Disclaimer: Movies land in one of those “disputable issues” categories. My intention in writing this post is not to create controversy, nor is it to condemn anyone for taking their children to this movie. Simply put, I have felt a burden on my heart to write this post since we took our son to watch it. I posted a few pictures of us going to see the movie on social media in celebration of his birthday and immediately upon leaving the theater, I was compelled to delete those posts on Facebook because I didn’t want to condone going to watch it or give them free publicity. I have received a few messages asking what we thought of the movie and feel the need to explain our position. I hope that as brothers and sisters in Christ we can have open dialogue challenging one another “as iron sharpens iron” on many topics, without judging or condemning one another.

Parent Foul

We made a parent foul. Well, in our opinion it was a parenting foul. Our family has a special birthday tradition where mom and dad take the birthday kid on a special date. A few weeks ago one of our children turned seven. He LOVES movies, and wanted to watch the new Minion movie that was released the day after his birthday. This is where my parenting foul came in.

I didn’t do my research.

In fact, we allowed little buddy to get so excited about this minion movie that we even let his brothers and sisters pick out some little birthday gifts with the minion theme. And his oldest sister made him a minion birthday cake. The whole theme of his birthday gifts was minion.

In my defense. We were packing to move our family of eight, I was trying to plan next years curriculum for school, my first online Bible study had just launched, and my husband was working crazy hours like usual (life of an entrepreneur who is running a fast growing start-up).

Hindsight Lesson Learned: Don’t go see a movie without doing your research.

Why I Cannot Recommend the Minion Movie

1. Desensitization

As parents we need to be careful of the culture’s ability to desensitize us from discerning between good and evil, right and wrong, edifying and destructive.

Five years ago I made a similar mistake. I took my 5 year old daughter to see Princess and the Frog, by Disney. You would think I would have learned my lesson right? But this movie came recommended by friends I thought were like-minded and I took her to see it without doing a ton of research. I had watched the trailer, but it had all the sweet innocent clips in it, not the ones that exposed the stronghold of voodoo being the main theme in the movie. Within the first five minutes, I quickly rushed my spiritually sensitive, pure, crying, fearful five year old daughter out of that movie.

This story is part of my motivation in writing to you. Just as I felt safe taking the recommendation from a friend of mine about the Princess and the Frog movie and it ended up being a bomb for our family, I didn’t want to lead anyone astray. Having I had posted pictures of us on social media, I feel a huge sense of accountability. So if you saw those pictures or came the birthday party with minion theme and were influenced to go watch the movie and were disappointed too, I am so sorry.

Our culture impresses upon us the idea that kids need to be tough, to grow up and be able to handle certain shows. I feel the pressure as a parent to allow some of my children to watch movies I would never allow, or at least until they were WAY older. You and I both know and could sit and point out distinct agendas that are taught in certain movies, whether it be a feminist agenda, a “you create your own destiny” agenda, or simply trying to make evil look funny and cute.

In the minion movie, I see a spiritual battle. I see the enemy creatively disguising evil for cute and making it palatable for the next generation to not only accept, but like. I believe that from a biblical perspective evil is never cute and we shouldn’t laugh at it.

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places... In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints…” Ephesians 6:11-13 ,16-18, ESV

After we watched the minion movie with our little guy, we talked through this verse in particular with our children. In all circumstances… this really hit me in regard to even being careful about movie decisions, because we are called to be wise, to discern between good and evil, and in all circumstances, even in our movie watching, to take up the shield of faith, put on the helmet of salvation, and so on so that we are prepared for this spiritual battle that we often forget exists.

When I shared with women that my children hadn’t watched certain movies like Snow White or Princess and the Frog because they were too scary, I felt judged.

Listen friends, I want my children to recognize that when something is scary, or when they have a bad feeling they follow that gut instinct and turn from it. This is spiritual discernment. And I personally believe that what we watch and listen to has the power to desensitize us from listening to the spirit within us that is there to warn us. This starts with us modeling it for our children.

We need to teach our children to protect their little ears and eyes. We teach them how to protect themselves best by doing it for them when they are little and teaching them the WHY as they grow older so they too can be prepared to make spiritually healthy decisions with conviction.

Our children need to be warned that there is a spiritual battle for their loyalty, their hearts, their minds, and their beliefs. And that the enemy is sneaky and will try to deceive them and confuse their convictions through movies and media among many other things.

As parents we need to realize the enemy DOES try to go after our children’s hearts, minds, and souls through avenues like entertainment. Most children watch 40 hours of television per week, of course he is doing everything he can to get them through media. To ignore this issue would be naive of us as parents.

It takes great discernment as parents to recognize when something is sending an anti-biblical or a agenda driven message. And the biggest problem is that most of us have become desensitized to it ourselves.

Lord, help us.

2. The Theme

The definition of minion is “someone who is not powerful or important and who obeys the orders of a powerful leader or boss.” Synonyms include: henchmen, follower, servant, stooge, toady, and a hanger-on.

Minions are typically associated with evil villains in movies and books. The theme throughout this movie is the pursuit of following an evil boss.

Now, I have to say, we have watched and actually own Discpicable Me, the movie. I was very hesitant at first, wary of the message being portrayed, but we found it to be a great avenue for discussion about good and evil, AND in the first movie the so called villain changes. His heart changes and he begins fighting for good. Plus those little yellow minions were so stinking cute! I am not going to lie. I have had many belly laughs watching those little yellow faces make their silly noises.

So because the little minions seemed harmless enough in the first movie, I became desensitized and allowed it. Now, after having watched all of the minion movies. I don’t recommend any of them. And I am sorry that we have spent any money towards these shows as well.

The minions in this movie lose their sense of purpose and become depressed without having an evil boss. And why don’t they have an evil boss? Because they keep accidentally killing them.

While watching this movie, you can hear the crowd of people in the theater laugh every time they kill one of their bosses. And it’s not funny. We actually didn’t find the movie funny.

Additional issues to think on concerning the movie:

Special thanks to commenters for your additional thoughts on this! I had to add them in so there were specifics for parents to evaluate on. Thank you for sharing all your thoughts, we are a team here!



The beginning pushes an evolution agenda {that always frustrates me}

There is adult hour inappropriate for young children, including minions “mooning” the viewers

There are male minions dressing up as women {which are seeing in many shows these days and we all know what agenda is being pushed here}.

They portray the Queen in bad character {with a beer, as one commenter pointed out}

The mega villain Scarlet Overkill is a seductress as well as being pure evil

There are no consequences for stealing played out in the movie by any authorities {what does this teach children}

To recap, the entire theme of the movie is the pursuit of evil and finding an evil boss to follow.

I want to reiterate that your family is YOUR jurisdiction. It is your responsibility to make choices on what is acceptable for your family to watch and not. I know first hand, through making parenting mistakes like this, and living through them as well, that discerning between these things is not always easy, nor is it cookie cutter for every family!

My prayers go with you as you strive to bring God glory in your homes and through the fruit of your decisions. I hope you can be comforted in knowing that God has grace for you and me as we both make mistakes.

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I have just released my first online Bible Study on the topic “The Quiet Fight Between Women: Redeeming the Division.” I hope you will check it out here.