Felonious Gru (also simply known as Gru) is the main protagonist of Despicable Me franchise, a minor character in its spin-off/prequel Minions, and the titular main protagonist of the film's sequel Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Gru is a 57-year-old bald man who used to be the world's #1 villain. His plan involved stealing the moon, which would be the crime of the century. When he saw Margo and her little sisters go inside Vector's lair, Gru decided to adopt them so they could sneak into Vector's lair and take the shrink ray Vector stole from Gru who stole it from an Asian laboratory. At first, he just wanted to send them back to the orphanage as soon as he got the shrink ray, but he began to like them after spending an afternoon with them at an amusement park.
He is voiced by Steve Carell as both adult and child, who is best known for playing Michael Scott on The Office, and himself in the Universal Studios series. Carell also voiced Gru's twin brother, Dru in Despicable Me 3.
At the start of the film, Gru was a sneaky and somewhat cold-hearted man, who was determined to become the greatest villain in the world. He showed a dislike of children, as he was easily irritated by Agnes, Edith, and Margo.
He was selfish and at first, he only adopted Agnes, Edith, and Margo. Three adorable girls to help him with his plot so that he could get the shrink ray from Vector Perkins, considering they were able to get past his highly secured property with little trouble as they were delivering cookies and had no intentions of taking anything from him, which he intended to use to shrink the moon so that he could steal it. He was also rather indifferent to their needs and welfare; when Edith was trapped in a spike-filled coffin and briefly presumed dead, he indifferently said that his plan could work with two children.
Gru was also rather rude and even sadistic at first, as shown when he enjoyed using his Freeze Ray (his signature weapon) just to freeze people for the sake of it. Near the beginning of the movie, he made a balloon animal for a boy who'd dropped his ice cream and then popped the balloon just for fun. When Vector kidnapped his three adopted daughters, he furiously told him that he was in for a world of pain. However, this was not a sign of his sadism; instead, it was a sign of how much he cared for his three girls.
Despite these traits, Gru was shown to be good friends with Dr. Nefario and also treated his Minions quite well, interacting with them and calling each one of them by name instead of just treating them like slaves, despite a few moments where he can be occasionally gruff with them. However, he also said that he had no intention of giving his Minions a raise. He had a somewhat strained relationship with his mother, who hadn't been a particularly good parent, but he was determined to make her proud.
As time went on, Gru started to enjoy spending time with his three adopted loveable daughters and in the end, he grew to genuinely love them, putting aside his dream of stealing the moon and risking his life to rescue them from Vector, and later giving up villainy altogether to become a father. However, Dr. Nefario disapproved of Gru's warmer side starting to reveal itself and sent the girls back to the orphanage. Though Gru didn't attempt to stop Ms. Hattie from taking them, he was clearly upset about them leaving and later said that giving them up was the worst mistake he'd ever made. He also did his best to get to their dance performance after stealing the moon and was upset when he discovered he was too late.
Gru also had a tendency to say "lightbulb" whenever he had an idea. He speaks in an unusual accent which was described as 'a mix of Ricard Montalban and Bela Lugosi'.
Appearance[]
Gru is a tall, bald man with a long nose and broad, powerful physique, (unlike Vector) and dresses in a light grey sweater underneath a black collared coat along with a striped scarf, black trousers, and shoes. As a kid, he also had black hair and wore the same outfit as an adult.
Gallery[]
Gru and his nephews, Kevin, Stuart & Bob.
Gru and his family.
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 Dr. 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, Gru's 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.
Gru's date of birth is not made very clear due to contradictory info. In the first film, a date of birth of September 28, 1960, is given, but in Minions: The Rise of Gru, he is 11 and three-quarters years old around February 1976, which would place his date of birth in 1964 or 1965.
Steve Carell describes Gru's strange accent as "a cross between Ricardo Montalban and Bela Lugosi".
Gru is the first protagonist from an Illumination movie, the next being E.B. from Hop.
Gru is the opposite reflection of Scarlet Overkill when it comes to the Minions: while the two were annoyed at the Minions' stupidity, Gru never gave up on them or tried to exact revenge, always making amends and displaying a degree of forgiveness and generosity.
His first name, Felonious, is a reference to the word "felony", which is quite fitting since Gru committed various crimes during the series, especially at the beginning.
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