The Minions are back in Minions: The Rise of Gru. Young Gru is denied entry to the most elite group of villains, the Vicious 6 (members Belle Bottom, Strong Hold, Nun-Chuck, Svengeance, Jean-Clawed), so he steals a valuable stone necklace from them. This kicks off a series of events that ends up with the necklace lost, Gru kidnapped by scorned ex-Vicious 6 member Wild Knuckles, the minions (Kevin, Stuart, Bob, Otto) trying to recover both the necklace and Gru, and the Vicious 6 pursuing all of them.
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Message
Minions: The Rise of Gru takes place between the Minions movie and the original Despicable Me movie, which unfortunately means that both Gru and the minions are bad guys the entire time. This is problematic because it portrays doing bad things as cool and fun to children. Essentially every notable character is a bad guy, including Gru, the minions, and everyone Gru idolizes. They have bad intentions, enjoy doing bad things, talk about doing bad things with excitement, and strive to become even more villainous. At least other movies like The Bad Guys or the original Despicable Me eventually have the cool bad guy turning into a good guy, but that's not the case here.
At the end of the movie Gru says "...you taught me what matters: You can't do anything alone. Find your tribe, and never ever let them go." While this message of teamwork is very directly stated, there's not really anything through out the movie to reinforce it. Perhaps they were implying Gru is only successful when he's working together with the minions, but that's a very large leap and children definitely won't come to that conclusion unless you explain it to them.
Content
Language
The minions speak gibberish most of the time, which some adults could find annoying and others could find hilarious.
There are no swear words in this movie.
Fears
There's a few fiery explosions and one minion gets lit on fire by a welding torch. Gru is dragged into a van and kidnapped. There are 3 home break-ins; two include massive destruction of the property.
There's a lot of villains in this movie. While none are especially scary on their own, the combined non-stop focus on villains and their pursuit of Gru could be uncomfortable for some children. Additionally, there's a few minutes at the end of the movie where several characters are turned into massive monsters; generally they are more animal-like than scary monster-like, with the exception of a purple dragon that's mildly scary.
There's no storms, clowns, or scary darkness.
Family & Relationships
Wild Knuckles (Gru's idol) is driven off in an ambulance while badly injured, then Gru is shown giving a eulogy at his funeral.
The Minions cross-dress as women many times. A Minion's butt crack is shown in several scenes. This is all pretty consistent with prior Minion / Despicable Me movies, it's just more prevalent in this one. There's also a couple fart jokes, which are more mild than ones in previous movies.
The villains (including Gru) aren't particularly nice, and on many occasions bully each other, regular people, and Gru. It's pretty standard bullying like name calling and teasing bodily differences. Gru's mom also appears in a couple scenes where she is either bossy or unkind.
There's no divorce, sneaking out, or running away.
Other Content
The plot focuses on the different villain groups trying to obtain a magic stone necklace that gives people magical powers on the Lunar New Year. On one occasion, the Vicious 6 use it to transform into animal-like monsters and to transform a couple of the minions into animals. Additionally, mastering kung fu gives the user superhero-like powers.
There's a lot of cartoon violence and fighting. Minions are constantly getting hit, exploded, falling down, etc. and they're always fine a few minutes later. It's consistent with what you'll find in the previous movies and other cartoons; but there is a lot of it.
One of the Vicious 6 is Nun-Chuck, who is a nun with nunchucks. She carries around a cross, can float in the air, and on one occasion calls Gru a demon child. An elderly Asian acupuncturist teaches the minions kung fu (very stereo typically, for adult comedic effect) and how to find their "inner beast".
There's no intense feelings invoked, time travel, politics, evolution, or LGBT.
Conclusion
Minions: The Rise of Gru is a silly movie just like its predecessors. Unfortunately, it also shares a major flaw with the Minions movie: all the characters are bad guys that are portrayed as cool and their bad acts as fun.
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