Felonious Gru

"Listen close, you little punk! When I get in there you are in for a WORLD OF PAIN!"

- Gru to Vector

"Next, we are going to steal--pause for effect--THE MOON!"

- Gru to the Minions

Felonious Gru (or simply just "Gru") is the overall protagonist of Despicable Me franchise.

He is the main protagonist of the Despicable Me trilogy and a minor character from the Despicable Me prequel, Minions. His former personality is evil, ruthless, arrogant, sly, egocentric, hateful, tricky and intelligent. His personality now is heroic, caring, selfless, loving, protective, intelligent, quick-thinker, sweet, fatherly, friendly, honorable and responsible.

Gru is a 50-year-old bald man who wishes to be the world's #1 villain. His plan involves 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 his adult and child, who also voiced Hammy, Ned McDodd, and his twin brother, Dru Gru in Despicable Me’s 2nd sequel, Despicable Me 3.

Personality
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 so that he could get a shrink ray 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 cruel and even sadistic at first, 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 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 the 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. 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 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. Dr. Nefario disapproved of the fact that Gru's warmer side was starting to reveal itself and sent the girls back to the orphanage. Though Gru didn't attempt to stop Miss 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 spoke in an unusual accent which was described as 'a mix of Ricard Montalban and Bela Lugosi'.

Appearance and Abilities
Gru is a tall, bald man with a long nose and broad, powerful physique, (unlike Vector) and dress in a light grey sweater underneath a black collared coat along with a striped scarf, black trousers, and shoes. He is very strong and athletic, being capable of dodging and leaping off several heat-seeking missiles, backhanding Vector's shark with a single punch (without even looking at it), and smashing his fist into Vector's monitor, easily cracking the screen without doing any damage to his hand. It is even shown in the sequel that he can break a Mexican drink glass into pieces without cutting himself, especially when he was horrified to see a romantic relationship between Margo and Antonio blooming.

Apart from his remarkable agility and strength, Gru is also considerably intelligent. For example, as a child he built a real rocket. However since becoming a megavillain he seems to let Dr. Nefario handle most of the mechanical work though he was seen helping Nefario from time to time. Gru was also capable of forming clever plans such as his plan to steal the shrink ray from Vector.

Achievements

 * Drawing a picture of himself landing on the moon
 * Making a macaroni prototype of the rocket
 * Making a full-sized, fully-working rocket
 * Stealing the Queen of England's crown from Scarlet Overkill
 * Villiain of the Year (seen on a newspaper)
 * Stealing the Times Square Jumbotron
 * Stealing the Statue of Liberty (the small one from Las Vegas)
 * Stealing the Eiffel Tower (the small one from Las Vegas)
 * Stealing the Shrink Ray from a secret East Asian facility
 * Adopting three girls from Ms. Hattie's Home for Girls
 * Stealing the Shrink Ray (back from Vector)
 * Making a rocket (with the help of the Minions and Dr. Nefario)
 * Stealing the moon (momentarily)
 * Saving Margo, Edith, and Agnes from Vector
 * Unintentionally returning the moon
 * Becoming the world's second greatest supervillain
 * Started his jams/jellies/perserves business
 * Being assigned by the Anti-Villain's League on a mission
 * Found out that El Macho was still alive after 20 years of his 'death'
 * Avenged Margo's dumped moment on Antonio by using his Freeze Ray on him
 * Got his minions back to normal (most of them)
 * Defeated El Macho by using a Lip Stick Taser (and copied Lucy Wilde's pose)
 * Saved Lucy Wilde from the rocket going to an active volcano (and started his first of 147 dates)
 * Recieved an apology from Mr. Ramsbottom for underestimating his abilities (in spite of not being shown in the movie)
 * Married Lucy Wilde

Trivia

 * Despite being an original character of his own, some viewers believe Gru might be based on the Sonic villain, Dr. Julian Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, seeing that both have lanky arms and legs attached to their roundish toros and both are bald and both can be hybrid heroes/villains.
 * Gru's birthday is 28th September 1960. Which would make him 49/50 during the events of the first film.
 * Gru also has a similar appearance to Uncle Fester of the Addams Family.
 * Steve Carell describes Gru's strange accent as "a cross between Ricardo Montalban and Bela Lugosi."
 * Gru is the first human protagonist in a Illumination film, followed by Ted Wiggins from The Lorax.
 * Gru might be reminiscent of the titular main protagonist and former villain, Megamind.