+1 on both of these. This review was nearly as fun as the movie and I agree that it only went downhill from here. In particular the sequel seemed to be NUTHING but juvenile fart jokes and seemed to have lost 80% of the sense of what made the original fun, funny, and memorable.

I completely believe that Gru's voice is a Molari tribute - I thought so at the time. The movie contains enough other obvious references and tribute nods I'd believe it was intentional.