Dr. Nefario

"Don't you think, that there's more to our future than jelly?"

- Dr. Nefario speaking to Gru

Dr. Joseph Albert Nefario, most commonly referred to as Dr. Nefario, is a major character in Despicable Me and a former major antagonist in Despicable Me 2, with cameos in Minions and Despicable Me 3. He is Gru's gadgeteer, residing in his underground lair and laboratories. He builds and designs most of Gru's machines. Gru and Dr. Nefario seem to have been trying to shock the world with "The True Crime of the Century" for several years.

Although Nefario has doubts about Gru's plans due to lack of funds, and his new found love for his adopted daughters, he still considers him to be "one of the greats" in the supervillain world. Dr. Nefario also has terrible hearing, mistaking Gru's orders for "dart gun" and "cookie robots" as "fart gun" and "boogie robots", respectively. He is briefly El Macho's right-hand man and main henchman. In Despicable Me 3, he is frozen in carbonite, probably due to a Minion accident. In Minions: The Rise of Gru, he is portrayed as the owner of a record store that Gru goes to, where he crafts gadgets as a side-gig.

Appearance
Dr. Nefario resembles like 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.

History
Not much was 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. It is implied that after some time, Nefario enters Gru's employment.

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.

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
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. 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. 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 in the third movie since he was busy, Dr. Nefario just makes a silent cameo in Despicable Me 3. When Gru announces that he lost his job at Anti-Villain League, he mentions that Dr. Nefario previously froze himself into a giant block of carbonite out of accident, by the time some minions are knocking off the outside pieces of the block, trying to free him. He is also seen in his normal form in one of Mel's flashbacks.

At the end of the film, it was left unknown if he got unfrozen yet or if he's still frozen.

Gallery
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Trivia

 * The last name 'Nefario' is most likely 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 to unfreezing Nefario and they are never shown continuing the operation at the end, it's currently unknown if Nefario is free.

Quotes

 * “I developed a new formula which allowed me to put every known kind of berry into one flavored jelly.” - Dr. Nefario showing the new berry formula to Gru
 * "Nice to see you, Gru." - Dr. Nefario greeting Gru after he comes with El Macho inside of his lair.
 * "I put an antidote in the jelly. I mean, I'm happy to create an evil army to destroy the world, but nobody messes with my family." Dr. Nefario leaving his evil life behind and describing how he fixed all the Evil Minions.
 * "Gru! Gru, can you hear me?" - Dr. Nefario trying to connect with Gru while he's flying to get the Moon.
 * "Wait a minute!" - Dr. Nefario, confused after Kevin loses the effects on the Shrink Ray.
 * "Oh this ain't a jelly gun, sunshine!" - Dr. Nefario before completely incapacitating El Macho with the fart gun.
 * This might take a while...-Dr. Nefario leaving Gru on his slow ship to work with El Macho Secretly.