If you’ve considered seeing Despicable Me, and you haven’t yet, where have you been?

Yes, there are little yellow characters that are now in pop culture spanning toddles to pre-teens. Yep, there’s definitely Steve Carrell doing that weird voice. You’re right, there’s even some pretty impressive 3D animation, one of the first movies to really push the envelope in terms of making a movie which necessitated the 3D experience (the summer of 2010 was a great one, as How To Train Your Dragon came out too). There are lots of little gags and silly jokes and plenty of opportunities for a snooty grown up to roll their eyes, but the best part of Despicable Me isn’t that Gru saves the girls: it’s that the girls save him.

We don’t see often enough—in life or in film—a demonstration of the power of children. As much as a parent’s love helps a child grow, a child’s love can help a parent grow too. Children can be agents of change, just by being their loving, needy selves, and Despicable Me reminds us (quite subtly, I might point out) that we were all once a Margo, Esther, or Agnes, and we can all one day be a Gru (hopefully the good, end of the movie kind).

This is the kind of movie I don’t watch often, but enjoy every time I do. That’s a bit hard to do with a movie that wasn’t rooted in my own experience of childhood.