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Passes the Bechdel test

Despicable Me 2

2013. Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    17 women characters. 7 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 12 scenes out of 123.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

Poster for Despicable Me 2

The film

While Gru, the ex-supervillain is adjusting to family life and an attempted honest living in the jam business, a secret Arctic laboratory is stolen. The Anti-Villain League decides it needs an insider's help and recruits Gru in the investigation. Together with the eccentric AVL agent, Lucy Wilde, Gru concludes that his prime suspect is the presumed dead supervillain, El Macho, whose his teenage son is also making the moves on his eldest daughter, Margo. Seemingly blinded by his overprotectiveness of his children and his growing mutual attraction to Lucy, Gru seems on the wrong track even as his minions are being quietly kidnapped en masse for some malevolent purpose.

Released
03 Jul 2013
Genres
Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Rated
PG
IMDb
7.3 / 10
Metascore
62 / 100
Awards
Nominated for 2 Oscars. 12 wins & 66 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Gru 266 lines, man
  2. Lucy 105 lines, woman
  3. Agnes 66 lines, woman
  4. Margo 33 lines, woman
  5. Silas 26 lines, man
  6. Eduardo 25 lines, man
  7. Dr. Nefario 24 lines, man
  8. El Macho 23 lines, man
  9. Edith 22 lines, woman
  10. Jillian 12 lines, woman
Full cast, 38 people
  • Steve Carell as Gru (voice)
  • Kristen Wiig as Lucy (voice)
  • Benjamin Bratt as Eduardo / El Macho (voice)
  • Miranda Cosgrove as Margo (voice)
  • Dana Gaier Ellis as Edith (voice)
  • Elsie Fisher as Agnes (voice)
  • Russell Brand as Dr. Nefario (voice)
  • Ken Jeong as Floyd (voice)
  • Steve Coogan as Silas (voice)
  • Moisés Arias as Antonio (voice)
  • Nasim Pedrad as Jillian (voice)
  • Kristen Schaal as Shannon (voice)
  • Pierre Coffin as Kevin the Minion / Bob the Minion / Stuart the Minion / Additional Minions / Evil Minions (voice)
  • Chris Renaud as Additional Minions / Evil Minions / Italian Waiter (voice)
  • Nickolai Stoilov as Arctic Lab Guards (voice)
  • Vanessa Bayer as Flight Attendant (voice)
  • Ava Acres as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Lori Alan as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Jack Angel as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Eva Bella as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Georgia Cook as Additional Voices (voice)
  • John Cygan as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Debi Derryberry as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Jess Harnell as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Danny Mann as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Mona Marshall as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Mickie McGowan as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Mason McNulty as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Alec Medlock as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Laraine Newman as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Jan Rabson as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Andre Robinson as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Katie Silverman as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Casey Simpson as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Claira Nicole Titman as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Jim Ward as Additional Voices (voice)
  • April Winchell as Additional Voices (voice)
  • Haris Ahmad as Additional Voices (voice) (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 123

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 312
4 to 61917
7 to 9614
10 to 1202
13 to 15728
16 to 1895
19 to 21531
22 to 2410
25 to 271913
28 to 30127
31 to 3303
34 to 36717
37 to 39510
40 to 42710
43 to 4506
46 to 481111
49 to 51512
52 to 5401
55 to 5715
58 to 6018
61 to 632315
64 to 6627
67 to 69813
70 to 721128
73 to 75144
76 to 781812
79 to 8100
82 to 8464
85 to 8723
88 to 901123
91 to 93010
94 to 9632
97 to 9948
100 to 102018
103 to 10562
106 to 108333
109 to 11156
112 to 11429
115 to 11750
118 to 1201228
121 to 123158

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
AGNES: This is the best party EVER!!! EDITH: Haha! Yeah! DESPICABLE ME 2 CINCO & KEN DRAFT 3. AGNES: Oh no! A dragon is approaching! MARGO: Fear not, for here come the gallant knights to save us!
MARGO: Wait, did you hear that? It sounded like the twinkling sounds of magical fairy dust. AGNES: It's the fairy princess! She's coming! MARGO: Look!
MARGO: Oh, sorry. EDITH: So when ya goin' on your date?
MARGO: Mmmm...no. AGNES: Humpty Dumpty! EDITH: Ooh, Gollum!
EDITH: Awesome! AGNES: Are you really gonna save the world?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 38 are women's.

266 lines from women, 435 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

17 women and 19 men in the cast. 7 women and 19 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 708. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 29 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 35% of the words (1,979), men 65% (3,647). Women have 38% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit F: behind the camera

1 of the 10 people in these jobs is a woman. Across the whole crew, 16% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Pierre Coffin (man), Chris Renaud (man)
Written by
Cinco Paul (man), Ken Daurio (man)
Produced by
Chris Meledandri (man), Janet Healy (woman)
Edited by
Gregory Perler (man)
Music by
Heitor Pereira (man)
Production design by
Yarrow Cheney (man), Eric Guillon (man)

The crew, department by department

  • Visual Effects

    2 women, 12 men, 53 not listed

  • Other crew

    3 women, 3 men, 39 not listed

  • Lighting

    1 women, 3 men, 28 not listed

  • Sound

    3 women, 17 men, 5 not listed

  • Writing

    0 women, 8 men, 8 not listed

  • Art

    0 women, 8 men, 7 not listed

  • Editing

    1 women, 4 men, 5 not listed

  • Production

    2 women, 3 men, 4 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 21 on average. Men: 41 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Elsie Fisher 10, Dana Gaier Ellis 15, Miranda Cosgrove 20, Kristen Wiig 39

Men

Moisés Arias 19, Russell Brand 38, Ken Jeong 43, Steve Coogan 47, Benjamin Bratt 49, Steve Carell 50

Exhibit H: the money

It made 12.8 times what it cost.

Budget
$76 million
Box office
$971 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 123 scenes and 708 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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