Movie

Despicable Me 2

Name: Despicable Me 2
Released: 2013

2013 • Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Woke Score

out of 10

Plot

While Gru, the ex-supervillain is adjusting to family life and an attempted honest living in the jam business, a secret Arctic laboratory is stolen. The Anti-Villain League decides it needs an insider's help and recruits Gru in the investigation. Together with the eccentric AVL agent, Lucy Wilde, Gru concludes that his prime suspect is the presumed dead supervillain, El Macho, whose his teenage son is also making the moves on his eldest daughter, Margo. Seemingly blinded by his overprotectiveness of his children and his growing mutual attraction to Lucy, Gru seems on the wrong track even as his minions are being quietly kidnapped en masse for some malevolent purpose.

Overall Series Review

Despicable Me 2 is a children's animated film centered on the retired supervillain Gru's transition to being a devoted father and his subsequent recruitment into the Anti-Villain League, where he finds a partner and eventual wife in Agent Lucy Wilde. The film's core narrative strongly promotes the traditional nuclear family structure as the ultimate source of happiness and fulfillment for the hero and his adopted daughters. The story follows a classic good-vs-evil plot without injecting modern political or social ideology. While the main character arc champions the male protagonist and family, the film does utilize broad, dated ethnic stereotypes for its primary antagonists and minor suspects. The Minions provide a stream of comedic relief, sometimes involving visual gags that play on cross-dressing and coded alternative sexualities, but these are solely for physical humor and do not drive the main plot's themes.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics4/10

The film’s two primary suspects for the supervillain are caricatured ethnic characters, which leans on immutable characteristics for comedic and villainous effect. The main antagonist, El Macho, and his son Antonio rely heavily on 'Latin Lover' and obese Mexican stereotypes, while another suspect is an Asian stereotype. The main hero, Gru, is an Eastern European-coded male who is the story's moral center and victor, contradicting any vilification of 'whiteness.' Character merit drives the final outcome, but the use of one-dimensional ethnic tropes increases the score.

Oikophobia1/10

The narrative is centered on Gru’s successful assimilation into a comfortable, stable domestic and suburban life. The family unit is celebrated as a shield against the chaos of his former life. The plot conclusion is the establishment of a complete and happy nuclear family, indicating a clear respect for traditional institutions, and there is no messaging that frames the home culture or ancestors as fundamentally corrupt.

Feminism2/10

The main goal of the plot is Gru finding a wife so the family can be 'normal,' and his youngest daughter explicitly wishes for a mother. Agent Lucy Wilde is a competent professional female agent who is later reduced to a damsel-in-distress who must be rescued by Gru, culminating in their marriage. The entire arc celebrates motherhood and the traditional complementary roles of husband and wife in creating a complete family unit, running directly counter to anti-natalist or 'Girl Boss' messaging.

LGBTQ+3/10

The Minions' non-human nature allows for humor involving 'gender-bending' gags like cross-dressing and a 'YMCA' dance number, which subtly injects alternative sexualities into the content purely for comedy. The only major human romantic arcs, however, are strictly heterosexual: Gru and Lucy, and Margo and Antonio. The focus remains on the normative structure, but the Minions’ coded humor prevents the score from being a perfect 1.

Anti-Theism1/10

The core story is one of a villain finding redemption and transformation through the power of familial love, which aligns with the acknowledgement of a higher moral law. The film's writers, who have spoken about their religious faith, included themes of moral transformation. The film clearly defines a boundary between good and evil, with the hero choosing the side of good, reflecting Transcendent Morality.