Here’s Trey Parker’s Despicable Me 3 villain Balthazar Bratt explained. The Despicable Me franchise began with the 2010 original, which followed Steve Carrell’s supervillain Felonious Gru, who comes to realize there’s more to life than evil schemes. The true breakout stars of the movie were Gru’s minions, which are small yellow creatures who speak in a language mostly comprised of gibberish.
They soon became the franchise mascots, and of course, returned for both Despicable Me 2 and 3. They also earned their own spinoff with 2015’s Minions, which was a prequel that revealed their backstory and saw them working with female supervillain Scarlet Overkill, voiced by Sandra Bullock; the movie also featured a brief cameo from Carrell’s Gru, explaining how the minions first met him. They’ll have a second spinoff with Minions 2 and they also made a surprise appearance, of sorts, in Mortal Engines.
While Despicable Me 3 received mixed reviews from both critics and audiences it was still a runaway smash, grossing over $1 billion worldwide. One of the most surprising things about the film is that Trey Parker voices the new supervillain, Balthazar Bratt. Parker is best known as co-creator of South Park and hit musical The Book Of Mormon, which is decidedly more adult fare. In fact, it’s very rare for Parker to appear in material he hasn’t written or directed himself, which makes his move to Despicable Me 3 all the more surprising.
Despicable Me 3’s Balthazar Bratt was once the young star of a 1980s show called Evil Bratt, which involved his character getting involved in all kinds of mischief. The show was canceled after Bratt hit puberty, which led to him swearing vengeance against Hollywood. He still dresses like it was the 1980s, right down to the purple jumpsuit, mullet and handlebar mustache. He’s prone to dancing while accompanied by Michael Jackson’s “Bad,” and his weapons include a Rubik’s Cube smoke bomb and expanding bubblegum.
In Despicable Me 3’s story, Bratt builds a giant robot - an idea he got from an old episode of Evil Bratt - to go on a rampage in Hollywood. Bratt also uses his acting skills to achieve his goals, impersonating a couple of characters throughout the story. Bratt’s voice has shades of Parker’s most famous creation Eric Cartman, and while the movie’s humor can be hit and miss, Balthazar proves to be a fun villain. Bratt is an almost joyfully parody of the 1980s, though his backstory as a forgotten, bitter former child star gives the character a little bit of depth.
Next: Minions Cast & Character Guide
