Yesterday, a few hours after dropping the delightful @SiltyReed off at the train station, the_child, Lisa Costello and I went to see Despicable Me 2 [ imdb ]. I rather liked the first one, and this sequel did that rare trick of holding up to the original.

It was entertaining, sweet and charming, and managed to appeal to both generations of my party in some fun and interesting ways.

Like a lot of movies, Despicable Me 2 doesn't survive deconstruction well. Gru's relationship with the minions is extremely troubling if you try to take it literally. El Macho was a disturbing villain in ways that Vector from the first movie was not. On the other hand, Lucy, the female lead, (mostly) does a good job of rescuing herself and managing her own stuff. And Gru's girls are allowed to be smart, funny and empowered.

However, the movie charmed me sufficiently that those factors only occurred to me afterward, when thinking over what I saw. In the theater, I experienced a mishmash of old James Bond tropes, family humor and rom-com moments, wrapped in well executed animation and scripting that was sweet enough to take the sting out of what could have been the tougher bits.

A whole lot of fun, if you like animated feature films in the first place.