Why I think Despicable Me is a great movie

My daughter has been a huge fan of the move, Despicable Me, since the first time she saw it. This summer we were anxiously awaiting its return with Despicable Me 2 and while it definitely had some funny bits and heart warming scenes, it lacked the relationships that I feel make the first movie such a great film.

First off, there aren't too many animated movies that star a single dad as the main character (at least not that many that I know of) and Gru is such an unlikely character to turn into such a great Dad. But throughout the movie we witness the changes he goes through while falling in love with these girls. Plus the movie highlights adoption which is another great talking point and identifier for those families that have adopted children. Also, we see the relationship between Gru and his own mother and how it evolves and becomes more supportive and loving. Despicable Me also tackles two other issues that are great conversation starters; trust and how, even when that trust is broken, we can forgive and learn to trust again, as well as peer pressure and letting others talk us into doing something we don't feel comfortable with but then learning how to follow our hearts to do what we know is right.

Despicable Me is a hilarious movie and the minions are totally awesome. I'll admit though that the first 20 or so times we watched it I really only took it at face value. But as I was thinking about this movie today while driving around with my own kids, I noticed how much deeper it is than I initially thought. So if you haven't seen Despicable Me, I definitely recommend it and if you have, try watching it again with a more focused eye and see if you don't notice how much more this movie has to offer.