While their movies make millions - sometimes even billions - at the box office and their
characters are known around the globe, some of Illumination’s characters are more infamous
than actually loved. Some characters are hated for being annoying or frustrating,
others are just totally lame, and others are just seen as terrible
people that can’t even be enjoyed in a ‘love to hate them’ sort of way. Today,
we’re going to break these characters down and see what exactly makes them so darn dislikable.
I’m Kifinosi with WickedBinge, and this is the Worst Illumination Characters (and why they suck).
Naturally, we’re going to be starting with our least hated characters before working our way down
to the most despised characters of Illumination history. We should also mention that while we have
tried to incorporate fan opinions, this is all subjective at the end of the day. If you’re a fan
of any of these characters, feel free to continue being a fan, and if there are any Worst Characters
that we’ve missed, let us know in the comments! With that all being said, let’s get started.
First up on our list, we have Gunter the Pig from “SING”. Gunter is excitable and a true
performer at heart, being all about showing off his “piggy power” while on stage and being a
loyal dance partner to his friend, Rosita. Unfortunately, Gunter didn’t make the best
first impression. Between the garish red jumpsuit and the Lady Gaga song, many people clocked him
as being the annoying comic relief when they saw him in the film’s first trailer. For some,
this reputation didn’t really go away, as many find his undying enthusiasm and over-the-top
accent to be pretty obnoxious. For others, though, they’ve grown to love this pig - both for his fun
dance moves and for just how supportive he proved to be. Additionally, while he does get a slightly
bigger part in “SING 2”, Gunter never really becomes a screen-time hog (no pun intended),
so he doesn’t tend to overstay his welcome. Some fans still don’t care for him much, but you’d be
hard pressed to find a person who absolutely despises him. Sure, maybe not all of his jokes
land, but with how friendly and supportive he is, it can be hard to truly hate him.
Next, we have the 80s themed villain, Balthazar Bratt. Out of the many MANY “Despicable Me”
villains, Balthazar Bratt is probably one of the least liked. While he does still have some fans,
for most people he just can’t compare to the manly spectacle that was El Macho,
the wicked Scarlet Overkill, or the incredibly memeable Vector. As for potential reasons why,
we think one issue may just be his gimmick. 90% of this guy’s jokes are just… 80’s references,
which is a type of reference that people are very quickly getting burnt out on due to how
prevalent they are. What’s more, he has very little outside of this gimmick, making him come
off as more silly instead of threatening. Another point against him could be his vocal performance,
which was provided by South Park’s Trey Parker. In a sense, he’s just doing his Randy voice,
and while this can be funny, others may easily find it obnoxious. We also feel like Bratt’s
coolness factor continuously dips as the movie goes on. His opening heist may be impressive,
but not even his giant robot in the film’s climax can do much to make us truly care
about him or his plans. We’ll admit that he’s not completely terrible and some people still
may get a kick out of him. Still, he manages to land on the lower tier of Despicable Me baddies.
Moving back over to the “SING” franchise for a bit, let’s talk about Mike the Mouse. Yeahhh,
there’s probably a few reasons why Mike didn’t return for the sequel. Now, for the record,
not every character who’s a jerk is going to immediately be dislikable. In fact,
sometimes jerk characters can be the most fun characters to follow. Unfortunately,
that isn’t the case for Mike. He’s obnoxious and a jerk, but it doesn’t go far enough to cross into
that “love-to-hate” territory we talked about. Instead, most audience members are just annoyed
and frustrated with his antics. Additionally, outside of being voiced by Seth McFarland,
there’s very little that’s memorable about him, making him come off as a flat character. He’s
got his jerkiness and he’s got his Frank Sinatra-esque singing - which, to be fair,
is pretty great thanks to Seth’s own singing talents. His best scene is easily when he
sings “My Way”, but you’d be hard pressed to find any other scenes of his that people like.
Next up is the mischievous bunny, Snowball. Like with Mike, Snowball’s role as the first
film’s antagonist is more of a detriment to his character than anything else. He may provide a
bit of dark humor, which some people may like, but others may get annoyed at how lame and
unthreatening he is as a so-called ‘villain’. This does change in the second film, where he
becomes a cape-wearing superhero, but we’d argue that it didn’t really change anyone’s opinion of
him. He’s still the same overzealous bunny, he’s just not trying to kill humans anymore. Another
reason why others may find Snowball annoying is simply because of his voice, which is provided
by a high-pitched Kevin Hart. Don’t get us wrong, we like Kevin Hart just fine, but his schtick can
be hit or miss at times. All in all, Snowball is forgettable at best and annoying at worst,
and either one of these reactions from audiences earn him a spot on this list.
You knew he was going to be somewhere on this list. Next up, we have the Once-Ler. Let’s just
address the Horton-Elephant in the room: for many animation fans who grew up online, it’s hard to
look at this guy without being reminded of all the chaos surrounding him from fangirl-filled sites
like Tumblr. For as many people as there were who loved and who were obsessed with the Once-Ler,
there were just as many people who hated seeing him everywhere and who just didn’t get the appeal.
Speaking of that, for some audience members, the Once-Ler was just a desperate attempt to woobify a
Seuss villain who previously had more depth to him and was much more realistic, as shown in the 1972
animated Lorax special. Additionally, many felt it was in bad taste to fully personify the Once-Ler,
giving him a face and turning him into an actual character when originally he was
meant to symbolize big corporations while also representing the idea that anyone could choose
to either hurt or help the environment. Because Illumination humanized him so much, many felt that
the point of his character was completely missed for the sake of giving audiences a more likable
and adorkable character. But even with all this, we can’t completely hate him, if only because his
musical numbers - both in the film and in the deleted scenes - are admittedly pretty great.
Sticking with our Seuss characters, we just had to mention the Grinch. This was an unfortunate case
of forced comparison, as many audience members just couldn’t help but compare him to Jim Carrey’s
version of the Grinch - a performance that managed to be much more memorable, hilarious and true to
the spirit of a character who’s supposed to hate Christmas. Illumination’s Grinch,
meanwhile, just kind of feels like tofu. He’s given a sad backstory and anxiety issues to make
him more relatable, but it makes him come off as a completely different character than what
he’s supposed to be - to the point where many have pointed out how the lyrics in “You’re a Mean One,
Mr. Grinch” barely matches him at all with how cute and sympathetic and mildly-mean the Grinch
is portrayed in this film. To make a character like the Grinch so unthreatening and toothless
almost ruins him, turning him into a boring shadow of what he’s meant to be. We will say, however,
that for some people, making him more sympathetic did work somewhat. We’ve even heard several people
say that the movie still managed to make them cry in the end thanks to the Grinch’s ending speech,
even if the Grinch himself was somewhat lackluster for the rest of the movie.
Following him is actually another Lorax villain, Aloysius O’Hare. While the Once-Ler
at least had personality and memorability, there was absolutely NOTHING memorable or
enjoyable about this guy. He was about as cartoony of a villain as you could get,
feeling more like a Captain Planet villain than anything else. Between his goofy design,
over-the-top vocal performance and overall lack of presence, O’Hare just wasn’t threatening at all.
He also wasn’t very funny, with the exception of his “let it die” line in the film’s final
song. That was actually pretty funny. Still, when your character’s only redeeming quality
was one line at the very end of your film, you kiiiiiinda have a problem. Making O’Hare even
more disappointing is that he truly just can’t compare to the Once-Ler. He’s not menacing,
he’s not fun, he’s not interesting - he’s just a guy who takes up screen time and acts
as an obstacle for Ted and the others. He’s a bare minimum antagonist and it truly shows.
Kicking off our Bottom 3, we have the Minions. Which ones? Pretty much all of them, as the
fans who hate them have a hard time telling them apart anyway. Depending on who you ask,
these guys are either the funniest characters in Despicable Me or the worst characters
ever created. While we personally don’t mind their antics too much, it can’t be denied just how
easily they can come off as annoying, obnoxious and brainless when written in a lazy way.
For as many clever and genuinely funny jokes as there are with them, there’s just as many
cheap laughs involving gibberish or farts. Many have praised the use of Looney Tunes and Three
Stooges-esque slapstick with them, but this type of humor can only be used for so long
before it starts to feel repetitive. Probably the biggest negative many can claim about the Minions
is simply that they take up so much screen time, taking it away from more interesting characters
like Gru and causing the main plot of the films to sometimes feel rushed or shallow because
there wasn’t enough time given to them, being instead used for more Minion jokes. In some ways,
it’s not necessarily the Minions themselves that are bad, just how they’re used throughout the
Despicable Me franchise. Sometimes the worst thing you can do with a character is simply
show them too much love - especially when they were only ever meant to be cute comedy relief.
For our runner-up most disliked Illumination character, we have Gru’s long lost twin brother,
Dru. Speaking of annoying, this is another case of it being a character’s worst sin. Steve Carrell
turns his Gru voice up to 11 whenever he voices Dru, making it higher pitched, whinier and just
all around more obnoxious. It’s a shame, as films like the first Despicable Me film and
Rise of Gru show just how well Carrell can do the voice as well as how much heart and emotion
he can put into it. But Dru’s voice on the other hand? It sounds more like a parody or a mockery
of the Gru voice than anything else. Between the voice and the lazy “long lost sibling” plot, it
was no surprise that many were turned off of Dru before they even saw the third Despicable Me film.
Unfortunately, the film itself doesn’t do Dru many favors, as it becomes very hard for him to stand
out from his brother. Gru has proven himself to be interesting and likable while Dru feels
shallow and flat, not really having much outside of trying and failing to be a villain. Many also
feel like Dru just completely drags the plot, not being able to add much outside of mild conflict
and a few lame jokes, and given that we haven’t seen or heard from him since the third film,
Illumination may have taken the hint. We don’t know the plot of Despicable Me 4 yet,
but we wouldn’t be too surprised if Dru wasn’t included in it outside of maybe a cameo.
We’ve finally arrived at who we consider to be Illumination’s most disliked character - E.B.
from “Hop”. When it came to Illumination’s first and so far ONLY live-action/animated hybrid movie,
not very many people enjoyed it. One of the reasons cited for this distaste easily has
to be the incredibly immature E.B. When he’s not being annoying, he’s just being generic,
having the same character arc as many other young dream-chasing, kid-movie protagonists
before him. But maybe audiences could forgive his unoriginality if he was more fun or likable.
Unfortunately, E.B. manages to be neither of these things. In fact, he can be pretty selfish,
to the point where he ends up getting his friend in trouble without really thinking of the
consequences. It also ends up taking him several hours to finally go and set things right, in spite
of the guilt he feels. This rabbit is so focused on his own goals that he fakes his death, not
really caring how news of this would affect his dad! That’s cold… Scenes like the “I Want Candy”
sing-along scene, him lying to Fred so he’d let him stay, wrecking the bathroom the next day, and
ruining Fred’s job interview are all scenes that just make him come off as obnoxious and incredibly
unlikable. He isn’t very funny, nor is he really all that sympathetic for most of the movie. With
people having very few positive things to say about him - and about this film in general - we
felt it was only appropriate to award E.B. the title of the Worst Illumination Character.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking,
and tell us what we should cover next! Remember to hit that notification bell
and binge more of our videos. But most importantly, stay wicked!