother, Dru, insists on keeping it alive and fully commits to it.

External Links

Navigation

           DespicableMeTitle Villains

Gru's Family and Servants
Felonious Gru | Minions (Purple Minions) | Dr. Nefario | Dru Gru | Robert Gru

Villain Con Villains
Scarlet Overkill | Herb Overkill | Nelson Family

Vicious 6
Wild Knuckles | Belle Bottom | Jean-Clawed | Svengeance | Stronghold | Nun-Chuck

Bank of Evil
Mr. Perkins | Victor "Vector" Perkins

Others
Eduardo "El Macho" Perez | Balthazar Bratt (Evil Bratt) | Clive | Mrs. Hattie | Wild Knuckles' Henchmen | Jewel Thief | Valerie Da Vinci

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