Here’s kind of a strange trailer for a new animated film from Universal-based CG studio Illumination Entertainment. Called Despicable Me, the story apparently revolves around a criminal mastermind named Gru who has been stealing world landmarks and now also plans to steal the moon. I say the trailer is a bit strange because we never really see the main character, and we only see his silhouette and hear his voice (provided by Steve Carell). The trailer is more of a short film setting up the disappearance of the monuments, but I have a feeling it’s only going to confuse audiences.

Between the three of them, directors Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud and Sergio Pablos have only directed a couple of animated shorts. Renaud was the storyboard artist on Ice Age: The Meltdown and Robots though, so I guess that means something… maybe? At any rate, the voice cast is the one thing that interests me, with such comedy stars as Danny McBride, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Ken Jeong and Jemaine Clement all on board. It also sounds a bit like the upcoming Dreamworks animated film Master Mind. Despicable Me hits theatres on July 9th, 2010; check out the teaser after the jump and see what you think.