Despicable Me 2 album for the film, released on June 18, 2013 through Back Lot Music. The original music was composed by Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams. The album was promoted by the highly successful single "Happy" performed by Williams. "Despicable Me 2" received positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 74% approval rating with an average rating of 6.7/10 based on 177 reviews. The website's consensus reads, ""Despicable Me 2" offers plenty of eye-popping visual inventiveness and a number of big laughs." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating from mainstream critics, gave the film
Despicable Me 2 directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud stay true to the clever, slapstick vibe." James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" gave the film three out of four stars, saying ""Despicable Me 2" feels like an opportunity to get together with some old friends, hang out, and discover what they've been up to." Tom Russo of "The Boston Globe" gave the film a positive review, saying "The scope of the 'toon espionage-adventure goings-on is surprisingly limited. But the filmmakers so clearly love working on these characters, their creative joy is infectious." Stephanie Merry of "The Washington Post" gave the film three out of four