The Minion Movie will complicate your child's relationship with their little yellow friends and blur the lines between the innocence they love and a much darker reality. Minion Mania is everywhere and kids all out adore these funny little minions but until the Minion Movie they were just harmless sidekicks in Gru's journey of redemption from his evil ways, now they drop young movie goers into the backstage of "evil" and make evil out to be either a twisted kind of "good" or a ridiculous form of funny.
Before you dismiss my critique outright, hear me out. First, let me say that I liked Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2. Yes, I had to be lead to watch it by the pleadings of my children, the movie title had me making a twisted face of caution, but I thought the story did a very good job of showing children a genuine change of heart, and for all the right reasons which is rare these days. The minions were funny and while they became the breakout stars of the movie they were none the less harmless comic relief. Not anymore!
The idea of doing a prequel to explain more about the minions than any little kid needed to know was a bad idea from the start. I will admit that for the child viewer who has seen the original movie "Despicable Me" there is the redeemable foreknowledge of what lies in the future for these little minions who attach themselves to Dur, a villain on an inevitable crash course with his humanity, but this nuance may be too subtle to shed a great light on the flaws of the Minion Movie.
The fact that the idolized yellow side kicks fall into a good path by some future accident didn't alleviate the present visual of them lobbing a bazooka blast at pursuing police officers, endearing themselves to a crime family and a evil female super villain, and stealing the crown jewels only to recover them in time for them to enthusiastically follow the final thief, their future master Dur. While I can work with the material in "Despicable Me" in teaching my child about having a true change of heart and the things that often lead one to a better path in life, the Minion Movie is just a squishy mess of confusing concepts that would take a much older child to dissect and even then I'm not sure it would lead to a positive learning experience.
The Minion Movie wasn't just the average annoying kids movie that threw too much crude humor in just to "lighten things up." I would have been disappointed enough if the only objections were the striptease musical number, a few cross dressing fans of the female evil villain, and several bare butt cracks and thong wearing scenes, but these weren't the only things that offended my sensibilities. The whole plot line was truly offensive to my spirit.
On the way home I started a careful talk with my son about the movie. I wanted to draw out his impressions of the story without him sensing my disapproval. The conversation was eye opening. I listened in astonishment as he explained the movie's portrayal of "evil" as good. It was especially hard for him to explain the quirky family of Robbers who take the Minions to the Super Villain convention and how the police men (the real good guys) in pursuit end up in a deadly crash as a result of the Minions actions.
When I asked him why he thinks the Minions want to follow "evil people," and whether that makes them good or bad, he made this defense of his silly minion friends. "They just think evil is good and good is evil." Those were my son's exact words and he thought it was a fair defense of their innocence. He is completely unfamiliar with the scriptural text he was innocently citing. ["Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil..." ~ Isaiah 5:20 (2 Nephi 15:20) "Wherefore, take heed... that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil." ~ Moroni 7:14]
The Minions are so cute and adorably clueless which endears them to every child who watches the movie. Unfortunately it is seriously confusing for young viewers that these adorable little friends are excited by evil doers. How is a 6 year old going to reconcile their adorable "innocence" with a plot that has these little yellow fellows setting out on a grand adventure to find and follow a true villain in order to save their tribe?
When I continued to ask gently probing questions to challenge the motivations of my son's little yellow friends he set out to defend them by the only logical means, discuss the various shades of grey in the "evil" character of those the minions attach themselves too. This predictably resulted in a rationalization that set apart the really "evil" guys and the just kinda bad guys. My son saying "they are bad but still have good parts inside."
While it is true that there are bad guys with some good parts inside, these are not the people I want my son to set up as his heroes. They aren't the ones to emulate! Yet these are the ones the Minions long to associate with, the truly despicable. To lighten up the villain scene the writers introduce the Minions to a ridiculously goofy crime family who adopt the minions when they bond over their shared getaway scene in which they eliminate the pursuing police cars. Try to explain that one to your 4 year old.
Until they made the Minion movie we could all act like the Minions were basically good little fellas. Now? Sure they are clueless and adorable but what of their character? Funny? Sure, but do you want your child to fall in love with characters who mindlessly engage in evil plots because they are incapable of discerning good from evil and are aloof from the pain and destruction that is caused by their complicity. Is being funny and cute an antidote to being bad?
The Minion Movie wasn't just the average annoying kids movie that threw too much crude humor in just to "lighten things up." I would have been disappointed enough if the only objections were the striptease musical number, a few cross dressing fans of the female evil villain, and several bare butt cracks and thong wearing scenes, but these weren't the only things that offended my sensibilities. The whole plot line was truly offensive to my spirit.
On the way home I started a careful talk with my son about the movie. I wanted to draw out his impressions of the story without him sensing my disapproval. The conversation was eye opening. I listened in astonishment as he explained the movie's portrayal of "evil" as good. It was especially hard for him to explain the quirky family of Robbers who take the Minions to the Super Villain convention and how the police men (the real good guys) in pursuit end up in a deadly crash as a result of the Minions actions.
When I asked him why he thinks the Minions want to follow "evil people," and whether that makes them good or bad, he made this defense of his silly minion friends. "They just think evil is good and good is evil." Those were my son's exact words and he thought it was a fair defense of their innocence. He is completely unfamiliar with the scriptural text he was innocently citing. ["Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil..." ~ Isaiah 5:20 (2 Nephi 15:20) "Wherefore, take heed... that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil." ~ Moroni 7:14]
The Minions are so cute and adorably clueless which endears them to every child who watches the movie. Unfortunately it is seriously confusing for young viewers that these adorable little friends are excited by evil doers. How is a 6 year old going to reconcile their adorable "innocence" with a plot that has these little yellow fellows setting out on a grand adventure to find and follow a true villain in order to save their tribe?
When I continued to ask gently probing questions to challenge the motivations of my son's little yellow friends he set out to defend them by the only logical means, discuss the various shades of grey in the "evil" character of those the minions attach themselves too. This predictably resulted in a rationalization that set apart the really "evil" guys and the just kinda bad guys. My son saying "they are bad but still have good parts inside."
While it is true that there are bad guys with some good parts inside, these are not the people I want my son to set up as his heroes. They aren't the ones to emulate! Yet these are the ones the Minions long to associate with, the truly despicable. To lighten up the villain scene the writers introduce the Minions to a ridiculously goofy crime family who adopt the minions when they bond over their shared getaway scene in which they eliminate the pursuing police cars. Try to explain that one to your 4 year old.
Until they made the Minion movie we could all act like the Minions were basically good little fellas. Now? Sure they are clueless and adorable but what of their character? Funny? Sure, but do you want your child to fall in love with characters who mindlessly engage in evil plots because they are incapable of discerning good from evil and are aloof from the pain and destruction that is caused by their complicity. Is being funny and cute an antidote to being bad?
