Dr. Nefario is a major character in Universal•Illumination's Despicable Me franchise. He is an elderly, hearing-impaired scientist, gadget man and good friend of Gru. Being hearing-impaired causes him to mistake Gru's order for cookie robots and a dart gun for "boogie robots" and a "fart gun", respectively. He did briefly leave Gru to work for El Macho before redeeming himself and returning to work for Gru.
Dr. Nefario also appears in the 2015 Despicable Me prequel Minions as a young man taking part in the 1968 Villain Con where he shows off his invention the Freeze Ray whilst being watched on by a then 8-year-old Gru.
Background[]
Not much is known about Nefario's history. In Minions, Felonius Gru met Nefario at Villain-Con, with the latter displaying his creations in a booth, attracting Gru's attention. In Minions: The Rise of Gru, it is seen that he owns a record store, and he makes gadgets in his spare time. In the mid-credit scene of Minions: The Rise of Gru, it is shown that Nefario enters Gru's employment after the Minions beg him when he was about to retire from villainy after the Vicious 6 have gotten captured by AVL.
Personality[]
Dr. Nefario is Gru's closest and most loyal friend who always comes to his rescue. He has a very high respect for Gru and even believes he is the greatest villain in the world, but he often doubts his abilities and motives. He is also quite eccentric with rather bad hearing due to his age, but although he seemed a little odd at times, he did not seem to be going senile.
Dr. Nefario doesn't like to be unproductive, as he has constantly been seen working on projects to aid in Gru's crimes, and even decides to work for someone else after Gru renounces his former life of villainy.
His accent suggests a British family lineage. Nefario seems to enjoy disco dancing and is even briefly shown doing so alongside Marlena Gru, and in the Boogie Robot scene.
Physical appearance[]
Dr. Nefario resembles a stereotypical mad scientist who is mildly overweight. He is always seen with his labcoat, gloves, and trademark goggles, and he wears either pants or pajama bottoms with a plaid pattern. His hair, what little there is of it, is longish and faintly unruly.
Appearances[]
Despicable Me[]
When Gru returns home, Dr. Nefario informs the supervillain that someone else stole the Pyramid of Giza. Nefario also attends to the plan of stealing the Moon by making gadgets like Cookie Robots, to aid in Gru's plan of stealing the Shrink Ray from Vector. He later calls Miss Hattie to return the girls to the orphanage due to them becoming a obstruction to their plan in stealing the moon. Gru continues the plan and Nefario notices that the effect of the Shrink Ray will lose its effect. He warns Gru about this, naming it the Nefario Principle. At the end, Dr. Nefario videotapes the girls' dance recital at Gru's house and is later seen dancing with Gru's mother.
Despicable Me 2[]
Dr. Nefario in Despicable Me 2.
At the beginning of the film, Dr. Nefario makes a jelly that is a combination of many flavors, however it turns out to have a horrible taste from both Gru and the Minions. Dr. Nefario informs Gru that he misses being evil and that he has a new work. Later, as a farewell for Dr. Nefario, the Minions do a 21 Fart Guns salute and Dr. Nefario slowly rides away on his motor scooter to start his new life, making two minions cry (possibly Jerry and Phil).
Later that same night, a silhouette (presumably Dr. Nefario's) arrives at Gru's house. Phil opens the door and greets the visitor, but he is kidnapped and the door is left opened. Soon, the Cinco de Mayo party is about to start at Eduardo's mansion. Now that he actually worked for El Macho, he has some of the Minions trapped in a fake paradise, and he captures the Minions two by two, injecting the PX-41 serum to the Minions which mutated them into a Evil Minion.
Dr. Nefario makes a full reappearance after Gru enters El Macho's secret lair and explains their plan to Gru. But, he notices that Eduardo now knows that Gru and Lucy Wilde are working for the AVL and witnesses Eduardo taking Lucy to his lab as a prisoner. He later calls Gru, telling him everything he knows about this. When Margo, Edith, Agnes, and the remaining Minions are attacked by Kevin, who is mutated into an Evil Minion, he is injected with an antidote created by Dr. Nefario. He introduces the antidote to the girls, which worked well, and named it PX-49. He later introduced the antidote as the horrible jelly he made.
He, the girls, and the remaining Minions went to El Macho's lair and cured Evil Minions, and knocks out the mutated El Macho with a Fart Gun. In the ending, Dr. Nefario appears in the wedding as a guest, dances with Gru's mother while the Minions are singing the Y.M.C.A song, and appears in the family picture.
Minions[]
Dr. Nefario makes a small cameo appearance as a young man and is seen at Villain-Con while Stuart is exploring the convention. At his stall, he shows his new invention, the Freeze Ray, to the crowd including his future partner Felonius Gru (who was then a child with his mother), and he accidentally freezes his own hand by mistake. When he finally notices, he hides his frozen hand behind his back.
Despicable Me 3[]
Since Russell Brand couldn't reprise his role of Dr Nefario in the third film since he was unavailable, the character makes a brief appearance in Despicable Me 3. During his talk with the Minions, Gru mentions that Dr. Nefario accident. By that time, some minions are knocking off the outside pieces of the block, trying to free him. While Gru sat alone in his lab, having lost most of the Minions, due to not wanting to go back to villainy, the frozen Dr. Nefario is once again seen having been moved to one side of the lab. He is last seen in a flashback prior to being frozen when Mel began recounting the times he had together with Gru.
Minions: The Rise of Gru[]
Taking place in the 1970's, Dr. Nefario owned a record shop called Criminal Records, and also makes gadgets in his spare time. he is first seen letting Belle Bottom inside the shop, which is on lockdown, and then bringing down a steel roll door, right before a group of AVL vans came by, who are pursuing Belle Bottom. A few days later, when a young Gru went inside the shop, since he knew that the lair of the Vicious 6 is located there, he meets the scientist as he was trying out one of his inventions which he called "Sticky Fingers". When Gru reads the scientist's name tag, he corrects by saying that it is "Dr. Nefario". Just as Gru was about to take the secret elevator, Nefario gave the sticky fingers to him, and reminds him that it was he who gave him his first gadget, if Gru ever becomes famous. When gru ineffectively attempts to use the record player in order to make the elevator work, Nefario helps him out by instructing him to spin the device in reverse.
Later, when Gru triggered the alarm after stealing the zodiac stone from the Vicious 6, he bumps into Nefario, who was carrying a wooden box of recordings and other devices. Not happy that Gru had stolen something from the Vicious 6 and knowing that their coming after the former, Nefario immediately tells Gru to 'just keep walking' motioning to the exit. Gru obeys the scientist's instructions, and fled from the Criminal Records shop with the Minions. Nefario remained absent throughout most of the film. He is later present at Wild Knuckles' funeral, though he was unaware that the latter was still alive and had faked his death.
In the post credits scene, when Gru attempts to recruit Nefario, the scientist, while closing the Criminal Records shop, declined, saying that he is done with villainy and that he is gonna move on. When he bids Gru goodbye, the latter and the Minions began giving him puppy-eyes which made Nefario change his mind. He then gives Gru and the minions a ride on an airship, which Gru would later use in the future. This marks the beginning of a new relationship that leads to the 21st century.
Despicable Me 4[]
Dr. Nefario in Despicable Me 4.
Having apparently escaped the carbonite, Nefario appeared towards the end of the movie this time voiced by Romesh Ranganathan (presumed that Russell Brand was again unavailable, or was replaced due to his allegations), where he helped revert Gru Jr. back to normal after he was turned into a cockroach-human hybrid by Maxime Le Mal, and would than head back to the lab. He was then shown dancing with Gru's mother in the films' final scene.
Trivia[]
- The last name 'Nefario' is a derivative of the word 'nefarious', meaning 'wicked' or 'criminal', denoting his career and alignment to Felonius Gru
- He might have been named after Doctor Nefarious Tropy, a villain from the Crash Bandicoot series.
- His middle name 'Albert' could be a reference to the famous scientist, Albert Einstein.
- The pose Nefario makes when he defeats El Macho is a reference to King Kong, where after the titular character has been slain and crashes to the ground, two soldiers quickly assume a similar pose near the giant ape.
- Dr. Nefario being frozen in a giant block of carbonite in Despicable Me 3 is a reference to the Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back, when Han Solo is frozen in a giant block of carbonite.
- Russell Brand was apparently not contacted to return for Despicable Me 3, seemingly because the studio knew he would want to spend more time with his newborn daughter.
- Since the Minions left Gru before they could finish unfreezing Nefario and they are never shown continuing the operation at the end, it's currently unknown if Nefario is free.
- Nefario, along with Gru and Lucy, made a brief appearance in the Ster-Kinekor trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie.