^ Forgetting that the hero of the original film was fighting it out to be the worst villain on the planet ever, doing all manner of -- dare I say it -- despicable things? The Minions gravitate toward the worst of the worst, so yeah if you have a problem with that or don't want your kids to see it, avoid the entire series.
[SPOILERS AHEAD, of a sort]
On the flip side, having seen it twice so far, all the violence is stylized, you never see any blood or dead bodies. It's as sanitized as a Road Runner or Scooby-Doo cartoon, and generations seem to have survived those unscarred (apart from those of us who always felt bad for Wile E.). The whole point of the film is how they end up with Gru, so of course you're going to see him at the end (and earlier, for the sharp-eyed). Yeah, like with Animaniacs, there are a lot of references that are going to sail right over kids' heads, like the Beatles Abbey Road cover reference, or the Full Monty (which will also sail over the heads of adults who are unfamiliar with the source material). Because I'm of a certain age, I loved the cameos from the Saint and Bewitched, and the nod to Orlando halfway through the construction of Disney World made me chuckle.
And the moral of the story, as with the other two films, remains the same: Villains, unless they have a change of heart and pick a new path, will always bring about their own downfall. It never occurred to Scarlet that the Minions might not have betrayed her, and that's her real tragedy.
--Jonah
