Sense of Wonder: Somebody likes me – or at least my review of Despicable Me

Despicable Me (2010)There seems to be something inherent in human nature – and I’m no exception – that makes us more eager to complain than to praise. I guess it makes sense: if every thing’s going along fine, you just take it for granted and go about your business; but if something offends, you raise hell in order to get things changed. What this means in the world of reviewing is that your email box tends to fill up with more tirades of complaint than hymns of praise. Therefore, I was rather surprised and delighted to find a few hits coming to my DESPICABLE ME review from this post over at a blog called Squared Reviews. (The title is a clever play on the fact that the blog reviews reviews. No, that’s not a typo: they write reviews of reviews that others have written about movies. A review of a review is a review squared. Get it?)
Anway, the reviewer (who goes by the nom de plume Dash Kwiat) is tickled by the bricks and barbs I hurled at the execrable SHREK FOREVER AFTER. More important, he seems to have had a similar experience to mine: expecting little from DESPICABLE ME and then being pleasantly surprised. For modesty’s sake, I will not quote every nice thing said about me, but here are some excerpts:

I’m going to level with you guys; I really liked this review because […] I can identify with his seemingly cynical take on cinema. It’s as if coming into the theater, he expected a standard animated film, thrown together to entertain stupid children and sell toys, and was shocked and pleased by a well told narrative.
Come on let’s be fair, we all thought it would be terrible.
The funny part is that while Biodrowski compares the plot of “Despicable Me” to “A Christmal Carol,” that’s how I see this review. Biodrowksi has shown that children’s movies can be fun again.
Biodrowski hits all the important things a review needs, an explication of the plot, the characters, the storyline, but more than that, his faith in cartoons [not made by Pixar, since they never strayed from the path] seems to be restored.
This is a heartwarming review of a heartwarming film.

Well, all I can say is thanks. DESPICABLE ME was a pleasant surprise, and I am happy to have shared that experience in a way that found favor with someone of obviously discriminating tastes and a fine eye for good writing.
Of course, not all readers are so favorable. In a day or two, I’ll get around to telling you what someone thought of my ancient capsule review (unfortunately not available online yet) of HALLOWEEN IV.

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