Despicable Me 2 (Al Pacino version)

A poster for the villain El Macho. who Al Pacino was originally supposed to voice act and record dialogue for.

In February 2012 (with the sequel for Despicable Me being announced much earlier), it was announced that Al Pacino was set to voice the film's villain Eduardo "El Macho" Perez.

Plot

The plot is the same as the released film, with the only difference being that Al Pacino was originally supposed to be the voice of El Macho.

Development

Pacino was going to be joining Despicable Me 2's cast in 2012. Not much more is known about its older development. However, on May 3, 2013, two months before the film's July release, the film's writers and producers announced that Pacino left the film, despite all of his voice recordings being completed and his character was fully-animated in action for the film; his role was then revived by Benjamin Bratt.

It's unknown if Universal or Illumination still have Pacino's original recordings in their studio. The only evidence that remains online is of Pacino's original voice acting credit is the film's official trailers before the roles were changed. However, none of the trailers or previews feature his original dialogue. Although, a 10-second lightning reel was published on Vimeo in 2014 and did feature a short clip of Al Pacino as El Macho. However, the video has been taken down and it is unknown if it will ever be back again on the website anytime soon.

Why This Version Was Cancelled

1. Al Pacino exited the project due to "creative differences"/a contract dispute.
2. His Mexican accent may have been not as good.
3. The Despicable Me team had set Benjamin Bratt for the cast before Al Pacino, so they cast Bratt because they didn’t want him unhappy.

Results

• Al Pacino left the project two months before the film's official premiere on July 3, 2013. So he was replaced by Benjamin Bratt.
• The original version of Despicable Me 2 was permanently cancelled.
• A spin off film, titled Minions, was released in July 10, 2015 and received mixed reviews while a sequel, Minions: The Rise of Gru, was released in 2022 and was a box office success and received positive reviews.
• A third Despicable Me film, called Despicable Me 3, which is the sequel to Despicable Me 2, was released in June 30, 2017 and received mixed reviews, despite being a box office success.
• A fourth Despicable Me film, called Despicable Me 4 was released on July 3, 2024 to mixed-negative reviews.

Trivia

• This would of been Al Pacino's voice act debut in a kid's animated movie.
• There are currently two primary trailers available that credited Al Pacino in Despicable Me 2.

Footage

Demo 2012

A Vimeo demo reel of an animator called Patrick Pujalte, which contains a clip of Al Pacino voicing El Macho (exactly at 0:50).

Despicable Me 2 theatrical TV SPOT "Recruited"

A Despicable Me 2 theatrical TV spot on Vimeo which contains a clip of El Macho with Al Pacino's voice at the end.

ShowReel 2014

A Vimeo "showreel" of an animator called Daniel Callaby, which contains a snippet of El Macho with Al Pacino's voice (exactly at 1:03).