#Despicable Me 4 review

[legendary-lunatic]

Okay, So I just finished binge watching all four Despicable Mes in one day, and I gotta say that I did not care for the fourth movie.

It was disappointing… which is a shame, because Maxime Le Mal is awesome.

The concept of a cockroach villain, is epic. He had a great character design, a fun personality, and he had past conflict with Gru.

The problem with the fourth movie is that it is not plot driven enough and instead keeps splicing screen time for family fluff moments and side characters like Poppy.

Poppy, as much as I thought she was a fun presence, was NOT needed in the movie, and neither was all of that Safe House Country Club shit. Why would they go out of their way to say ‘Hey Gru? Let’s stop acting like the grumpy protagonist we love and instead behave completely out of character so you can pretend you like playing tennis.’ It was unnecessary and not what we needed from a character we have grown to find charming because of the way he can be both kind and a grumpy asshole. (Like Shrek.) Shrek does not belong at a country club, and neither does Gru.

We introduce a villain school that Gru went to only to not only completely avoid talking about him or the school in that context, but bring it up again solely for an irrelevant character who overall contributes nothing the the story at hand.

All of the other films in some way had a proactivity to them that kept the main antagonist in mind, and this film does not work because they keep shoving Maxime to the side. They should have completely scrapped all the minion fantastic four hero parody crap and stayed focused on the overall narrative and developing the new central antagonist.

It would have been fantastic if we had gotten more background on the conflict between Gru and Maxime. Apparently they had a little rivalry or just generally were jerks to each other in school as we find out that not only did Gru steal his song, Maxime pantsd him in front of the school, not to mention how they interacted in the beginning of the film, so clearly there is bad blood. This is the first villain that had conflict with Gru specifically, and it would have been an excellent central plot point to focus on his early life, or a great way to develop a villain that’s built out of personal grudge rather than inherently destructive ambition like the others.

And instead that was SQUANDERED by this absolutely directionless travesty. Maxime’s girlfriend, first of all, was useless and distracting. All the little cutaway moments and side stories were unnecessary, and overall it was incredibly disappointing to have a guy that can CONTROL COCKROACHES do absolutely nothing with them. He could be strong and invulnerable, He could have been mutating more people, controlling swarms, he could have been going after Gru more intensely and talking about how they bullied each other and that could have been very interesting.

But no. This is the only film in which the main antagonist takes such a back seat that he can effectively be cut from the film and it would hardly impact a thing. Maxime had potential and stage presence, and they did nothing with it in favor of fluff.

And Listen, LISTEN, fluff isn’t bad, I love their family- but it should not comprise 98% of the film!!! It should be wedged into little moments between plot points. Even Despicable Me 3, which had a bizarre out of left field twin plot, handled their villain with more respect and managed to tie in the two narratives in a way that culminated in a final act that was satisfying to all the characters.

Brat had charisma and was a genuine threat and was present enough in the story that he was still necessary to the story overall because he and his diamond were the reason Gru lost his job and he and his brother did the heist to retrieve it. By the end of the first half of the film we knew that Brat was a washed up star that peaked in his childhood and was trapped in his nostalgia, and he had a fully fleshed out motivation and draw to him despite being rather simple that allowed us to indulge in his quirks. His pathetic nostalgic personality CARRIES that film because it’s funny and endearing and believable because we’ve all met someone like that.

But Maxime is not such a simple character by design because his motivations are relationship focused- and in this film they spend most of the time running away from Maxime, which is counter intuitive and lets us understand absolutely nothing about the guy. Because they didn’t delve deeper, Le Mal’s motivations were weak, and thus the overall STORY was weak. We don’t even know why he has such an intense hyper fixation on cockroaches that he would literally roachify himself and make that his central theme!!!

Why didn’t Lucy and the kids go to the safe house and Gru could stay to deal with his rival? It doesn’t make sense!!! And the AVL was doing nothing about the threat at all and instead was being ridiculous by giving the minions super powers? Ineptitude to the point of absurdity. What is the point of going to a safe house if they aren’t trying to resolve the issue and then Gru does it anyway?!!!!

Brain dead. Disappointing. On every level.

They didn’t even resolve the personal conflicts the girls were having, what with Margo having trouble at school and Agnes not liking telling lies! What was the point?!

The animation may have been pretty, but the plot was weak. The character motivations were weak because they didn’t expand on them. There were thousands of directions they could have gone with this film and they chose to go NOWHERE.

The best part of the film is the end, and only because we got to see Maxime be relevant for three minutes and it implies that they’ve managed to wrap up their implied but borderline nonexistent rivalry. And we got two seconds of Brat dancing way too over sensually to ‘Rule the World’ because it’s an 80s song (the power of character consistency)

I don’t like hearing ‘ItS JuSt a KiDs FiLm’- NO. Pandering to children is not an excuse for bad writing in family media, and this franchise has been out long enough that it has an audience larger than just kids. Kids media and family media deserve better and should still have good narrative standards. Do not insult our intelligence by giving us content without purpose. It costs millions of dollars and months upon years to make a film nowadays, there is no excuse for not sitting down and coming up with a decent story direction and cohesive plan. A family film can be enjoyable for little ones and still have depth to it-

Family movies have been getting insanely messy lately with their story content because they think seeing characters we like regurgitated at us with good animation is enough to keep the company afloat and appease everyone, and it’s irritating. Dig deeper, have some respect for your craft. Keep our expectations high to keep us coming back!

I love the Despicable Me world and characters, but honestly this was such a disjointed film that it was almost hard to enjoy because I just kept waiting for something, anything to happen, and was utterly let down.

Maxime Le Mal deserved better as a villain, and this film deserved better. This franchise deserved better. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[caliboron]

It’s time for Caliboron’s super based review extravaganza thing that actually isn’t that big of a deal but if you’re reading this you’re part of it! This post will contain spoilers for the following movies: Migration, Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, A Quiet Place Day One, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Smile 2, Gladiator 2, Moana 2, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3

I’ve never done a post like this, but my family has taken up the hobby of going to the movies so that’s a thing we do now! I saw a lot of movies this year, but this post is specifically about the ones I saw in theaters. These are all my opinions, I’m biased, they may be based on personal experience of real life events that happened when I went to see them. Also these will be rank with #1 being the best. Now let’s get on with it

Disclaimer: I liked and enjoyed all of these movies, just because it’s low doesn’t mean I hated it

#9: Moana 2

Oh, Moana 2… It was good. Not great, but good. Honestly kind of a disappointing sequel. The songs were good. I liked that they gave Moana a little sister, the dynamic between them was sweet. They introduced a lot of new side characters, but it felt too rapid-fire and sudden. I don’t remember any of the new characters’ names. I wish there were more scenes focused on them so we could get to know them better. Pua joined the adventure this time along with Hei Hei, but it didn’t add much. It was nice to see Moana and Maui interact again. The “Get Lost” song was my favorite. I got excited when we saw Tamatoa in the after-credit scene. Looking forward to the inevitable Moana 3, I hope it out-does this one. 5/10

#8: Despicable Me 4

So, I’ve never seen Despicable Me 2 or 3, but I had enough knowledge of the series to understand this one. Gru’s rival from high school shows up and their family has to go into witness protection and take on new identities. Also there’s a baby now. The baby hates Gru for some reason. They tried to do something interesting with the new identities, but it felt like a side-plot that was ignored. Gru’s high school rival was like a roach-guy and he wanted to turn the baby into a roach too? Honestly the baby was kinda cute as a roach and me and my sister agreed that we wish he stayed that way. There was a minion trapped in a vending machine the whole movie. No one helped him. He presumably starved and died. Very entertaining movie but the plot felt weak. 5/10

#7: Migration

One word I’d use to sum up this movie is “cute”. It was short but sweet. A family of ducks with an anxious father who doesn’t want to leave the lake they live in so they’ve never migrated before. As the title suggests, they do convince him to migrate. Also Danny DeVito is there so that automatically makes this movie 10x better. They get lost and end up in New York and they go to like a duck resort paradise place but it’s actually a farm that gives them away to be cooked. There’s a crazy chef that’s the main antagonist and chases them around. The relationship between the two sibling ducks was very cute. Overall I liked this one a lot. 6/10

#6: Gladiator 2

I was not planning to see this one. Me and my mom bought tickets to a “mystery movie” at our theater and it turned out to be Gladiator 2, which funny enough my parents planned to see this for their 30th wedding anniversary later that week, so my mom saw it twice. I thought I’d hate this movie, thought I’d find it boring because I don’t usually watch action/serious movies like this. It took a bit for me to get into it but halfway through I was invested. I’ve never seen the original Gladiator btw haha. I ended up really liking this! The plot was engaging and suspenseful. The cgi baboons absolutely terrified me, but I liked the little monkey named Dundus. The ruler twins were annoying and their deaths were satisfying. 8/10

#5: Sonic the Hedgehog 3

I just saw this one last night! It was amazing! Me and my sister (she is a HUGE Sonic fan) binged the other 2 movies the night before so we were ready. This movie was hilarious and action-packed. Robotnik and his grandpa were probably the highlight, there were some great scenes with them. And Shadow! He was there too. A lot of quote-able moments, too. We went to the little arcade inside the theater after and played claw machines, me and my sister joked that we should “break glass in case of emergency” to get the toys lol. Knuckles was dead set on breaking that glass. I like how they continue to find ways to include Tom and Maddie and the sibling dynamic that’s developed between Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. I think they did Shadow and his backstory justice. And my god, that after credit scene with Amy and Metal.. It was awesome. My sister is obsessed with Metal Sonic so she was overjoyed. Also there are TWO after-credit scenes!! A lot of people left the theater after the first one so they missed the second. 10/10

#4: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice. Oh no, I just summoned him. I loved this movie. It did the original so much justice. And SURPRISE DANNY DEVITO CAMEO!!! Loved that. Lydia’s an adult now with a daughter who gets tricked by this ghost boy and now Lydia has to recruit BJ to save her. Also Lydia’s headless, deceased father is searching for his wife the whole movie. Which his wife, Delia, ends up dying to some supposedly de-venomed snakes in a mourning ritual devoted to him. They reunite and it’s very sweet. Also Beetlejuice has a wife that’s trying to kill him the whole movie so there’s a lot going on. And there’s a shrunken head guy named Bob. RIP Bob, you were a real one. This was a legendary sequel. 10/10

#3: Inside Out 2

Another legendary sequel. This movie perfectly portrayed how a panic attack feels, and told a great story of desperately trying to fit in and be accepted that I found very relatable. The new emotions were interesting and had good character designs. It was nice to see the original squad interact more. My mom and sister kept hoping to see Bing-Bong but nope, he is dead forever. 10/10

#2: Smile 2

This was my first time seeing a horror movie in theaters. Being in a pitch-black room with surround sound definitely made it an intense experience. I kept feeling like something was behind me. This movie was even better than the first Smile. The main character was interesting and the plot had me invested. Every single jumpscare got me, big time. God the smile-demon thing is terrifying. There was so much contorting (big personal fear of mine) and that scene in the apartment when all the backup dancers were slowly moving toward the main character had my heart racing. And the reveal of the actual demon is burned into my mind. I still think about it now and get creeped out. That final scene where the main character got possessed and killed herself on stage in front of all those people… the smile demon is gonna be like a world-wide epidemic now. If they make a Smile 3 it’ll be interesting to say the least. This movie fucked me up for like a week after lol I was super jumpy, and my sister’s bf was being an asshole smiling widely at me to mess with me 10/10

#1: A Quiet Place: Day One

Wow. What a movie. This has to be my favorite one I’ve seen this year, it was so good. This movie has so much heart at its core. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did, but it’s definitely better than the other Quiet Place movies. It was super tense, had me on the edge of my seat multiple times, and I was hoping and praying that the cat would survive, and… IT DID! The cat lived! Dude I was so happy. That last scene where Eric was swimming with the cat towards the boat I was so worried, but they made it safely! And the final scene where the main character, Sammy, just unplugged her headphones and accepted her fate was perfect. 10/10

So.. that’s it! Next year I definitely wanna type these out right after I watch the movies bc I had difficulty recalling all the events while making these reviews.

Movies I’m looking forward to next year:

Minecraft movie (of course), Dogman, and BAD GUYS 2 HELL YEAHHH

Here’s to 2025, and many more movies and memories!

[autie-j]

Used my free movie pass to see Despicable Me 4 and it was okay. Like a 6/10 tops. Pretty much what you'd expect from an Illumination movie. While I wouldn't say it was a bad movie, imo, it's definitely the weakest of the Despicable Me franchise (with the original being the best). I think this movie really missed an opportunity for interesting storylines by not aging up the girls. As it is they barely had anything to do in this movie, which is weird considering how integral they are to the original movies plot. To me the most interesting part of the movie was Poppy, and how Gru just keeps accidentally adopting children. Like, yes, keep giving this reformed villain more children who's parents don't appreciate them. Between the two children movies in theaters right now, Inside Out 2 is definitely the better option but Despicable Me 4 will entertain kids and anyone already into these movies

[alexwatchesshows]

I'm telling my kids this was The Bad Batch

I did watch Despicable Me 4 this morning and I unironically loved it so much.

[ankle-beez]

[zenmom]

Is there any reason to watch Despicable me 4? I’ve seen YouTube’s reviews on that movie and Google’s and user’s reviews on it aswell and those two reviews on those two sites are pretty much polarising.

YouTube users said that the story is disjointed and too random to enjoy the plot. And THEY NEVER LOOKED AT THE TIMELINE NOR THE FATE OF THE VILLAINS?!

I looked further at Google’s reviews. So about two thirds of the comments did not like this movie because it disappointed them. Heck, one person’s children was really unimpressed, with one who fell asleep in the middle of the movie and the other was waiting for the amusement that never came.

Well, at this point, I lost any interest to watch it. Glad I watched Inside Out 2.

[rye-views]

Despicable Me 4 (2024) dir. Chris Renaud. 7.4/10

I wouldn't recommend this movie to my friends. I wouldn't rewatch this movie.

Just thinking about Kafka's Metamorphosis.

omg Gru Jr.! Making me think of Jack Jack. Minions taking care of the baby is so efficient. omg Blackpink. omg BTS. lol at Poppy being army. I feel you, Agnes, on the vending machine. Agnes is sooo cute in this. Animation be so clear and realistic, and yet still animation. I love where how the super minions spent their retirement. Gru is so agile and strong.

Awww at Lucky's goodbye with Agnes. and the reunion.

I would kill whoever gave me a glitter bomb.

[lettertoan0ldpoet]

I quite enjoyed the new despicable me. Most of the time movie series get boring after the 2nd movie, but with the despicable me + minions movies I never get bored. The music is always top tier, especially with pharrell being on every soundtrack. I found the movie enjoyable and hilarious, while also tugging on my heart strings. The ending was sweet and overall it was a great movie.

[katy-griffin-saye]

My review foe Despicable Me 4

It had new levels: the Grus having a child; Will Ferrel; 🎶 I know so well; Minions actually trying to be heroic but disruptive & all the villains in the franchise in the end. But there were so many subplots.

[estellardreams]

Just got back from the movies.

... Despicable Me 4 was pretty fun. Not what I was expecting but it wasn't bad.

[rotoscopers]

'Despicable Me 4' Review: Gru's Overstuffed Adventure | Rotoscopers

[movieanimex]

Top 10 Best Movies Of 2024 Ranked By MovieAnimeX

[thevaudevilledemon]

The animated movie scene this year has been pretty lacking, but maybe in this batch I can find something good?

[captaingimpy]

Despicable Me 4: A Heartfelt Conclusion to Gru's Journey

Despicable Me 4 marks what feels like a fitting conclusion to Gru’s long journey from a villainous mastermind to a loving father. In this installment, the film tackles the surprisingly deep theme of a parent’s fear that their child doesn’t love them—an unexpected but welcome touch in a children’s movie. Gru’s simple but heartfelt connection with his son, Junior, serves as the emotional core of…

[cinefesto]

Κριτική ταινίας : Despicable Me 4

Κριτική ταινίας : Despicable Me 4 (Εγώ, ο Απαισιότατος 4) #review #minions

Το Despicable Me 4 (Εγώ, ο Απαισιότατος 4) των Chris Renaud, Patrick Delage έχει μια ασύνδετη πλοκή που μας αφήνεί να νοσταλγούμε το χιούμορ που κάποτε χαρακτήριζε το franchise. Μετά την τεράστια εμπορική επιτυχία του Minions 2: Η άνοδος του Γκρου (2022) το μεγαλύτερο παγκόσμιο franchise κινουμένων σχεδίων ξεκινά ένα νέο κεφάλαιο καθώς ο Γκρου, η Λούσι και τα κορίτσια τους -Μάργκο, Ίντιθ και…

[viofitz]

McDonald's Happy Set: Universal Studios Japan (USJ)

Introduction:

The Happy Set is a set meal sold by the hamburger chain McDonald's. It is called Happy Meal in English-speaking countries and has been available since 1979. In Japan, it was introduced as the "Children's Set" in October 1987, and became the "Happy Set" in June 1995. Although it is targeted at children, it is popular among a wide range of age groups describes McDonald's Japan's "Happy Set." For this review, it's a lineup from Universal Studios Japan (USJ), in which they're only exclusive to Japan's McDonald's. So far there're 2 lineup of USJ Happy Set series which first released in 2021 and the current one released in 2024. In 2021 lineup there're 10 toys while in 2024 they expanded into 12 toys featuring several characters from Universal Studios productions, they are; Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Toad and Donkey Kong from Nintendo games, Rexy from Jurassic Park/Jurassic World movies, Bruce from Jaws movie, the Minions from Despicable Me/Minions movies, George from Curious George series and Kitty White from Hello Kitty series. However, in this review I'm going to review Mario Kart, Rexy, Bruce and Minions only. The packagings of the happy set is different than the usual happy meal, which they instead uses solid colored plastic bags instead of clear plastic bags. Both lineup was released in July, precisely at the summer season, the 2021 lineup for 3 minions has variant packagings which Stuart (the one eyed minion that holding a camera) has gray packaging while the rests is dark blue, Nintendo series has turqouise green colored packaging, while Rexy, Bruce and the 3 minions for 2024 release has blue colored packagings. Aside of the lineup matter, the different colored packagings is because McDonald's Japan released both lineup in 2 periods of time. While I can appreciate the uniqueness but, the minus we cannot tell what's inside except, each happy set got their product code numbering located on the information/warning part.

Throw The Shell! Mario Kart WBE-0123

Yeah, another happy set Mario Kart, the design is looking very similar to the Mario Kart 8 lineup but, the gimmick of this toy is not a wheelie toy since it was made to be a shooting toy. This is to recreate how Mario throwing the shell in Mario Kart games. Before you play the toy, you'll have to apply the stickers provided for this toy but, I plan on painting them someday since I also want to add some itsy bitsy details on the car. After this attach the green shell part into the front hole of the car, then press the button on the right side of the car to shot the shell out of the car. A typical gimmick for most kid's toys indeed but, It'd be even better if they actually made a 3D shaped green turtle shell instead of embossed picture. I gotta admit the mario figurine in the toy is looking great, although I've seen similar like this in most mario kart toyline. The toy is slightly bigger than both Hot Wheels and Dream Tomica, pretty understandable since this mario was designed for happy meal standard scale while both diecast miniatures were made for 1/64 scale.

2. Grab And Catch! Jurassic Park T-Rex CBG-7890 This is the iconic Rexy the Tyrannosaurus Rex from Jurassic Park/Jurassic World movies in her happy meal toy made for this lineup in brown color and yellow paint for her eyes. Her gimmick is simply grabbing something by using her open mouth feature by pressing down her tail. This way, we can recreate her grabbing something by biting the object. But, she can only grab something flat such as paper or plastic bag. Comparing to Snap Squad toyline, this Rexy is slightly bigger and despite being a happy meal toy. Her head sculpt is really spot on to how the actual Rexy was portrayed in the movies. Though in front angle she looks flat.

3. Jaws Water Gun CBG-8901 Well... Bruce the shark from Jaws movie made a second appearance in this happy set lineup, this shark shaped water gun toy is colored sky blue and white in overall while his mouth is red. There's even an embossed logo of "JAWS" movie logo on the right side of his body painted in red. In order to play the toy, you'll have to sink his mouth underwater then pull back his tail fins to fill the water. When it's done you shoot the water by pushing his tail fins back to his body.

4. Minions

Seems like these tiny yellow creatures were also popular in Japan since they even made Minions for the whole 2 lineup and, there're 3 of them included on each lineup:

Minion Stuart's Water Gun 6789-HXT

In this toy, Stuart the minion is depicted to wear his usual blue jumpsuit getup with black gloves and gray colored goggles. He is shown to have a michievous expression since he's holding a squirt water camera prank in green plastic materials thus, making the toy got 2 separated plastic materials. To play the toy, slide the button ontop of the camera to open the hole, then fill the water. Press the button on the front lower part of the camera and water will come out from the camera lens hole. Since the toy is off balance due to the large camera, they included a base display stand so, you can insert it into his footing pegs to make it stable.

Minion Bob the Float's Water Gun 5678-EBD

Bob the minion is made to be wearing gray goggles, black gloves, blue swimsuit shorts and orange colored floats. His expression is shown similar like Stuart but, Bob has bigger eyes and his lower eyelid was half closed. Bob has movable right arm which you can rotate it, and for the gimmick; you simply put the toy in the water and press the button on the back. If you release the button while in the water, water will enter. Press the button and the water will come out from the front part of the floats 2 holes. Well, Stuart with one hole and Bob with 2 holes... That kinda represents their eyes lol.

Minion Kevin's Rotating Waterwheel 1234-EBD

Unlike, Stuart and Bob, Kevin is an embossed toy on a sky blue colored disk. The embossed Kevin is painted yellow with gray colored goggles, he is wearing the same blue jumpsuit getup like Stuart, while his posing is shown like he's stuck in that disk. He is depicted to have a silly expression, probably dizzy because of the rotating waterwheel. The main toy is a transparent blue tube, while the inside has orange colored waterwheel for spinning disk mechanism. To do the toy's feature, attach Kevin's disk on the peg on the blue tube. Then pour the water ontop of the tube and when the water goes down, the waterwheel will spin which you'll see Kevin spins. Water comes out from the holes under the toy like a shower.

Agent Minion's Water Gun CBG-0987

This Minion is wearing AVL agent suit in navy blue color with white undershirt. He's holding a gun which actually a grapple gun in the movie but, it works as a water gun in this toy. Another same gimmick from the early lineup, in order to fill the water you'll need to sink the toy while pressing the button on his back to fill the water. Then you can shoot the water out from his gun. He looks similar to Stuart but, in the movie it was Dave who uses this gun for a short time. So, it's understandable if some people wouldn't even notice this as a grapple gun.

Let's Make A Wind! Pit Crew Minion CBG-1098

The Minion in this toy is wearing a pit crew getup like in the 4th movie and depicted sitting on a large blower fan by holding a wrench, in mini size due to the toy is mainly shaped as a blower fan and wrench. The minion toy is actually a single mold of the red plastic part of the toy and the blower fan is yellow colored with some embossed words which says "Gru's Pit Crew". While the wrench part is painted metallic gray, and the overall minion is painted yellow for skin color, metallic gray for goggles and wrench, white with brown for eyes and, black for foot and goggles headband. To play the toy, just press the button located on the right side of the wrench but, sometimes the fan won't spin since there's a little trick on pressing the button. When you made it, you can press the button repeatedly for more faster spinning and more wind. But, I gotta admit... the wind blow that came from this toy wasn't that strong since I can barely feel the wind and it couldn't even blow a thin paper. For the character, I think he's supposed to be Ron since, the minion depicted in here is short with 2 eyes and he's not plump.

Shake! Party Minion CBG-9012

This plump minion is wearing his usual blue colored jumpsuit attire but, he also wearing a yellow duck lifebuoy as his head accessory and there's a pink colored connector for star shaped keychain with clasp ontop of his head. Of course, the purpose is to make him into a keychain and another gimmick of him is he'll make a giggle sound when you shake the toy. This is the very same gimmick to Despicable Me 2 lineup of Tim Giggling/Giggle Grabber/Evil Purple Minion Giggling.

Comparing between 2013 till 2017 line up, the USJ set quality is closely similar to the 2017 lineup. The minus from this line is; their goggles were painted inconsistent, the 2021 one appeared to be solid gray like the DM2 lineup while the 2024, the goggles were painted metallic gray. But, it's a happy set toys so, you cannot expect much.

Thoughts:

Well, I guess 2021-2024 wasn't a letdown afterall thanks to this lineup because, I'm utterly disappointed with the downgrade quality of happy meal Minions: Rise of The Gru and Despicable Me 4. The minions in this USJ set was done so much better, the sculpt work and even the gimmicks are top quality. Although... Most of these toys gimmicks require water to play them, which I'm not going to demonstrate it in video test. T-Rex and Jaws are my personal favorite for this lineup, they're very well made despite the simple moldings. As for Mario, the design of his car may be too identical to Mario Kart 8 lineup but, this can probably be an alternative Mario Kart toy if you missed on collecting Mario. I like the shooting gimmick anyway.