Western Animation / Despicable Me 3

Spoilers from Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2 and Minions will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Two brothers who are total opposites. One of them is despicable. The other isn't.

Marlena: Shortly after you and your brother were born, your father and I divorced. We each took one son to raise on our own and promised never to see each other again. Obviously, I got second pick.
Gru: I have a brother...

The third film in the series and fourth entry in the overall franchise, Despicable Me 3 is the 2017 sequel to Despicable Me 2 and is once again from Universal and Illumination Entertainment. The film once again centers around Gru (Steve Carell), along with his wife Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), their three adopted daughters Margo, Edith and Agnes (Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier and Nev Scharrel respectively) and the Minions (Pierre Coffin).

This time, a new villain, Former Child Star Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker), surfaces, and Gru meets his long-lost twin brother Dru (also Steve Carell) — who is the complete opposite of his brother.

Besides the introductions of Bratt and Dru, new Anti-Villain League boss Valerie Da Vinci (Jenny Slate) fires both Gru and Lucy from the organization (Gru for botching the capture of Bratt, Lucy for standing up for Gru). Afterwards, Gru's self-esteem drops due to the firing, while Lucy has decided to become the perfect mom for their daughters. And speaking of the girls — Margo is trying to convince Lucy to be a "tough mother," Edith is being encouraged to incite more mischief by Uncle Dru and Agnes is trying to find a real unicorn.

Meanwhile, a Minion named Mel convinces the other Minions to revolt after Gru tells them that he refuses to go back to villainy.

Dru also wants to start becoming a supervillain, and hopes that his brother will help him get started.

The film was released in theaters on June 30, 2017.

Previews: Trailer 1, Trailer 2, Trailer 3.

Minions: The Rise of Gru, the fifth installment of the franchise was released on July 1, 2022.

According to the creators, Despicable Me 4 is currently in development and is set for a 2024 release date.

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Despicable Me 3 provides examples of:

Tropes A–C

• Accidental Proposal: Lucy encourages Margo to enter an engagement ceremony (though to be fair, Lucy was unaware that it was an engagement ceremony; she just felt sorry for Niko since none of the girls picked his cheese to eat, and wanted Margo to cheer up Niko). Margo later calls Lucy out for this out of humiliation.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Most of (if not all) the allusions used are directed towards Trey Parker, the voice of Balthazar Bratt.
  • This isn't the first Illumination film where Jenny Slate harasses Steve Coogan.
  • Aside from the 80s haircut, Bratt has the same facial structure and similar facial hair to Randy Marsh. The voice Parker uses for Bratt also sounds more like Randy than any other character he plays on South Park. Additionally, when voicing the younger Bratt in the flashback scenes, Parker uses his Stan Marsh voice (Randy is Stan's father on the show).
  • When Bratt steals the diamond again, he disguises himself as a fat diamond inspector, using the same voice he uses for Eric Cartman, but with a French accent.
  • On South Park, one of the celebrities that Parker voiced was Michael Jackson, who Bratt is clearly influenced by. His Establishing Character Moment involves him robbing the ship while listening to Jackson's song, "Bad".
  • Parker is one of the biggest satirists of Hollywood out there. Bratt’s plan is to get revenge on Hollywood.
• Aerith and Bob:
  • (Felonious) Gru and Lucy.
  • Also Gru and Dru's parents, Marlena and Robert.
• Affably Evil: Dru, Gru's twin brother, wants to follow in his family's footsteps by becoming a supervillain and ultimately does at the very end, yet he's otherwise a pretty nice guy.
• Alliterative Name: Balthazar Bratt, Valerie da Vinci, and the Dumont Diamond.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Spanish version has "Yo Contigo, Tú Conmigo" by the band Morat, which also features Alvaro Soler.
• Amusing Injuries:
  • In the Tipsy Unicorn bar, the bartender says the Crooked Forest is the only place on the planet where unicorns still live. The other patrons laugh, and one throws a dart into another patron's nose.
  • Also, when Lucy goes Mama Bear on the patrons of the Tipsy Unicorn because she heard Agnes scream, one man gets the handle of a foosball table where it hurts. After that she takes the dart out of the aforementioned man's nose and sticks it in the nose of another man.
• And the Adventure Continues: Dru with the Minions steal Gru's ship with plans to do villainy; Gru and Lucy decide to give them a five minute headstart.
• Any Last Words?: Bratt uses this on Gru. Gru responds with two: Dance fight.
• Apocalypse Wow: Subverted as the laser used by Bratt only destroys the road and majority of the destruction of Hollywood is happening offscreen. Plus, when the city was rising, unlike in Sokovia (from another franchise), the buildings don't collapse down.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • While in prison, the Minions become so feared they can get anything they want from the other inmates. Some of those things are money, gold and a teddy bear.
  • Dru pointing out the Despicamobile's features: "Goes 0 to 400 in three seconds, can withstand a nuclear blast, armed to the teeth... and it's a hybrid."
• Artistic License – Linguistics: Played with. Bratt steals the Dumont Diamond from the Paris museum and says his catchphrase, "I've been a bad boy! Or should I say, je suis un mauvais garçon!" That actually means "I am a bad boy". A more literal translation would be "J'ai été un mauvais garçon" ("I have been a bad boy"), but it would just sound weird.
• Ascended Extra: Co-writer Cinco Paul stated that the girls would be getting bigger roles than the ones they had in Despicable Me 2. And they do—especially Edith, who now has roughly equal screen-time to that of Margo and Agnes.
• Ass Kicks You: This move is part of Balthazar Bratt's dance-fighting repertoire. He uses it a couple of times when he boards the ship in the opening, then again in the final dance-fight with Gru.
• Bait-and-Switch: Minion Mel in prison is seen lifting a dumbbell. It's then revealed two prisoners are lifting the dumbbell holding the weights, while Mel lifts the bar.
• Bald of Evil: Downplayed. Bratt has a bald spot on the back of his head, but otherwise has a full head of hair.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Margo wants Lucy to be a tougher mother, which gets her forcefully engaged to a foreign boy she's not interested in.
• Being Good Sucks: The Minions quit working for Gru for this reason, as while they want to go back into villainy, Gru does not. They go back to him later, because of all the good times they had with Gru (ironically, the first one to start to miss him was Mel, the Minions' unofficial leader), only to ditch him once more when Dru decides to carry on the family tradition of villainy.
• Belly-Scraping Flight: When Bratt is carried away by a floating gum bubble, the upside-down victim's head thumps against the edge of a billboard.
• BFG: Balthazar wields one against Gru, who knocks it out of his hands before he can use it.
• Big Bad: Balthazar Bratt is the movie's main antagonist. The plot begins with him stealing an enormous diamond, which Gru and Lucy are tasked with stopping.
• Big Brother Instinct: Gru and Dru for each other in the climax. Dru has this for Gru when Gru is knocked out and is in danger of being killed by Bratt's laser. Dru breaks into Bratt's robot and frantically attempts to shut off the power, which he manages to do. The robot then collapses with Dru inside it and Gru frantically searches through the wreckage for Dru, only for Dru to appear behind him and hug him.
• Big Fancy House: Dru's opulent mansion in Freedonia, with supervillain lair in the basement and space for several red cars and a helicopter out the back.
• Big "NO!":
  • Lucy when the girls fall off the skyscraper ledge when the building tilts due to the expanding gum. She jumps after them and catches them using a piece of gum as a bungee line.
  • Bratt during his Oh, Crap! moment at the end.
• Big "WHAT?!": This happens to Gru when he sees the ship flying due to Balthazar's bubblegum lifting it out of the sea. He does another one when Valerie da Vinci fires him.
• Big "YES!":
  • Lucy does a quiet one after she gets a hug from Margo. This was after they were both cursed by Niko's angry mother after Margo refused Niko's engagement present of a pig, and Lucy angrily warned Niko's mother to back off.
  • Dru does one when Gru suggests he and Dru steal the Dumont Diamond. What Dru doesn't yet know is that Gru's motive is to do it solely so he and Lucy can get their jobs back at the AVL.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • In the opening, we see a group of children in Japan with Evil Bratt lunchboxes. They're printed with the characters "小鬼", which means "imp" (literally, "little Oni"). Quite an apt descriptor for a wily and devilish little boy, hm?
  • After Bratt steals back the diamond from the Paris museum and he makes his escape through the skylight, he spouts his catchphrase, "I've been a bad boy!" as he makes his escape, before repeating it in French.
• Black Comedy: In his childhood, Gru was told by Marlena that his father died of disappointment when Gru was born. His father Robert was actually alive and well at this time, living with Dru in Freedonia, and his actual death is what convinces Dru to contact his brother.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • After his argument with Gru, Dru is seen eating ice cream called Brad and Larry's, an obvious parody of Ben and Jerry's.
  • A billboard advertisement for Onions can be seen in Hollywood.
• Blatant Lies: After breaking the news to the girls that they have lost their jobs, Agnes suggests that Gru and Lucy could make money by gambling online, as the father of her friend, Katie, does it. Gru responds he will look into it, before saying that she will not be going over to Katie's house any more.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: At the end, Bratt asks Gru if he has Any Last Words?. Gru challenges him to a dance fight, and Bratt, thinking he has the upper hand and likely remembering what happened last time, gleefully accepts. This results in his being blown away by his own keytar.
• Book Ends:
  • Lucy checking up on the girls while they are asleep and "There's Something Special" plays. The difference is that the first time, Lucy checks on them and then leaves. The second time, she checks on them and then tucks Agnes into bed. Agnes stirs and says, "I love you, Mom".
  • Dru and Gru doing the same hug to each other.
  • Lucy and Gru going after a Laughably Evil villain. The first is Balthazar Bratt, and the second is Dru and the Minions.
  • A dance fight challenge ending with someone being blasted away by a sonic blast, stripped naked, and being held by gum. The first is Bratt to Gru and the second is Gru to Bratt.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • This is the first film in the franchise (Minions included) with no Dance Party Ending.
  • The first two films began with the film's MacGuffin being mysteriously stolen by the films' yet-to-be-revealed antagonist before cutting to Gru and his life. This film's prologue explains Bratt's backstory before showing Gru and Lucy in the middle of a chase against him.
  • The title screen. In the two previous films, the titles were red against a black screen, and had Gru's silhouetted profile between the M and E of "Me". In this one, the letters are orange against a white screen, and instead of an additional number like in the previous film, the E of "Me" spins round and becomes a 3.
  • The end credits for the three previous films featured the minions doing their thing between the credits, but in this film, the end credits feature Gru and Dru hunting each other around.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Gru comments that he thought Dru was going to pee in his pants when the police came after the two of them after Dru impulsively stole two lollipops. Dru gleefully responds that he did pee his pants, and both of them start laughing.
• Butter Face: Valerie Da Vinci is introduced with a rear view with a Supermodel Strut of her long blond hair and curvaceous figure before it reveals her rather ugly face with a huge, curved nose.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Fritz goes through a bit of abuse, usually at the hands of Kyle, Edith, Dave and Jerry.
  • Gru himself endures more physical abuse in this entry than the previous two, most of it slapstick-based.
• Call-Back:
  • When Agnes and Edith meet a man who supposedly has a real unicorn horn, Agnes excitedly asks if the unicorn was fluffy. He replies, "It was so fluffy, I thought I was gonna die." A similar line Agnes said in the very first movie when she first saw the unicorn toy Gru would win for her.
  • Once again, Agnes prays before going to bed and sings her unicorn song, like she did in the first film.
  • Agnes' Make Some Noise habit from Despicable Me 2 comes back in this movie when she shouts in excitement of a unicorn possibly being real. This becomes a Chekhov's Gun.
  • Lucy follows a similar plot to Gru in Despicable Me — struggling with becoming a parental figure to the girls, has a bonding moment with each of them, and going Mama Bear when they are kidnapped by the Big Bad.
  • Gummy bears are one of the ingredients in the soup Agnes makes for Gru and Lucy. Gummy bears were mentioned in the first film where, when the girls were initially adopted, Agnes said she hoped the house of the parents was made of gummy bears, before saying she only meant she hoped it was nice.
  • When Gru has to hold Dru up when their suits are in sticky mode, Dru makes the same motions Gru did when he was trying to hold onto the Shrink Ray in the first film.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Margo, Edith and Agnes to Gru and Lucy, as usual. This is subverted just once at the end, in a particularly heartwarming example, where Lucy tucks Agnes into bed, and Agnes says, "I love you, Mom."
• Camera Abuse: Teenage Bratt hits the camera at the beginning and breaks the screen.
• Character Catchphrase: Bratt has one that he keeps from his TV show days: "I've been a bad boy!"
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Dru shows off many of his expensive-looking vehicles, and there is one helicopter present. Lucy uses that helicopter to rescue Gru and Dru from Bratt's lair.
  • Bratt's bubblegum. It lifts the ship off the ground in the beginning, and comes back later when Dru idiotically eats a piece of it while he and Gru are attempting to steal the diamond from Bratt's lair. Gru gets Dru to spit it out and it pins Bratt to a wall, allowing Gru to get the diamond. Finally, Lucy runs across the expanding gum in the climax to reach the girls, and uses a piece as a bungee line to catch the falling girls.
  • The Bratt Pack dolls. Dru mentions he had one as a child when he and Gru infiltrate Bratt's lair. A horde of these dolls are unleashed on them as they make their escape, and later attempt to tear apart their villain car, forcing them to bail out.
  • Gru and Dru's father's villain car, which is used first for a spin around Freedonia, then to get to Bratt's lair, and finally to get to Hollywood after Bratt kidnaps the girls.
  • The rockets from said car also qualify, as they first appear when Dru demonstrates the car is armed to the teeth, then they later get fired at the Bratt robot in an attempt to disable it. They knock the robot over, but the robot is only disabled when Dru rips out the power supply.
  • Agnes screaming, also a Call-Back to the previous film. Her scream alerts Lucy, who was looking for her and Edith, and thought Agnes was in trouble. In the climax, she screams on the skyscraper ledge, burning out the sign above her and the others, alerting Gru, Dru and Lucy to their presence and see where they are.
• Chekhov's Skill: Bratt's acting. He fools Gru into thinking he was knocked out before blowing him away with his keytar in the beginning, then poses as a morbidly obese diamond curator to re-steal the diamond from the museum in Paris, and finally dresses up as Lucy to kidnap the girls towards the end.
• Children Raise You: Happens to Lucy, as she goes through a similar arc to Gru in the first film, where she has to cope with motherhood. She eventually gets the hang of it.
• Color Motif: To show the contrast in their personalities, Dru wears all white (both in his casual wear and his spandex villain suit), while Gru wears all black. Fittingly, Dru is naive while Gru is grumpy and serious. Even more so, Gru and Dru's father wore grey.
• Comic-Book Time: The children still have not visibly aged. This is hilariously lampshaded by Gru when he tells Dru that Margo is 12, looks 12, and will always be 12.
• Cool Car: Gru and Dru's father's car, which can do 0 to 400 in three seconds, can withstand a nuclear blast, is armed to the teeth, is capable of driving on walls (and the cockpit can rotate to keep the seats the right way up), can tunnel through solid rock, and works on water. It's also a hybrid.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Agnes, as the soup she makes for Gru and Lucy contains gummy bears, peas and meat. Both Gru and Lucy taste it and are disgusted but try to make it seem like they like it to avoid upsetting Agnes.
• Create Your Own Villain: Gru teaches Dru about villainy, and ends up opposing him upon getting his job back.
• Creative Closing Credits: Rather than the Dance Party Ending that was used in the other films, this film's credits show 2D-animated scenes of Gru and Dru chasing each other.

Tropes D–L

• Death Glare: Mel's caller ID on Gru's phone shows him with one. He has a near-identical glare when we actually see him in the next scene.
• Deliberate VHS Quality: Flashbacks that involve Bratt's TV show were shot in this quality. This includes the opening credits for this movie, by the way.
• Determinator: Dru's butler, Fritz, who limps all the way back to Gru's house after the latter blows him away on a rocket, all in order to deliver his message.
• Didn't Think This Through: Mel and most of the other minions walk out on Gru for refusing to returning to villainy after his heroism career falters, but never think to work out where they're going to walk to. They quickly end up lost and starving in the middle of Los Angeles, which sets off a chain of events that somehow lands them in the middle of a talent show, and then in prison.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: ...that Bratt was unconscious after punching him once? Bratt points out that it's called acting, and promptly blows Gru away with his keytar.
• Disaster Movie: Subverted twice (not a Double Subversion)
  • The first subversion occurs when the floating ship drifts into a city. You can expect it to smash into skyscrapers, thus creating a horrific chain reaction, but for some reason, the ship manages to steer itself around the buildings. A group of people in a skyscraper aren't even screaming for their lives, as they're distracted by Gru's nudity.
  • Another one happens near the end of the film. Bratt's robot is "destroying" Hollywood, but several instances of it were subverted as the Robot wasn't causing mass destruction upon arrival, its lasers never aim at the buildings, the buildings don't collapse when the city rises and even if buildings were destroyed, they would be heavily obscured offscreen from the expanding bubblegum.
• Disguised in Drag: Bratt does this at the start of the climax when he poses as Lucy to get back the diamond from Gru and kidnap the girls.
• Disney Death: Dru breaks into Bratt's robot and destroys the generator, causing it to collapse, seemingly sacrificing his life for his brother. After defeating Bratt, Gru desperately searches through the robot's wreckage for his brother... only for Dru to pop out from behind him and hug him from behind his back, to Gru's extreme joy.
• Disney Villain Death: Subverted. The inflating bubblegum causes the skyscraper the girls are trapped on to tilt sideways and for them to fall off the ledge they're standing on. Lucy manages to catch them before they hit the ground.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Lucy, twice.
  • The first time, she hears Agnes scream from inside the bar Agnes and Edith are in (the Tipsy Unicorn), and, thinking Agnes is in trouble, proceeds to beat up the patrons, who are almost all men. Once she learns the girls are fine, she apologizes to the patrons and leaves with the girls.
  • Downplayed later. Once she rescues Gru and Dru from Bratt's lair, she squeezes Gru's shoulder hard enough to hurt him, while making him promise he will never go behind her back again.
• Downer Beginning: Gru and Lucy have failed to capture Bratt again which leads to them both being fired by the AVL. The Minions leave Gru because of his refusal to go back to villainy. As a result, Gru's confidence is at an all time low. Oh, and Dr. Nefario is frozen in carbonite.
• Driver Faces Passenger: Dru to Gru in their father's villain car, which immediately precedes an Oh, Crap! moment.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Like in the first movie, Margo is wearing a shirt with a Dr. Seuss character from a future Illumination production on it. This doubles as a Continuity Nod.
• Edible Ammunition: Bratt's gum isn't supposed to be chewed.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Dru is pretty much the poster boy for this trope, due to him being a quote unquote "villain" yet still having lines he wouldn't dare cross, as well as genuinely caring about the people in his life.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Gru lets out a brief one when he knocks a tough-looking guy's vehicle into a wall with his own vehicle, and later when he knocks Balthazar out on the ship with a punch.
  • Bratt lets one out as he escapes from the ship, with giant bubbles of bubblegum emerging everywhere on it. He did one earlier when he revealed his plan to decimate Hollywood.
• Exact Words:
  • Gru tells the Minions that they are not going back to being villains, and he doesn't want to hear another word about it. So they blow raspberries at him.
  • Gru tells Agnes that she can bring home every unicorn she can find, knowing full well she won't find any. He does allow her to bring home the one-horned goat that she does find instead.
  • At the climax where Bratt has kidnapped the girls, trapping them inside his giant robot replica of himself Edith demands "let us out!" and Bratt opens the prison compartment, picks up the girls with his giant robot's hand, and casually places them on the edge of a skyscraper!
• Felony Misdemeanor: Mel and the other Minions are thrown in prison for trespassing on a studio film lot.
• Finger-Snapping Street Gang: The Minions are sent to prison and form a gang feared by the other inmates. They march into the yard while snapping their fingers, and all the other criminals run for cover.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: When they reveal their Twin Switch, they begin doing this and when both realize what they're doing, they excitedly lampshade the trope.
• Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: Dru commandeers Gru's airplane filled with Minions and flies straight at the camera, ending the movie with a close-up on his face.
• Food Fight: The minions start this in the prison they are held in.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Dru impulsively steals two lollipops while he and Gru are driving their father's villain car, and they have to make a hasty escape. Dru's impulsiveness gets the better of him later in Bratt's lair when he eats a piece of Bratt's gum, which almost gets him and Gru captured by Bratt.
  • When infiltrating Bratt's lair, Dru and Gru see the large army of Evil Bratt figures. Dru mentions having one when he was younger, hinting that he's familiar with Bratt's show. Additionally, he remembers the bubble gum on the conveyor belt, though he forgets what it can do before he takes some. His experience with the show allows him to figure out what Bratt plans to do to Hollywood, having seen it on one episode.
  • When the girls are getting on the plane home, Lucy tells Gru that he has been a "bad boy" for lying to her before going with them. It's Bratt's catchphrase, hinting that Lucy here is actually Bratt in disguise. And Lucy sings part of Olivia Newton-John’s hit song "Physical" as she's fetching the girls. Who do we know in this movie who loves '80s music and was listening to that same song earlier?
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • When Gru sends Dru's butler flying, Kyle can be seen urinating on a plant for a moment.
  • Also, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, when then Gru family is doing a group hug in the wreckage of the giant robot after Balthazar Bratt's defeat, most of the family is hugging Gru, but Edith is hugging Dru instead.
• Funny Background Event: At one point during dinner, Agnes slurps an entire plate of spaghetti.
• Get Out!: Silas Ramsbottom announces Valerie da Vinci as the new head of the AVL, effective immediately, and she rudely kicks him out. While he's in the middle of giving his resignation speech, no less.
• Good Is Not Nice: Valerie da Vinci may be the head of the AVL, an organisation dedicated to battling crime on a global scale, but she's very much a Mean Boss and a Jerkass.
• Good-Times Montage: While he and the rest of the Minions are in prison, Mel reminisces on the good times he shared with Gru.
• Groin Attack:
  • One of Dru's pigs does this to Gru. He is understandably angry and tells the pig "that's my private part".
  • During her One-Woman Army assault on the group of people she thought were hurting her Edith and Agnes, Lucy does this to one of the men with a foosball table.
  • Gru attempts one on Bratt during their dance fight, but the latter manages to evade it.
• Happily Married: Gru and Lucy. When Gru slams the guy's vehicle into the wall, Lucy even takes a picture of the guy, and she also comes up with their couple name (see Portmanteau Couple Name below).
• Heartbreak and Ice Cream: After their argument, Dru is next seen sorrowfully eating a bucket of ice cream.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Bratt has one during the climax when Gru challenges him to a dance fight. He even says how much he is going to enjoy it, most likely remembering what happened last time.
• Heroes Gone Fishing:
  • Gru and Lucy after they get fired, as the girls have prepared a makeshift honeymoon for them once they get home.
  • Marlena is swimming with her two "diving instructors" when Gru confronts her to ask whether he does indeed have a twin brother he never knew about.
  • Lucy and the girls attending the cheese festival in Freedonia.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Gru defeats Bratt by challenging him to a dance fight, then getting hold of Bratt's keytar and using it against him.
• Human Popsicle: Dr. Nefario is revealed to have accidentally frozen himself in carbonite.
• Humongous Mecha: Balthazar Bratt pilots a giant robotic version of his action figures to wreak havoc on Hollywood, while using the Dupont Diamond to power the laser on its headband.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Balthazar Bratt's little robot sidekick Clive doesn't really think highly of him or his evil ambitions and believes he should just move on, but goes along with Bratt's plans anyway.
• If It Swims, It Flies: Robert Gru's villain car, which converts into a boat when it lands in the sea after Gru and Dru evade the police, is then used to get to Bratt's lair to steal the diamond, then is used to fly to Hollywood to rescue the girls and stop Bratt's plan from unfolding.
• I Have No Son!: When Gru says it's no wonder their father thought Dru was such a failure, Dru yells at him, "We are no longer brothers!", to which Gru responds with, "That's fine with me!" They make up when Gru tells Dru that Bratt has kidnapped the girls.
• Imagine Spot: Gru has one that has him triumphantly and smugly showing the Dumont Diamond retrieved back from Bratt. He also throws the diamond in Valerie's face; Lucy admiring him while squishing his face, leading to him to pick her up and ending with a round of applause.
• Informed Ability: Although the laser was activated, Balthazar had never tried to aim his laser at several buildings, averting Monumental Damage and Scenery Gorn. The only building destroyed (partially) onscreen was a Capitol Records building ripoff.
• Irony:
  • Gru was always The Unfavorite to his mother, and his mother even confirms in this movie that she got "second pick" as to which child to raise, as she is much prouder of Dru — but ironically, Dru ended up The Unfavorite to his father, who was much prouder of Gru. So each twin actually made the parent who didn't raise them proud. This is doubly ironic as what made each parent proud was a direct result of the other parent, as Gru only became the great villain his father admired because he pushed himself to gain his mother's admiration, and Dru only became the wealthy success that his mother admired because of all the money given to him by his father because he was too incompetent to earn or steal his own.
  • The Minion who led the other Minions to quit working for Gru, Mel, was the first one to start missing him.
• Jerkass: Valerie da Vinci, even if just by being a Mean Boss and throwing Gru and Lucy off the AVL blimp after she fires them.
• Jeweler's Eye Loupe: In Paris, a renowned gem expert examines the Dumont Diamond with an eye loupe to make sure it hasn't been replaced by a fake. Except he's in fact Balthazar Bratt in disguise, and the eye loupe can shoot Tranquillizer Darts with which he neutralizes the guards and curator.
• Kick the Dog:
  • While Valerie firing Gru (and then Lucy) was already harsh, throwing them off the headquarters plane was unwarranted (although she did at least give them parachutes).
  • A retroactive one; Marlena's fake reason for Robert not being in Gru's life? She told her son that his father died of disappointment the day he was born.
• Kids Are Cruel: The young Balthazar Bratt as he appeared on his show, as he was bent on world domination.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: As noted in Uncanny Family Resemblance below, Gru's female relatives show an uncanny resemblance to him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Like Bratt did to him in the beginning, Gru uses Bratt's keytar to blast him into the sky, stripping him of his clothes, and hanging onto a piece of gum.
• Latex Perfection: Balthazar Bratt disguises himself as a fat diamond inspector, complete with fake skin, to infiltrate a French museum to steal the Dumont Diamond. He also disguises himself as Lucy when he kidnaps the girls.
• Left Stuck After Attack: This happens to Gru in the climax. Gru attempts to hit Bratt and initially gets his hand stuck in Bratt's hair, thanks to all the hair gel.
• Left the Background Music On: The above-mentioned "What It Is" plays on the tough-looking guy's vehicle radio.
• Light Is Not Good: Dru dresses all in white and has blond hair, but wants to become a supervillain to follow in the footsteps of Gru and their father, and is The Millstone to Gru during their heist of Bratt's lair. He's Affably Evil at best, though.

Tropes M–R

• Major General Song: Mel sings one in Minionish with the rest of the Minions singing the chorus.
• Mama Bear:
  • When a local woman and mother of the boy Margo met earlier, delivers a curse and tirade of insults about Margo after Margo rejects Niko's marriage proposal with Lucy standing behind her, cue Lucy getting in the woman's face and grabbing the woman's collar. Then the scene is shown from a wide angle and Lucy has lifted the heavyset woman into the air by her collar!
    Lucy: Nobody, nobody curses my daughter, you got that? Because if you mess with Margo, you mess with me! And I promise, you do not want to mess with me! Do you understand me?
  • Niko's mother herself to an extent, who defends her son and threatens Lucy and Margo with the curse mentioned above.
  • Lucy uses this trope by name when she hears Agnes scream and thinks that a room full of ruffians were hurting Edith and Agnes, and apologizes after beating up all of them.
    Lucy: Sorry, went a little mama bear on ya. You know, I heard a scream and... Yeah, okay. Have a good one!
  • Lucy in the climax when she goes after the girls to rescue them from the skyscraper ledge they're trapped on.
• Man Hug: Gru and Dru shares two of these. The first is when they meet (or reunite) at Dru's mansion, and the second is during the climax. After Dru has saved Gru's life by turning off the power supply to Bratt's robot and causing it to collapse, Gru frantically searches through the rubble to try and find him, before Dru reveals himself and hugs Gru behind his back.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The three girls get wide-eyed looks of fear on their faces when "Lucy" reveals herself to actually be Bratt in disguise, complete with doing his evil laugh.
• Master of Disguise: Being a disgraced former actor, Bratt disguises himself as a fat inspector to steal the diamond, and later dresses up as Lucy to kidnap the girls. And they're actually convincing. He even says, after shedding his Lucy mask, "Now that's acting!"
• Mean Boss: Valerie da Vinci. She rudely kicks Silas out of the AVL as he is in the middle of giving his resignation speech, calls every present agent a loser when asking for Gru to identify himself, unceremoniously fires him for not capturing Bratt, and when Lucy objects and says that she's also out if Gru is fired, da Vinci fires her too and throws her and Gru out of the AVL blimp.
• Mercy Lead: At the end, Dru takes the Minions and sets off on a life of villainy. Lucy is ready to go after him, but Gru says that because he's family, they'll give him a five-minute head start.
• The Millstone: Dru is this during the heist when he and Gru attempt to steal the diamond from Bratt's lair. After they manage to get in, Dru even lampshades it by saying Gru was right when he said Dru should have stayed in the boat. Gru also says Dru screwed up at every opportunity later during their argument and he got the diamond in spite of Dru messing things up. He redeems himself in the climax by saving Gru's life, which he does by turning off the laser to Bratt's robot.
• Militaries Are Useless: An episode of Evil Bratt has Bratt floating off Hollywood into space and the United States Army being unable to stop him with their weapons. The general even orders a retreat of his soldiers when Bratt commences firing the bubble gum.
• Misplaced Retribution: Bratt wants to destroy Hollywood in revenge for his acting career fizzling out when he hit puberty. Given that it's been thirty plus years since Evil Bratt was cancelled, it's likely that just about everyone involved in his show ending has since retired and moved away from Hollywood, making his revenge hit people who've done nothing to him.
• Monumental Damage:
  • Downplayed when Bratt's mecha robot only partially destroys the "Hollywood" Sign and when his expanding bubblegum destroys the "World Records Building" (which is a parody of the Capitol Records Building), but with the collapse partially on-screen.
  • Subverted at the start when the floating ship drifts into a city. You could expect it to smash into a skyscraper (and cause it to collapse), but the ship somehow maneuvered around them, averting a Roland-Emmerich styled skyscraper destruction.
• Musicalis Interruptus: The song playing on the guy's car radio cuts out when Gru slams the guy's vehicle into the wall with his own vehicle.
• Naked People Are Funny: At one point, Gru is completely naked (thanks to Bratt) and hanging from a giant wad of bubblegum on the ship, and he is seen by the attendees of a birthday party, who laugh at him and take pictures as he awkwardly sings the birthday song along with them. Gru does return the favor at the end.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • Or TV Spots, as they made the viewers assume Gru would go back to villainy after getting fired from the AVL.
  • One trailer showed Lucy walking in on Gru and Dru in their villain outfits, a scene that wasn't in the actual film.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: It turns out that for Bratt, it wasn't really a good idea to kidnap the three girls right after Dru and Gru have just had a major argument, as the girls being in danger causes the two brothers to quickly resolve their issues in a single plane ride so they can concentrate on rescuing the girls and not on their argument.
• Nobody Poops: Averted. A photo the Minions see is of Gru clearing up piles of Kyle's excrement all over the lawn, and then of Gru unblocking a toilet with a plunger.
• Noodle Incident:
  • How or why Dr. Nefario ended up frozen in carbonite. All that is said is that he accidentally did it himself.
  • All of Bratt's and Gru's previous encounters.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: This is blatantly lampshaded by Gru with regards to Margo always being 12 years old. Naturally, her younger sisters also fall under this trope.
• Not a Morning Person: Bratt, as he is still asleep when Gru and Dru break into his lair, and it's seen to be 11 a.m. on his clock when he gets out of bed.
• Not What It Looks Like: Agnes screams in a bar, causing Lucy to beat up the patrons.
• Oh, Crap!: Has its own page.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Bratt is the Young Villain (since he was a preteen during the '80s, he's in his forties) to Gru's Old Villain (confirmed to be in his fifties).
• Out of Focus: Doctor Nefario. He accidentally froze himself in carbonite at some point before the start of the movie. His frozen form is seen a couple of times, and his unfrozen self only briefly appears in a Flashback.
• Out of the Frying Pan: Margo, Edith and Agnes are trapped inside Bratt's robot and Edith yells for Bratt to let them out. Thanks to Exact Words, he does so, only to deposit them on a narrow ledge near the top of a skyscraper. Uh-oh...
• Papa Wolf: Gru towards his daughters, naturally, but interestingly Dru also turns out to be an "uncle" version of this. Gru and Dru have just had an argument, and Dru has resolved not to talk to Gru—until Gru mentions that Balthazar Bratt has kidnapped Dru's nieces. Dru stops being mad at Gru immediately so they can go save the girls. And on the way there, Dru very quickly accepts Gru's apology and even apologizes for his own earlier incompetence just so they can concentrate on saving the girls rather than their earlier argument.
• Pass the Popcorn: Dru is eating a bucket of popcorn while Gru is describing his plan to steal the diamond back from Bratt. He chokes on it when Gru demonstrates that Bratt's lair can detect and destroy an air assault from any direction.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure:
  • At one point, Lucy applies Margo's earlier "tough love" advice at the wrong time, causing Margo to pick up an unwanted admirer and causing Lucy to temporarily lose Margo's trust. Fortunately, this is resolved quickly: Lucy shoots down the boy's marriage proposal, and then intimidates the boy's mother into not cursing Margo for it. This restores Margo's trust in Lucy, and also earns Lucy a hug from Margo.
  • After Gru and Dru successfully manage to steal back the diamond from Bratt, they both get into an argument over how the former wants to go back to the AVL and the latter wants to continue their family's villainy tradition.
• Poke the Poodle: Dru wants to get into villainy. So he decides to steal two lollipops from a candy shop van, before Gru ropes him into his plan to steal the diamond from Bratt.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Gru and Dru; Gru is bald, poor^note Due to him and Lucy losing their jobs. and rather uptight, whereas Dru is more carefree, wealthy and has a full head of hair. However, Dru wants to be a villain just like Gru was, and invites him to do one heist together, which Gru is visibly tempted by.
• Police Are Useless: The only members of the AVL who contribute anything towards stopping Bratt are Gru and Lucy. Nobody else even manages to get to the scene of the crime in time to do any good. This makes their being fired for failing to capture Bratt despite thwarting his scheme seem more petty than justifiable.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: In-Universe; Lucy calls herself and Gru "Grucy". Gru doesn't like it very much. This doubles as Ascended Fanon, as Grucy is the fan couple name for Gru and Lucy.
• Posthumous Character: Marlena's ex-husband, Robert, father of Gru and Dru, who was a legendary supervillain. His recent passing prompts Dru to finally contact his long-lost twin, and he hopes to follow in his father's footsteps and become a villain himself due to, like his brother was in the first film, being a "Well Done, Son" Guy.
• Prized Possession Giveaway: After Gru and Lucy are fired from AVL, Agnes sells her stuffed unicorn (the one Gru won for her in the first movie, and marked the moment when Gru started to genuinely care for the girls) in order to raise money to support them.
• Production Foreshadowing: Margo's shirt having the Grinch on it is a reference to the upcoming Grinch movie in December 2018, similar to the Lorax situation from the first movie.
• Prophecy Twist: Midway through the movie, a bartender tells Agnes that according to legend, if a maiden who is pure of heart goes into the Crooked Forest, then she'll find a real live unicorn. Naturally, when Agnes tries it the next day, there is no real unicorn, just a goat with one horn — however, the one-horned goat takes a liking to Agnes the instant it meets her, since Agnes really is a nice girl.
• Purple Is Powerful:
  • The Big Bad, Balthazar Bratt, dresses in purple when he's not in disguise.
  • Also Silas's replacement at the AVL, Valerie da Vinci.
• Rebel Leader: A Minion named Mel who convinces other Minions to revolt against Gru.
• Red Is Heroic: Played with. Dru wants to be a supervillain, but is more Affably Evil that outright evil, and owns a fleet of red cars and a helicopter.
  • As with the previous film, Lucy, who has red hair and nails.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Lucky, the one-horned goat that Agnes eventually adopts, even after being told the goat isn't really a unicorn.
• Rule of Three: Upon discovering from Fritz that he has a twin brother, Gru repeats "Twin brother?" in disbelief, then Agnes does it, and finally the two remaining Minions, Dave and Jerry, do it in Minionese.
• Russian Reversal: Bratt's plan hinges on his desire to do this: Hollywood canceled his show? Well now, "I'm cancelling you!" Cue evil laughter.

Tropes S–Z

• Say My Name:
  • Lucy yells Agnes's name after she hears Agnes scream inside the Tipsy Unicorn while looking for her and Edith.
  • Gru yells Dru's name when Bratt's robot collapses with Dru inside it, after Dru has disabled its power supply and turned off the laser.
• Scenery Porn: The Freedonia scenes are full of it, especially the establishing shots and the scenes in the woods.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: When Gru sees Bratt's bubble-gum balloons starting to lift a massive cargo ship out of the water, he gives a Big "WHAT?!" that starts in his normal voice and rapidly rises in pitch until it rivals Agnes's screams for shrillness.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Gru gets fired from the AVL, the Minions suggest he goes back to villainy, but he refuses. So they angrily quit and storm out, leaving Gru with only two Minions for most of the movie. The rest of the Minions rejoin Gru to help him stop Bratt, then join him for good after Bratt is defeated.
• Sell What You Love: After Gru is fired from his job, Agnes sells her beloved stuffed unicorn toy to a neighborhood kid in order to raise some money for him.
• Separated at Birth: Almost right after Gru and Dru were born, Marlena and Robert got a divorce, resulting in Robert taking Dru with him and Marlena keeping Gru.
• Sequel Hook: Dru carrying on the family tradition of villainy, with Gru and Lucy getting ready to chase after him in the ending simply screams this.
• Shaking the Rump: A few of Balthazar Bratt's moves are a little suggestive. Especially his gyrations while using an exercise ball. Even moreso because he's exercising to Olivia Newton-John's "Physical", which is, shall we say, not a song about exercising.
• Shout-Out:
  • Dr. Nefario is frozen in carbonite, just like Han Solo. The poses are even similar.
  • Dru lives in a country named Freedonia.
  • The Dumont diamond MacGuffin is a reference to actress Margaret Dumont, a frequent co-star of The Marx Brothers.
  • The credits have a sequence similar to Mad Magazine's Spy vs. Spy comics.
  • The Talent Show the Minions appear in is the same as in Sing.
  • During the movie, Margo is wearing a top with a picture of The Grinch.
  • In Gru's dream sequence, he lifts up Lucy over his head, similar to Johnny with Baby from Dirty Dancing.
  • Bratt refers to his many drone-like Evil Bratt action figures as the Bratt Pack.
  • There's a zoom shot at the beginning of the movie of two clown fishes underwater in reference to Disney's Finding Nemo. A fish even loses one of its fins when the Minions rush by in a sub.
  • Bratt at one point says, "I love it when a plan comes together!", a catchphrase from 1980s TV series The A-Team. Given his obsession with the 1980s, there's no way this is an accident.
  • The device that Dru tears out of Bratt's Humongous Mecha to kill its power looks like a Flux Capacitor.
• Sibling Rivalry: The main theme of the movie. Gru feels this way towards Dru immediately after first seeing him, especially his full head of hair.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Margo, Edith, Agnes, Dr. Nefario and Marlena do not appear in the first trailer. However, the girls do appear in the second and third trailers, Dr. Nefario appears in the second and Marlena appears in the third.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Marlena only has one scene but confirms that Gru does have a twin brother. Her confirmation is the deciding factor for Gru to go to Freedonia and meet his long-lost brother.
• So Proud of You: Though Gru was never able to meet his late father, Marlena had always told him that he had "died of disappointment" when Gru was born. Dru reveals that their father, himself a renowned supervillain, was actually immensely proud of Gru for his villainous accomplishments, something Gru is visibly touched to hear.
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • Michael Jackson's "Bad" plays over Gru nearly getting blown away by Balthazar's weapon.
  • Also, Madonna's "Into the Groove" during the climactic dance fight.
• Special Effect Failure: In-Universe. The Evil Bratt TV show uses blatantly unconvincing effects, where wires and sets are clearly visible. The episode with the giant robot is especially egregious, as the robot is obviously just Bratt wearing a costume (his real eyes are visible behind the mask) and walking around a miniature city of model buildings.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Sort of. When Valerie da Vinci is announced as the new head of the AVL and asks Gru to identify himself, she's standing a good distance from him. When he gets a call from the girls and tries to decline it, he looks up and suddenly she's right in front of him.
• Stealth Pun: During the final chase, we have Lucy in the sky with a diamond.
• Stylistic Suck: The footage we see of Evil Bratt has cheesy dialogue and acting with lacklustre and incredibly obvious special effects, reflecting the era that it was made in. Despite this, Bratt himself still regards it as an unironic masterpiece.
  Bratt: Seriously, how did this show never win an Emmy?
• Suddenly Shouting: Valerie da Vinci does this a few times.
  • "WHICH ONE OF YOU LOSERS IS AGENT GRU?!"
  • "Huh. Interesting. YOU'RE FIRED!"
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Despite delivering a performance that earns them a standing ovation, the Minions still trespassed on a film studio lot in order to do it, and end up being detained and then arrested. At least they got to finish their song before security apprehended them.
  • In the beginning of the film, the Anti-Villain League (AVL) fires Gru due to him allowing Balthazar Bratt to get away with stealing the world's large diamond. Lucy attempts to defend her husband and protests against the league's decision and tells them that they should fire her if they plan on firing Gru. Lucy ends up getting fired along with Gru.
• Talent Show: Mel and the other Minions are on one. In their Minionese language, they sing a very famous opera song. See it here.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Crosses over with Laser-Guided Karma. At the beginning, Bratt challenges Gru to a dance fight, then fools Gru into thinking he was knocked out and blows Gru away with his keytar, leaving him naked and stuck in Bratt's bubblegum. In the climax, Gru challenges Bratt to a dance fight, which Bratt accepts, thinking he has the upper hand. He then has an Oh, Crap! when he reaches for his keytar, sees Gru has it, and realises Gru is about to blow him away like he did to Gru earlier. Bratt ends up naked and hanging from his own bubblegum bubble by his balls.
• Tattooed Crook: Some of the prisoners are seen with tattoos and the Minions get their own tattoos from Mel when they are in prison.
• Teens Are Monsters: Bratt, as he started to believe he was the character he played on his show. It's worth noting as well that this was around the time when his show was captured and his ratings plummeted, so it's probably justified.
• Toilet Humor:
  • When Gru sends Dru's butler flying, Kyle can be seen urinating on a plant for a moment.
  • The slide show Mel shows contrasting Evil Gru with Good Gru includes pictures of Gru avoiding Kyle's droppings and unclogging a toilet with a disgusted look on his face.
  • The Minions steal prison toilets as part of their escape plane, including one that has a prisoner still sitting on it.
• Token Good Teammate: Mel leads all the Minions to revolt against Gru and quit because they believe Being Good Sucks, but Gru is adamant that they are not going back into villainy. Only two Minions remain, Dave and Jerry, who Gru promotes, though they likely didn't know of the walkout in the first place.
• Took a Level in Badass: Dru is a lot more competent in the credits cartoon than he was in the actual movie.
• Tough Love: Margo advises Lucy to do this, but Lucy mistakenly applies "tough love" at the wrong time, causing Margo to pick up an unwanted admirer. Fortunately, this is resolved when Lucy gets tough on the boy and his mother instead, and Margo and Lucy make up.
• Trademark Favorite Food: The people of Freedonia and their love for cheese, to the point they have a holiday for it.
• Twin Switch: Gru and Dru do this during the family dinner with swapping each other's clothes, Gru putting on a blonde wig, and Dru wearing a bald cap. Unlike most examples, it fools no one.
• Twin Telepathy: Discussed. While on the plane to Dru's mansion in Freedonia, Gru excitedly asks Lucy if it would be cool if he and Dru had the "twin telepathy" thing.
• Two Decades Behind: Three decades behind, technically. Bratt still acts and dresses in '80s clothing and loves '80s music, as for him, the '80s never ended.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: When Dru shows Gru a hall of statues of their relatives, all of them share an exact resemblance to Gru, even the women. A glimpse of their father in a family photo shows they inherited their appearance entirely from him, especially the Gag Nose.
• Uncertain Doom: We don't know for sure whether or not Clive survived Bratt's giant robot collapsing.
• Undying Loyalty: Two of the Minions named Dave and Larry are the only ones who stay with Gru even after he refuses to go back to villainy.
• The Unfavorite: Gru's mother claims this to be true of Gru, stating she had "second pick" when the twins were separated. Dru later reveals that, ironically, he was the Unfavorite of their father, who was far more proud of Gru for becoming a villain like him.
• Unusual Euphemism: Bratt's Oh, Crap! on the ship at the beginning, where he exclaims, "Son of a Betamax!"
• Villainous Lineage: Gru learns from Dru that their family has a long, proud history of villainy, with their late father being an infamous villain known as "the Bald Terror".
• Villains Out Shopping: Bratt is working out with an exercise ball to an exercise video and Clive is accompanying him before he reveals his plan to decimate Hollywood.
• Wasn't That Fun?: A case of this trope being applied before something dangerous happens. Gru invokes the trope after Dru impulsively steals two lollipops and has an Oh, Crap! when the police appear. Gru promptly takes the wheel of their father's villain car and puts the pedal to the metal. The trope is then played straight by both of them after they escape.
• Waving Signs Around: The Minions do this when they start to revolt.
• "Well Done, Dad!" Guy: Gender-inverted with Lucy, who is struggling to cope with being a mother through much of the film, and understandably wants to do a good job of it. She eventually does.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Like Gru was to his mother in the first film, Dru reveals that he was this to their father growing up. This is why Dru wants to follow in his footsteps and become a supervillain.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Minions Dave and Jerry join Gru's family on the trip to Freedonia, and are last seen helping Edith prank Fritz, Dru's butler. They aren't seen again for the rest of the film (and neither is Fritz).
  • Also, when the Minions build a hot air balloon to escape the prison, they unknowingly leave behind one minion who was waving the "runway lights". The balloon takes off without him and we never see what happens to him, not even in a stinger. The human prisoner they inadvertently abducted during the escape is also never seen again once the balloon reaches Hollywood.
• Would Hurt a Child: Bratt. He dresses up as Lucy to kidnap the girls, then, when Edith demands he let them out of his robot, he deposits them on the narrow ledge near the top of a skyscraper, knowing full well they will likely fall to their deaths, which they almost do.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: No matter how many times the good guys recover the diamond stolen by Bratt, he eventually uses it to power up his laser cannon and attack Hollywood. Only then he's stopped.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Gru, after seeing a headline that Bratt has stolen the Dumont Diamond from the Paris museum.
  • Gru says it again to Dru when they start arguing over who deserves the credit for stealing the diamond.

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