DESPICABLE ME 4
Hilarious family-centered chaos — with a heart that means it.
Should You Watch It?
Here's the good news up front: this one is often flat-out hilarious, and its heart is in the right place. Gru is back protecting his family, and the movie means it — Gru and Lucy guard their children, Gru fights to rescue his son from a villain, and little Agnes flatly refuses to tell a lie. Along the way a would-be young villain discovers she'd rather have what this family has, and Gru himself learns to apologize and grow.
The one caution is tone, not content. So much of the comedy is built on the minions' comical slapstick chaos — collisions, pratfalls, gadgets gone wrong — that the youngest viewers may find it overwhelming rather than delightful.
So: for older pre-teens on up, take the whole family and enjoy it. For very little ones, know what you're walking into — the mayhem barely stops for breath.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESGru and a handful of minions head to his old School of Villainy to capture a new threat: Maxime Le Mal, who has remade himself into a human-sized cockroach with superpowers. With help from the Anti-Villain League, Gru gets his man.
Then Maxime escapes prison, vowing to track down Gru and his family. Into hiding they go, tucked into a quiet small town under new identities. But the teenage girl next door, Poppy, wants to be a supervillain — and she recognizes Gru. What she asks of him puts everything at risk, and that's where we'll stop.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars, and the reason is simple: it's funny. The comedy leans hard on the minions and the chaos they bring to every situation — sometimes on orders, sometimes entirely on their own initiative — and it lands. Turn five of them into super soldiers and the mayhem only gets bigger and better.
That same relentlessness is the film's one real risk with an audience: the movie rarely slows down, and the slapstick piles up fast. But as broad animated comedy built around a family worth rooting for, this delivers exactly what it promises, and does it well.
The Worldview
This is a strong moral, pro-family movie, and it wears that on its sleeve. Gru works for the Anti-Villain League — bringing villains to justice is his job — and the story's emotional center is a father protecting his family and racing to save his infant son from a kidnapper. Gru and Lucy are positive parents. Agnes refuses to lie. Gru learns to apologize and become a better man. Even the antagonists aren't beyond hope: the story leans toward redeeming the evil in its villains rather than simply defeating them.
The clearest proof is Poppy. Drawn to villainy at the start, her interest quietly fades as she watches the love inside Gru's family — a small, honest picture of goodness winning by attraction rather than argument.
A couple of touches sit off to the side. The villain declares cockroaches a great advance in evolution and turns himself into one, and a few minor characters show what the source calls gender disorientation. Neither drives the story, but you'll want to know they're there.
At its heart the movie is about a home worth defending and evil worth redeeming — and both point past themselves. "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:15).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Very strong moral, pro-family worldview where hero works for the Anti Villain League to arrest villains, bringing them to justice, and must save his baby son from the villain and protect his family, with positive parental figures, and story promotes redeeming the evil in villains, but villain says cockroaches are a great advance in evolution, and he transforms himself into a cockroach supervillain
Foul Language
No foul language, but baby goat poops little pellets
Violence
Lots of strong and light slapstick cartoon, comic violence such as character shoots other characters with pellet gun, wacky characters hit one another, objects including some doors fall on characters, hero fights to grab and capture villain, agents fight to grab and capture villain, woman in grocery store chases another woman who accidentally burned off her hair at the beauty salon, woman runs into automatic door, woman slides on stick of butter, woman slides into glass freezer compartment, characters fall, characters are transformed into super soldiers, one super soldier has a laser flame power in his eyes and accidentally burns objects when he turns it on (including a satellite in space and part of a woman’s giant hairdo), character gets trapped in a large red Jello mold, and his two friends dip their spoons into the mold to eat it, characters cling from objects high in the sky to avoid falling, flying machine with metal shovel and grabbing arms wrecks street and sidewalk when it rises out from under the ground, characters hit each other with a pool noodle (one furiously), two characters slap another character’s rear end just for laughs when he gets stuck in vending machine, etc.
Sex
No sex but some minor characters exhibit gender disorientation
Nudity
No nudity
Alcohol Use
No alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs, but man is shot in the hip with a tranquilizer dart, which causes him to walk funny;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Young teenage girl blackmails father next door to help her steal the mascot (a honey badger) of the School for Villainy, the honey badger is mean but is tamed when hero’s baby gives it some baby food in a squeeze packet, it’s implied that the school’s female principal has treated the animal badly, and the animal is scared to return to the school, villain kidnaps his rival’s infant son.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Gru drops everything to protect his family and rescue his son. What does his example show us about how God cares for His children?
Psalm 127:3–5 · Luke 15:4–7Agnes simply refuses to tell a lie. Why does honesty matter so much, even in small things, and where is it hardest for you?
Ephesians 4:25 · Proverbs 12:22Poppy wants to be a villain — until the love inside Gru's family changes her mind. How can goodness draw people to itself without a single lecture?
Matthew 5:14–16 · 1 Peter 2:12The story keeps reaching to redeem its villains rather than just beat them. How is that hope like the way God treats people who have done wrong?
Romans 5:8 · 2 Peter 3:9The Final Word
This is the rare fourth entry that still delivers — genuinely funny, warmly pro-family, and built on a father who'd cross anything to protect his kids. Just brace the littlest ones for the nonstop minion mayhem. For everyone from older pre-teens up, it's an easy yes: worth the trip.
