Despicable Me 3 Christian Movie Review (2017)

Guidance: Talk Together

This animated sequel stays in the broad family-comedy lane, with slapstick action, villain-driven chaos, and the usual Minions-style crude humor. The bigger discernment questions are less about explicit content and more about identity, family loyalty, and whether growth comes through love and responsibility or through self-centered ambition.

Why This Guidance Level

This lands in a middle category for many Christian families because the surface content is fairly typical for mainstream animation: comic danger, chase scenes, villain threats, and silly humor. The more meaningful conversation points come from the film’s treatment of identity, family bonds, and redemption, especially as characters wrestle with who they are and what kind of life they will choose.

Faith & Worldview Perspective

The film affirms several good things: family can be healing, selfishness can be confronted, and people are not locked into their worst past choices. At the same time, it treats morality in a light comic way and roots hope mainly in family connection and personal change rather than in the deeper redemption and new identity found in Jesus Christ. Parents may want to discuss the difference between being shaped by affection alone and being truly transformed by truth and grace in Christ.

Truths Reflected

• Family loyalty and sacrificial care matter.
• A person’s past does not have to define his future.

Tensions to Discuss

• The film leans toward personal and relational redemption without pointing to the deeper need for reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.
• Right and wrong are often played for laughs, which can soften the seriousness of sin and responsibility.

Content & Discernment Markers

Occult & Spiritual Content

• Occult material does not stand out here. The story uses exaggerated cartoon villainy and gadgets rather than spiritual practices or supernatural teaching.

Sexuality & Relationships

• Romantic material is light and mostly tied to marriage and family dynamics rather than sexual content. Parents are more likely to notice relational comedy than anything sensual.

Identity Themes

• A major thread centers on discovering family roots and asking, in effect, ‘Who am I really?’ The film treats identity as something shaped by family history, personality, and chosen loyalty. Parents may want to discuss how our deepest identity is not just in our background but in how God sees us.
• The story also explores whether someone with a criminal past can become a different person. That can open a useful conversation about repentance, changed behavior, and the fuller Christian hope of becoming a new creation in Christ.

Violence & Intensity

• The film includes frequent animated peril: chase scenes, fights, escapes, gadget-based attacks, and villain threats. The tone is playful rather than graphic, but the action is steady enough that younger children may still feel the tension.
• Characters face danger in exaggerated comic set pieces, with near misses and theatrical destruction rather than realistic injury. Parents may want to discuss the difference between funny screen chaos and real-world harm.

Language & Humour

• Language concerns are mild and mostly come through insults, put-downs, and the franchise’s usual silly, crude-leaning humor. Parents who are sensitive to disrespectful banter may want to note how jokes can normalize mockery even when the tone is playful.
• Some humor depends on bodily-function gags and mischievous Minions behavior rather than sharp profanity. That kind of comedy is common in family animation but may still be worth discussing if your family is trying to shape cleaner habits of speech and humor.

Other Content Notes

• The movie repeatedly uses crime, deception, and villain antics as comic entertainment. While the story generally points characters back toward family and responsibility, wrongdoing is often stylized to feel amusing rather than serious.

Notable Moments

• Family identity: A central part of the story turns on discovering a family connection and deciding what kind of person that relationship will shape someone to become.
• Comic villain peril: The villain creates repeated action sequences with threats, pursuit, and exaggerated danger played for laughs.

Discussion Prompts

• Identity and belonging: When the characters try to figure out who they are, what do they base that on? Family history, talent, feelings, or choices? How is that different from finding our identity in Christ?
  • Biblical guidance: Scripture teaches that our deepest identity is received from God, not built only from our past or personality.
  • Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 2:20
• Family loyalty and truth: Is family love enough by itself, or does real love also tell the truth and call people away from wrong choices?
  • Biblical guidance: The Bible honors family love, but love is meant to rejoice in truth and lead us toward what is right.
  • Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:6, Ephesians 6:1-4
• Can people really change?: What does the movie say helps a person change? How does that compare with the Christian hope of repentance and new life through Jesus Christ?
  • Biblical guidance: Behavior can improve through effort and relationships, but lasting transformation comes through Christ.
  • Scripture: Ezekiel 36:26, Romans 12:2
• Humor and respect: Which jokes were funny, and which ones were based on disrespect, foolishness, or gross-out humor? What kind of humor honors God?
  • Biblical guidance: Christians are called to speech that is wholesome, gracious, and fitting.
  • Scripture: Ephesians 4:29, Colossians 4:6