If there ever was a good time to pull out Tracy’s iconic roach dress from the 1988 film “Hairspray,” “Despicable Me 4” is definitely it. You don’t have to like roaches or John Waters to find humor in the latest sequel following former supervillain Guru, his family and the cheerful yellow Minions.

Director Chris Renaud (“Despicable Me” and “Despicable Me 2” with Pierre Coffin) returns; this time, he’s teamed up with co-director Patrick Delage. Ken Dario (minus Cinco Paul) wrote the screenplay with Mike White (“School of Rock,” 2003) so the feel and continuity are there.

For a quick review, the 2010 “Despicable Me” (written by Paul Dario and Sergio Pablos) introduced us to supervillain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), his gadget guy Doctor Nefarious (Russell Brand) and his Minions who has a grudge with another villain, Vector (Jason Segel). In order to infiltrate Vector’s fortress, he adopts three orphan girls: Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher).  During his fight with Vector, Gru becomes attached to the girls and rescues them.

In “Despicable Me 2” (2013), when El Macho (Benjamin Bratt) steals a mutagen, the Anti-Villain League (AVL) sends agent Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) to ask Gru to help recover it. Initially, Gru refuses, having settled down to being a responsible father, but Doctor Nefarious has left to be more villainous and the mutagen is used on the Minions. Lucy and Gru bond as they battle and eventually marry, to the girls’ delight.

“Despicable Me 3″ begins with Gru and Lucy both agents for AVL, but although they recover the stolen item (the Dumont Diamond), the culprit, Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker) escapes. When director Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan) retires, new director Valerie Da Vinci (Jenny Slate) fires Gru and Lucy. Gru, Lucy and the Minions must all find new jobs. Dru’s long-lost twin Dru invites the family to his country, Freedonia. The girls are kidnapped, Gru and Dru stop bickering and with Lucy and the Minions save the girls from Bratt. Dru decides that he’d rather be a super villain and leaves with many of the Minions, but Gru and Lucy are in hot pursuit.

“Despicable Me 4” begins with a flashback. At a remote castle in a European mountain range, Gru (Carrell) and Lucy (Wiig) are attending a reunion at Gru’s alma mater: Lycée Pas Bon (literally French for School Not Good), when Principal Übelschlecht (Chris Renaud) is presents the Award for the Best Pupil of 1985 to Maxime Le Mal (Maxime the Bad, voiced by Will Ferrell), Maxime reveals that he’s made himself nearly indestructible by becoming part cockroach. Maxime is arrested by Gru, aided by Lucy and other AVL agents.

If you hate cockroaches, these are more mechanical and cartoony and much less icky than the ones in “Men in Black.” (Remember Vincent D’Onofrio as Edgar the Bug?) Nothing in this movie is as slimy as that or even as deliciously, oozy evil or musical as Oogie Boogie in “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

Gru and Maxime were petty rivals during their school days, so their grudges against each other are deep. Backed by  his girlfriend Valentina ( Sofia Vergara) and their rat and cockroach army, Maxime escapes from prison, and he’s determined to get revenge against Gru. Former AVL director, Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan) is on the case and has Gru, Lucy, their three adopted girls–Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Madison Polan who replaces Nev Scharrel from the third film)–and new addition, Gru Jr. (Tara Strong) relocated to a safe place–a tiny house between megamillionaires mansions. Gru becomes a solar panel salesman, Chet Cunningham, while Lucy becomes, Blanche Cunningham, a hairdresser.

But what are you going to do with these yellow Minions? Most of them are moved to the AVL headquarters and five (Dave, Tim, Mel, Jerry and Gus) are chosen to become augmented with superpowers. While that leads to a Fantastic Four parody, as one would expect, their antics are less than fantastic.

Gru and Lucy had problems blending in, but when Gru meets his new neighbors, the Prescotts (Stephen Colbert as Perry and Chloe Fineman as Patsy), their daughter Poppy (Joey King)who has super-villain dreams, immediately recognizes Gru. While Lucy as Blanche is tangling with hair salon customer Melora (Laraine Newman), Poppy blackmails Gru into pulling off a pet-napping. Gru and Poppy with a few Minions are breaking into the Lycée Pas Bon castle to take the mascot, a honey badger.

Of course, this means the Gru, Lucy, Poppy, the girls (Margo, Edith and Agnes) and Gru Jr. will face off with the dastardly Maxime and Valentina. There will be a happy ending after many sight-gags and violent but non-fatal accidents.

It’s not necessary to have seen the first three films or the prequels (the 2015 “Minions” or the 2022 “Minions: The Rise of Gru”) to enjoy this film. While there’s so much going on with the Minions at the AVL headquarters, there are some characters who should have had their storylines more developed such as Melora and any other possible hair victim. The solar panel angle never goes anywhere. You’d think there’d be so much potential with a former supervillain at hand for solar flaring madness. One also wonders how Poppy was raised by Perry and Patsy to become so invested in villainy. Yet if you don’t mind Road Runner-Coyote style non-fatal violence, this film has some laughs.

While the casting and visual representation seems low on diversity, remember that the French-Indonesian Pierre Coffin voices all of the Minions. Coffin co-directed the first, second and third films as well as the 2015 and 2022 prequels.

“Despicable Me 4” still is reliable family entertainment that has layers of activity in some of the Minion scenes that invite a re-watch for those who can identify individual Minions. I confess I can’t but some people can. If you fear cockroaches or that your kids might become fascinated with them, you might want to reconsider. Don’t forget to stay for the credits.

“Despicable Me 4” premiered at the Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC on 4 June 2024. The film was released in Australia on 20 June 2024 and was released on 3 July 2024 in the US.