After Parents’ Complaint: Cinema Ban on “Despicable Me 4” Sparks FSK Debate
Andreas Rivera
July 29, 2024 11:37 pm
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8 min read
Fans are very excited about “Despicable Me 4.” However, small children unfortunately won’t be able to see the film in cinemas. More on this in our review, including a parent’s guide.
Fans of the popular animated series featuring Gru, his family, and the Minions are eagerly anticipating “Despicable Me 4,” which finally premiered in German cinemas on July 11, 2024. The fourth film in the series brings some changes, as after encountering an old arch-nemesis at a class reunion, the Gru family, now including a new member named Gru Junior, must go into witness protection and trade their life of chasing villains for suburban living. When Baby Gru is suddenly kidnapped, a crazy rescue mission ensues. Meanwhile, the Minions at the AVL headquarters are transformed into Mega Minions with Marvel-like superpowers through super serum injections, resulting in complete chaos!
The latest production from Illumination and Universal Pictures offers another humorous continuation of the beloved film series in Part 4, once again providing top-tier animated fun for fans. However, not only does everything change for the Gru family in “Despicable Me 4,” but also for parents who want to go to the cinema with the whole family, including the youngest members. While Gru and his Minions are particularly popular with young children, this time they literally have to miss out: due to a higher age rating, children under six years old are not allowed to watch the film in cinemas – even if accompanied by their parents. Accordingly, most cinemas warn on their websites with a special FSK notice in the program for “Despicable Me 4.”
Why young children have to wait for the home release (the film will presumably be available to rent and buy digitally on Prime Video some time after its cinema release) and for whom a cinema visit is definitely worthwhile, can be found in our following review including a parent’s guide to “Despicable Me 4.”
No Cinema Fun for the Little Ones: “Despicable Me 4” Rated FSK 6 While Parts 1 to 3 of the “Despicable Me” series and the first “Minions” film were rated FSK 0, allowing even the youngest moviegoers to watch them, “Minions 2” received an FSK 6 rating. This rating now also applies to “Despicable Me 4,” which means that cinema visits are only allowed for children aged six and up – regardless of their accompanying person. Accordingly, children under six years old cannot see the film in cinemas even if accompanied by their parents. Such an exception only applies to films with an FSK 12 rating, where children aged six and up are allowed entry if accompanied by their legal guardians. For FSK ratings 0, 6, 16, and 18, however, there are no such special rules.
The FSK justifies the higher age rating with descriptors like “individual threatening moments and distressing scenes.” The US rating body MPAA also gives a PG rating, which recommends parental guidance for young children and essentially corresponds to the German FSK rating of six years and up. This assessment is based on fast-paced and sometimes threatening action sequences, as well as coarse humor in “Despicable Me 4,” which might not be suitable for all age groups.
Given the second “Minions” solo film and the fact that all previous parts of the series were recommended by advisory portals like KinderFilmWelt for children aged eight and up despite their FSK 0 rating, the FSK 6 rating is certainly not too surprising. KinderFilmWelt also recommends “Despicable Me 4” for children aged eight and up. Ultimately, it is up to parents to decide whether younger children should watch the film, at least at home. Since especially the little ones enjoy grumpy Gru and the silly Minions, it is unfortunate for many fans under six years old that they cannot go to the cinema.
Due to “Despicable Me 4”: Parents Demand New Cinema Rule for FSK 6 According to a press release from the FSK and HDF KINO, parents of children under six years old criticized in numerous complaints that they are being denied the opportunity to see the cinema screening of “Despicable Me 4.” The ban for FSK 6, prohibiting younger children from attending even when accompanied by their parents or guardians, is seen as too strict. In favor of promoting joint film viewing by parents and children, as well as media literacy, it should be left to the parents to decide, just as at home, which films their children are allowed to watch in the cinema.
Therefore, the joint demand from parents, the FSK, HDF KINO, and the leading organization of the film industry: Similar to the parental guidance rule for FSK 12, the existing regulation should also be extended to films with FSK 6 and even FSK 16 to give more weight to parental responsibility.
The chairwoman of HDF KINO e.V. adds in this context:
“To ensure a positive film experience for all age groups, practical and effective youth media protection is a given for cinemas. The overregulation and paternalism of parents in the cinema, as opposed to film selection on television or via streaming, is no longer justifiable. It harms cinemas and undermines the acceptance of youth protection exactly where it is most important: in families with small children.”
For “Despicable Me 4,” an amendment to the Youth Protection Act in favor of a joint cinema visit comes too late, but perhaps this could still be possible by the time “Minions 3” and possibly another fifth installment featuring the Gru family are released.
At home, “Despicable Me 4” can certainly be fun for the whole family, as the latest film largely follows the familiar (Minion) patterns. However, the FSK rating of six years and up seems understandable as some content and visual aspects of “Despicable Me 4” make parental supervision advisable. As spoiler-free as possible, we give you a more specific assessment in the following paragraph and conclude by telling you how “Despicable Me 4” still manages to be recommended as family entertainment.
Is “Despicable Me 4” Really Not Suitable for Small Children? In many ways, Part 4 tries to outdo itself visually and narratively, but this makes the film mostly turbulent and chaotic. According to our colleagues at familie.de, the storytelling pace is quite fast and may be confusing and a bit hard to follow for younger children. Some scenes might seem scary, threatening, and frightening, and there’s one detail that even I, as an adult, found a bit gross despite the cartoonish animation (hint: cockroaches play an important role throughout the film). In some places, the usually cute animated film becomes a bit brutal compared to its predecessors. Most of the profanities are not too bad but somewhat coarse and certainly not suitable for the ears of young children who love to repeat what they hear (for example, the word “scumbag” is used at one point).
Younger children can certainly enjoy “Despicable Me 4” with their parents at home, but the storytelling and humor (aside from the cute Minion babble) are more geared towards school-age children and teenagers who haven’t outgrown (or have temporarily outgrown) typical animated entertainment. With numerous pop culture references and quite successful meta-humor at times, adults will also have fun. But is the cinema visit worth it without the little ones?
Part 4 Remains Simply Incorrigible – Unfortunately Not Just in a Good Way To get straight to the point: In “Despicable Me 4,” only the Minions are truly “mega.” In my opinion, the film series has not improved with Part 4, and the saying “the best things come in threes” seems to hold true here. However, the latest film still offers good entertainment if you can overlook a few points. It becomes quite clear in Part 4 that more is not always better. There are many new ideas, but they don’t come across as original, charming, funny, or emotional as in previous films. Many plotlines feel unfinished and unnecessary (for example, the subplot around Poppy, even though some individual sequences were cute), and the usual slapstick humor comes so fast and furious that there’s hardly any time to catch your breath between laughs, ultimately leaving less entertainment value than hoped.
Of course, even in Parts 1 to 3, cute animation and light entertainment were the focus, but the previous films managed to engage me emotionally more than Part 4. Despite the family growing again in the new film, I felt there was less familial cohesion, and I missed the emotional messages and relatable character development that the first films offered. The villains and Minions have always been funny (and cute!) sidekicks, but Gru and his later family (initially consisting of “the girls” and eventually Lucy and twin brother Gru, who suddenly plays no role in Part 4?) were always the core of the story – which I felt was too often overshadowed and lost in all the chaos.
Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean I can’t recommend “Despicable Me 4” – on the contrary: Part 4 offers equally entertaining fun, cute Minion action, great and aesthetic animation, and a reunion with the familiar and beloved characters like its predecessors. Anyone who can overlook the somewhat chaotic and patchwork-like plot, instead delighting in the film’s look and humor or is mainly in it for Gru and the Minions, will certainly enjoy “Despicable Me 4.” Unfortunately, smaller children will have to wait a bit longer until “Despicable Me 4” is available for home viewing.
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