"Look ma, I made a prototype of a rocket out of macaroni"

Someone just made the dull day a special one.


Baked macaroni was the de luxe cuisine for the day. There was no particular occasion noted on our calendar, and apparently we perceived mom as a city lady practical enough to prepare easy and "instant" dishes. Somehow that may be rational because she feeds five mouths, and works six days a week involving loud, stressful and sugar-fed elementary students. But lately I've noticed she's been planning on "special" dishes every weekend.

Wolfing down my mom's sweet, pasty macaroni dessert coated with quickmelt cheese after lunch, I remembered how young Gru in Despicable Me tried hard to make his mamma proud. He had always wanted to be an astronomer, and had constantly bugged his mom about his space rocket's progress. Even until he successfully launched a real rocket out of his "macaroni prototype", his mamma seemed to have a hard time finding more comforting and inspiring words other than "Eh".

I then reflected on how lucky I am to root from decent genes and ancestry, where a mother chose to not break away from her original family because of selfish desires, a father promised himself to quit his vices right after he saw his premature firstborn alive, and a grandfather taught his children to live a simple but productive life. Gru wasn't lucky enough as I am and didn't have much choice either, and I thought about how I sometimes took advantage of the one thing I once thought everybody has: a real family.

Until then, I may also despicably engage myself in building my own dream prototype out of macaroni shells, and without the thought that my mamma would only say "Eh".

Stealing the moon for my mamma

"There is only one problem. YOU."

"I just want my mamma to be proud of me."


Who's any better audience than our parents? Somehow desperately getting his mom's attention made despicable Gru take the last despicable resort: to be a world-famous (yet amateur) villain.

Too amateur, but smart enough to recruit naïve orphans selling oatmeal cookies. The plan was perfectly insulting for his fellow thug: his girls would safely knock on Vector's door--sharkless and torpedo-less--unknowingly sneak out Gru's robot cookies and help him steal his slice of fame.


And inevitably after stealing the moon and marking his global popularity as the worst villain, he'd had finally made his mamma proud.

Young Gru: Look, Mom, I drew a picture of me landing on the moon.
Gru's Mom: Eh.
Young Gru: Look, Mom, I made a prototype of a rocket out of macaroni.
Gru's Mom: Eh.
Young Gru: Look, Mom, I built a real rocket based on the macaroni prototype.
[Fires rocket]
Gru's Mom: [holds her breath in amazement for a moment] ... Eh.

Despicable Me is certainly one of those "nurture" upbringings, where would-be-delinquents-and-crooks were initially molded by negligent parents, rated and horror movies, and an equally despicable environment. Gru's last resort was rational enough: we saw him as a kid, and did all remarkable scientific breakthroughs and made his good dreams come true. But then thinking his mother could never say more inspiring words than "Eh", maybe doing exactly the OPPOSITE would help.

Maybe being a villain would help him gain the affection he longs for.


THE STORY OF GRU'S SHADOW


I would never forget what kuya Cho-u (son of Ms. Josephine Bonsol) told me one day: we can never really say a person is too angelic and good-hearted, or too horrid and repugnant he's better off not being born at all. He said a person's character is like the principle of light and shadow: when one steps closer to the light (proving his 'good side'), his shadow (bad side) is equally sustained.

Same thing for villains closer to their "shadows": they inevitably acquire a better side and better heart. Kuya Cho-u said our state of being good and bad are equal: how good we are is likely how bad we are.


Therefore it is of no surprise bad people may at one point dramatically gain a change of heart, also considering they had their own harmless and desperate reasons why they've become one.


Ol' Mr. Gru was despicable enough, stealing smaller versions of the Statue of Liberty and eventually the moon. He was practically an old dog too invulnerable for new tricks.


But the trick perfectly worked for him, all right.

"And now he knows he can never part
from those three little kittens that changed his heart."

Three little kittens sure changed the big unicorn's heart, and Gru never even thought being a father was a more perfect way to make his mamma proud and say better words like, "I'm proud you became a good father to them. Maybe even better than me."

Just because he's a bad guy...doesn't mean he's a bad guy

I'll post a review for this. Gru made me fall in love with change.