Despicable Me 4‘s Super Bowl trailer gives good commentary on the issues with AI, but overall it still misses the mark. Though it started as a one-off film about a wannabe villain, Despicable Me has grown into a franchise including six movies and three video games. Unsurprisingly, the franchise is continuing to grow with Despicable Me 4. This movie will continue telling the story of the villain-turned-hero, Gru, and his growing family. The Despicable Me 4 cast brings back most of the characters from the previous films, including the goofy minions who appear in the Super Bowl teaser trailer.
The Super Bowl has a history of dropping trailers for upcoming movies and TV shows. These trailers are often shorter but filled with hints at the storyline or characters. The teaser trailer for Despicable Me 4 took a different approach by focusing the trailer on a hot-button topic – AI. The impact of AI on Hollywood has been a major discussion recently, especially during and after the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and writers’ strikes. Unfortunately, Despicable Me 4‘s teaser trailer doesn’t handle the topic in the most tactful way.
Despicable Me 4’s Super Bowl Teaser Makes Hilarious Points About AI
The teaser for Despicable Me 4 that dropped during the Super Bowl shows just how flawed AI can be. The minions create images that aren’t quite right. In one, a woman has three legs. In another, people are riding giant-sized weiner dogs that have disproportionately big bodies and awkward-looking legs. The distorted images show that AI doesn’t understand what real objects and animals look like due to the status of current tech. Instead, it’s using its recreating based on available photos.
Despicable Me 4’s Story Is Worrying For The Franchise Paying Off A 7-Year Cliffhanger
The first Despicable Me 4 trailer confirmed new story details, and one is particularly worrying for the odds the franchise will pay off a cliffhanger.
The photo of a family eating spaghetti shows them eating uncooked noodles, pointing to the fact that AI doesn’t understand human language well enough to create what’s desired. This is also represented in the painting of Will Ferrell and Steve Carell as royalty. The phrase “comic royalty” could mean photos of the best comics, photos of comics as royalty, or comical photos of royalty. There’s too much subtext for AI to understand what’s meant. This part of the Despicable Me 4 teaser trailer also shows that technology can recreate moments that never really happened.
The Minions’ AI Teaser Misses The Biggest Problem With AI & Hollywood
While the Despicable Me 4 teaser trailer tries to make commentary on the problems with AI, it feels entirely too lighthearted given the seriousness of AI in Hollywood. The biggest problem with AI isn’t the fact that it’s goofy and doesn’t work as desired. Hollywood studios want to use this technology to replace the hard work of writers, artists, animators, and so many others on movies and TV shows. Additionally, AI allegedly steals from hardworking people who don’t consent to being used in this way. All these issues were a large part of the SAG-AFTRA deal and writers’ strike deal.
While it isn’t realistic for Despicable Me 4 to make a heavy-hitting take-down of AI in a Super Bowl commercial, it seems in bad taste to make such a joke out of the issue. It’s even more upsetting considering the fact that this occurred in a preview for an animated film. If they couldn’t handle it in a serious way, it almost would’ve been better not to make the commentary at all.
Despicable Me 4
- Release Date
- July 3, 2024
- Director
- Chris Renaud , Patrick Delage
- Cast
- Steve Carell , Kristen Wiig , Miranda Cosgrove , Steve Coogan , Pierre Coffin
- Writers
- Mike White
- Studio(s)
- Universal Pictures , Illumination Entertainment
- Distributor(s)
- Universal Pictures
- prequel(s)
- Despicable Me , Despicable Me 2 , Despicable Me 3
- Franchise(s)
- Despicable Me
