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This Hero was Headlined on August 2022.

Hero Overview

Gru is the first former greatest supervillain in the world who briefly made jellies becoming a very handsome secret agent in history
~ Gru narrating his AVL file for Agent Overview
Next, we are going to steal--pause for effect--THE MOON!
~ Gru to the Minions.
Listen close, you little punk! When I get in there, you are in for a WORLD OF PAIN!
~ Gru threatening Vector, and his most famous quote.
Hey! I thought we said no more villainy!
~ Gru to his brother Dru Gru.

Felonious Gru, simply by his surname Gru, is the main protagonist of the Despicable Me franchise.

Gru is a bald man who used to be the world's #1 supervillain. 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.

Thanks to his three daughters and Vector, he drove his life into heroism instead of villainy.

He is voiced by Steve Carell (who also played Michael Scott on The Office and voiced Hammy in Over the Hedge). Steve Carell also voiced Gru's twin brother, Dru, in Despicable Me 3.

Personality[]

Gru with a moon

A screenshot of Gru's ambitious, megalomanical dreams

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, 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.

Gru with Nefario and the Minions

Gru with Nefario and the Minions

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. 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 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 Gru's remarkable agility and strength, he is also considerably intelligent. For example, as a child he built a real rocket. However, since becoming a mega-villain 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.
  • Stealing the Zodiac Stone from the Vicious 6.
  • Helping Otto return the stone to the lab. (before traded it for the pet rock)
  • Stealing the Mona Lisa from the Bank of Evil.
  • Reunited with Otto and returned the stone to him.
  • Defeating Belle Bottom and the Vicious 6.
  • Rehiring the Minions for the job.
  • Villain 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, which is smaller than Statue of Liberty)
  • 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/preserves business.
  • Being assigned by the Anti-Villain's League on a mission.
  • Found out that El Macho was still alive 20 years after 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)
  • Received an apology from Mr. Ramsbottom for underestimating his abilities. (in spite of not being shown in the movie)
  • Married Lucy Wilde.
  • Stealing the diamond back from Balthazar Bratt.
  • Defeating Balthazar Bratt.
  • Getting his job back with Lucy at the AVL.

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, 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: he is bothered by their useless stupidity that doesn't please him. Unlike Scarlet, he never gave up his minions or try to kill them all either. Even though back when he fired them as a kid for losing the stone & when they quit on him for refusing to go back to villainy when he chose heroism instead.
  • 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.
  • Despite being the titular main protagonist of Minions: The Rise of Gru, Gru was the Minions' sidekick and the main comic-relief character for a majority of the film before hiring them at the end. Kevin, Stuart, and Bob are the previous film's main protagonists, because the sequel primarily focuses on Gru. This makes the Minions the movie's deuteragonists.

External Links[]

Navigation[]

           DespicableMeTitle Heroes

Gru's Family and Servants
Felonious Gru | Lucy Wilde | Minions (Kevin, Stuart & Bob | Mel | Otto) | Dr. Nefario | Margo Gru | Agnes Gru | Edith Gru | Dru Gru| Gru Jr.|

Anti-Villain League
Silas Ramsbottom | Felonious Gru | Lucy Wilde

Others
Master Chow | Wild Knuckles| Poppy

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