Daily Dialogue — July 15, 2016
SILAS: Good afternoon, Mr. Gru. I apologize for our methods in getting you here.
LUCY: I don’t. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I am not going to lie, I enjoyed that. Every second of it. Gave me a bit of a buzz, actually.
SILAS: That’s enough, Agent Wilde.
LUCY: Sorry.
GRU: Okay, this is bogus! I don’t know who you people think you are, but —
SILAS: We are the Anti-Villain League, an ultra-secret organization dedicated to fighting crime on a global scale. Rob a bank? We’re not interested. Kill someone? Not our deal. But you want to melt the polar ice caps, or vaporize Mount Fuji, or even steal the moon, then we notice.
GRU: First of all, you got no proof that I did that. Second, after I did do that, I put it back.
SILAS: We’re well aware of that, Mr. Gru, that’s why we brought you here. I am the League’s director, Silas Ramsbottom. (Minions have a laugh) Hilarious. Agent Wilde.
LUCY: Oh, me now? Um, recently an entire top-secret lab disappeared from the Arctic Circle. Yeah, the entire lab just — swish! Voom! Gone. Where did it go?
GRU: I don’t care.
LUCY: Hmm. The lab was devoted to experiments involving PX-41, a transmutation serum. What is PX-41, you ask? Mmmm, it’s pretty bad. Look.
A rabbit is injected with the serum, and turns into a monster, which then attacks the scientists. Gru and the minions react.
GRU: Huh. You usually don’t see that in bunnies.
SILAS: As you can see, in the wrong hands the PX-41 serum could be the most devastating weapon on earth. Fortunately, it has a very distinct chemical footprint. And, using the latest chem-tracking technology, we found traces of it in the Paradise Mall.
GRU: Huh! A mall.
SILAS: Precisely, and we believe that one of these shop owners is the master criminal. And that’s where you come in. As an ex-villain, you know how a villain thinks, how a villain acts.
LUCY: The plan is to set you up undercover at a shop in the mall where, hopefully, you’ll be able to —
GRU: Okay, I see where this is going with all the Mission: Impossible stuff, but no, NO! I’m a father, now. And, I’m a legitimate business man. I’m developing a line of delicious jams and jellies.
SILAS: (Chuckles) Jams and jellies?
GRU: Oh, attitude! That’s right. So, thanks, but no thanks. And, here’s a tip. Instead of tasing people and kidnapping them, maybe you should just give them a call! Good day, Mr. Sheep’s Butt.
SILAS: Ramsbottom.
GRU: Oh, yeah, like that’s any better.
— Despicable Me 2 (2013), written by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Info Dump suggested by Will King who is responsible for today’s post.
Trivia: A possible reason for the origin of Gru’s name is that the French word “la grue” means a crane. Gru’s legs are long and thin, and resemble those of a giant crane.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “The ‘briefing’ scene in the spy and adventure genres can be a way to info dump while entertaining the audience. This scene also fits into Campbell’s Hero’s Journey framework in that this is where Gru receives the call to adventure, but refuses it. Here the writers play up the scene with a few laughs thrown in to keep it light. Rather than bore the audience with a detailed rundown of how the story will unfold, they use Gru’s indifference to cut short Lucy’s discussion of the plan with a comment about Mission: Impossible. So, we don’t a preview of the plot, but we get an idea how it will play out. They also make a callback to the first film (where Gru steals the moon) which gives a sense of continuity to the franchise.”