Despicable Me sequel beats Monsters University sequel 2013

On the surface, it seems to be a story of a man trying to keep his family together and more, while saving the world. However, if I were to re-view it, there were probably messages like that of Rob Ager's interpretation of E.T., where E.T. was Elliot's imaginary friend; in this film's case, it may be the lost mother on Mother's Day and supervillains ruining their tight knit family that are the imaginary invaders to a young Agnes built from her imagination or one of her sisters.' I do not have enough evidence for it yet, but it is definitely worth exploring.
Despicable Me 2 had the 60s themes straight on, from
the bright 2010 CGed 60s bright colors,
to the contemporarily connected family like that of Happy Days,
the Russians and their secret laboratories in James Bond,
the lucha films of the New Hollywood era,
the 60s gangsters.

Shouldn't the third film be finished off directed by Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez?
It is a film covered in homage and cinephilia.

The film has simpler ideas than Monsters University, but was able to execute it more properly. Sure, the dynamics of family and relationships are explored in more terms of Sweet Valley High rather than from Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage. However, everybody gave their best effort. The action and pacing were fast (I felt I was watching a season of Mission Impossible mixed with the Brady Bunch), but it shows the possibility of the show as a franchise. There are parallels from when Gru gets Lily to date him and dump him when Margot is dated and dumped. At times, I was unsure where the film was going, albeit some times were unpredictable with the Mother's Day speech, the X-ray googles, and of course the supposed spy save the world plot, which is really a MacGuffin subplot (a 60s Hitchcock reference?) for the themes of contemporary 60s families, such as motherless children and parent-teenager relationship dramas. The entrance for the supervillain is a pure homage to the beginning of Return of the Jedi/The Wizard of Oz, as is the beginning of the film's homage to the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back.

The con about this simplicity however is simple minded most common denominator appeal: pop culture (Mexican and Asian) racism, awkwardness, lack of depth for the characters. (Some claimed that Star Trek had cartoon characters; I claim that this film has cartoon characters and Star Trek has no characters)
I also did not find the jokes funny. It did not pander to the Saban II Power Rangers crowd, but it did appeal to the 90s Nickelodeon kid, who watched Weinerville because it has the word weiner in it. (Seriously... FART GUNS that seem to be stolen right after the Muppets got FART FLOPS.)

P.S. that is a terrible Al Pacino impersonation and no wonder he did not want to be connected to the character.

The film had two directors and two writers and I give credit for the writers for developing such a great script, while at least one of the directors probably screwed up the seriousness of the script.

C'mon Miyazaki! Why settle when you can blow away?

Meanwhile, congrats to Universal for being #2.