Illumination is a studio that doesn’t focus as heavily on romance. Though,
we will admit Bowser’s “Peaches” might be the greatest damn love ballad of our generation.
Still, the studio often focuses on friendships or - our subject
for today’s video - the relationship between parents and their children.
From fantastic moms and dads to people that probably shouldn’t have ever become
parents in the first place, it’s time to see which Illumination parents are
Top Tier.Today we’re taking a mature look at these dynamics and see what
they tell us about the parental love and traumas that exist in the real world.
I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this is Illumination Parental Relationships: Healthy to Toxic.
As always, we’re going to be starting with the healthiest Parent and Child relationships from
the studio before working our way down. These relationships are The Healthy.
Getting the Gold Medal of Healthiness is Cindy Lou Who and her mother, Donna Lou. In many ways,
these two were one of the highlights of Illumination’s version of “The Grinch” due to how
incredibly sweet and wholesome their relationship is. Being a single mother of three, Donna works
hard to not only provide for her kids but also be there for them in general. Even when she’s
tired from working as an overnight hospital nurse, she still takes the time to talk with her kids,
make them a proper breakfast, and do Christmas activities with them. She’s incredibly patient
with Cindy specifically, as seen when Cindy tries to go to the North Pole. Instead of just simply
telling Cindy she’s not allowed to go, Donna uses kid logic to talk her daughter out of leaving.
Thankfully, Donna’s efforts to be a good mother don’t go unappreciated, with Cindy’s main goal of
the movie being to ask Santa for something that could truly help her mother out so she isn’t so
exhausted all the time. D’awww… When that venture doesn’t quite work out thanks to the Grinch’s
scheme, Donna tells a disappointed Cindy that Christmas is more than just presents. She also
thanks Cindy for always trying to help her out with her workload, telling Cindy that she’s the
best thing that ever happened to her and making it clear how proud she is of her daughter. Like
we said, incredibly wholesome and easily the best parental relationship from Illumination.
For our Silver Medal of Healthiness, we’re giving it to Rosita and her many MANY piglets. Similar to
Donna, Rosita has quite a lot on her plate, taking care of nearly two dozen piglets every day while
her husband goes to work. As tiring as this may be for her, she’s got the whole thing down to a
science, taking care of her children in a very effective way while also showing them plenty of
love. She even goes so far as to make a machine to take care of her kids while she’s practicing
at the Moon Theatre, showing just how much she cares about her wellbeing. Being little kids, the
piglets don’t always notice their mom’s efforts and will sometimes do things like tease her about
her singing or pretend to be sick so they can stay home from school. In both SING movies though,
it’s still shown how much they support their mom in how they always cheer on her performances.
Moving onto our Bronze Medal of Healthiness, we think that it should go to Gru and his
daughters - Margo, Edith and Agnes. Now, obviously, this family of four didn’t
start off on quite the right foot, with Gru being more annoyed with the Girls than anything, seeing
them as simple tools for his scheme. Sensing this, Margo and Edith were pretty snarky and
disrespectful towards Gru in return, causing some additional friction. Even if Agnes warmed
up to her new father almost instantly, it took the rest of her family just a bit of extra time before
they truly started to bond. After that point, Gru showed just how good of a dad he could be once his
heart was in it - from amusement park trips and tea parties, to giving up the moon for
them without hesitation. This, naturally, extends to the other Despicable Me movies, where we get
plenty of sweet father-daughter moments. We also get examples of how much the girls care about Gru,
always being willing to fight alongside him and being supportive in their own way,
like giving Gru and Lucy a honeymoon dinner and, with Agnes specifically, selling her toys to help
earn some money for the family. Gru still isn’t a perfect father, however, as he can occasionally
be a bit overprotective - especially when it comes to his oldest daughter and her blooming interest
in boys. But outside of that small flaw and the lack of concern he had for them when they first
met, we still consider Gru to be a great dad who has a great relationship with his girls.
Sticking with “Despicable Me”, we’d like to touch on the girls’ relationship with their stepmother,
Lucy, next. We don’t have a whole lot to say on this particular relationship since
we don’t really see a ton of the girls and Lucy together outside of a couple small scenes from
the third Despicable Me movie. But even if their relationship is a little more tell than show at
times, we still feel like there’s plenty of love between them. At the very least,
Agnes absolutely adores her new mother and Lucy seems to love her just as much. Lucy, just like
Gru, will also do whatever it takes to keep her daughters safe and will gladly face whatever
danger comes her way in order to protect them. As for flaws, she did admittedly struggle a bit when
it came to Margo, with Margo being just a bit closed off towards her and Lucy trying
different mothering strategies in order to try and fix this. This accidentally led to a bit of a
misunderstanding between Margo and a boy from the annual Freedonian Cheese Festival, though
Lucy quickly fixes the situation and stands up for her daughter, which Margo is incredibly grateful
for. Overall, while there’s still some room for improvement, we still feel like the girls and
Lucy already have a good foundation for what is sure to be a great relationship moving forward.
Next up, we have to talk about the relationships between Mario,
Donkey Kong and their fathers. We discussed these relationships in
our Super Mario Bros. Movie Healthy to Toxic video… where we placed them in the
Grey Area… but we decided to cut a little slack and move them up to the Good tier..
Mario’s father is shown to be concerned about his son’s choice to quit his well-paying job
and start a business of his own, saying that Mario was “nuts” to do so and that
his potential failure was dragging Luigi down with him. This was a really harsh thing to say,
but it’s not uncommon for an old school dad to want their son to take a safer
career rather than take a huge risk… Still, he could have been a bit more compassionate.
We learn during the scene in the giant eel that these comments do make Mario feel like his father
only sees him as a joke. As it turns out, Donkey Kong feels a similar way regarding his dad, given
how much Cranky disapproves of his showboating and is often chiding Donkey for just being himself.
In Cranky’s defense… We tend to agree with him a bit more because Donkey Kong is, well,
a bit of an obnoxious idiot. Still, he could have done a bit more to find common ground.
Eventually though, these two relationships are able to make a turn-around. We see Cranky
be concerned about his son when Donkey and Mario get blasted off Rainbow Road,
and then later when Donkey rescues him, he praises his son for being so heroic. Mario’s father,
meanwhile, is amazed by his own son’s heroics and lets him know how proud he is of him.
At the end of the day Cranky and Mario’s dad are a bit rough around the edges,
but they mean well and love their sons.
At the end of this tier, we’re going to rank Ted Wiggins and his mother, Bernice. This is
a pretty minor relationship all things considered, given that Ted seems to be closer with Grammy
Norma than his mother. Still, we thought that we’d give it a mention. For the most part, Bernice is
your typical dorky and embarrassing mother, much to Ted’s occasional frustration. Though they
care about each other, they don’t always seem eye-to-eye, such as when Bernice tries to get
Ted to do family activities with her and Grammy despite him saying that he has other plans. She
can be a bit stern, but she still cares for her son a ton, being protective of him when she feels
he's in danger and being open to hearing what her son has to say, even if it sometimes concerns her
- like his sudden interest in trees. What truly shows her strength as a mother is when she stands
up to Aloysius O’Hare. While she’s obviously a bit intimidated by the most powerful man in town,
she still does what she can to protect her son from him, even playing distraction while Ted and
Audrey go to try and plant the Truffula Seed. As for Ted, like we said before, he doesn’t seem to
be super close with his mom and easily gets embarrassed by her. Still, it’s evident that
he cares about her and when the chips are down, the two of them really do have each other’s back.
Next up, we have the Grey Relationships - the ones that aren’t quite toxic,
but could still use some work.
Starting off this tier is the father and son relationship between Big Daddy and Johnny from
“SING”. It may be a bit contentious to put this relationship so high up considering all
the conflict between them in the first movie, but given how much their relationship improved
by “SING 2”, we’d say that this placing is warranted. Being the head of a gorilla gang,
all Big Daddy wanted was for his son to make a place for himself in the family business,
being their getaway driver. Despite his son obviously being hesitant about this,
Big Daddy still tried to push his son towards a life of crime in the hopes of getting him
to finally be interested in gang work instead of music. When Johnny’s rehearsal got in the
way of the gang’s big heist plans, Big Daddy was obviously pretty angry when it led to his arrest,
practically disowning Johnny when he learned why his son wasn’t at the meet-up spot in
time. Thankfully, once he saw how passionate Johnny truly was about music and performing,
Big Daddy became proud of him and even broke out of jail just so he could properly apologize to
him. In the second movie, we see that this support hasn’t faltered any when he drives all the way
to Redshore City in order to provide security for the Moon Theatre Troop’s big performance,
as well as to cheer on his son. They may only get a couple of scenes together in the sequel,
but these brief scenes still show just how strong Big Daddy and Johnny’s relationship has become.
From gorillas to bunnies, next is Mr. Bunny and E.B. In some ways, Mr. Bunny is similar
to Big Daddy, in that all he wants is for his son to continue the family business and take
responsibility for the role that has been passed down to him. Given how important Easter is, we can
certainly understand his side. Unfortunately, the two end up bickering quite a bit over this point,
with Mr. Bunny considering the pursuit of E.B.'s drumming dreams to be “selfish” and
telling him to get rid of the drums and “get his priorities straight”, which in turn prompts
E.B. ends up running away from home just to get away from his father’s expectations. Thankfully,
Mr. Bunny immediately feels guilty when he learns that his son is gone,
and becomes even more distraught when he believes that E.B. is dead. E.B. also
ends up feeling guilty about abandoning both his family and his new friend,
Fred. After E.B saves the day, Mr. Bunny and E.B. are able to reconcile, with Mr. Bunny deciding to
make E.B. and Fred Co-Easter Bunnies so that E.B. has the extra time needed to continue following
his dreams to be a drummer. Even if their relationship started off as a bit fractured,
it really was nice to see them come back together in the end through compromise and communication.
Next is another father and son relationship, Vector and Mr. Perkins. In some ways, Mr.
Perkins sort of serves as a textbook example of a parent spoiling their kid. While the obvious
love that Mr. Perkins has for his son is sweet, the fact that he’s constantly talking his son up
and trying to give Vector’s villain career some extra advantages through his high status at the
Bank of Evil isn’t doing Vector many favors in the long run. Between his wealth and all his gadgets,
Vector does come off as pretty entitled, not really appreciating his father’s help all too
much but still showing him some respect. Speaking of which, it’s nice to see that Mr. Perkins can be
stern when he needs to be, usually whenever Vector is being an incompetent villain. It again shows
how much he cares about pushing his son to be a success. We can also appreciate how much time he
seemed to spend with Vector when he was younger, as shown in the photo he has of them together,
and we like that for as frustrated as he may get with Vector’s failures, he allows Vector to be the
villain he wants to be - complete with a dorky flight suit and aquatic animal-focused weapons.
Following them is yet another villainous family, El Macho - AKA Eduardo Perez - and his son,
Antonio. This is another relationship we don’t really see a ton of since both characters
are kind of off doing their own thing throughout “Despicable Me 2”. Eduardo is focused on his
restaurant and his plans for world domination and Antonio is focused on hanging out in the mall and
flirting with girls like Margo. Eduardo does show support for his son’s new relationship,
encouraging Gru to support them as well, but given that Antonio quickly moves on from Margo
when he spots a cuter girl, we have to wonder what sort of example El Macho is
setting for his son. Additionally, we don’t see El Macho’s reaction to Antonio getting
frozen by Gru’s freeze-ray or even cared about this, since he doesn’t mention it in his final
showdown with Gru. We can’t necessarily say that these two have a bad relationship per say,
but at the same time, it doesn’t seem like a particularly close relationship either.
Finishing off this tier, we’re going to bend the rules juuuust a little bit and talk about Gru’s
relationship with both Dr. Nefario and Wild Knuckles. While neither of these guys are
Gru’s father, we see in “Minions: The Rise of Gru” that they both act as father figures for
him in different ways. With Wild Knuckles, he takes the time to teach Gru a few evil tips
when the two rob the Bank of Evil together, and it’s implied that he gives him plenty of
other lessons after revealing that he faked his death. Wild Knuckles also bravely faces a
fire-breathing dragon just to try and save Gru’s life. That’s a lot of dedication to a kid he just
met. As for Dr. Nefario, he was incredibly friendly towards Gru when he first showed
up for his Vicious 6 audition, being the only person who didn’t look down on Gru for being a
child. Nefario even goes as far as to protect Gru from the team’s wrath, choosing to look the other
way while Gru makes his escape with the Zodiac Stone, and of course we know that he chooses to
be Gru’s personal scientist in the end. Both these guys prove to be good guardians when necessary,
but they obviously aren’t perfect. After all, Wild Knuckles originally held Gru for ransom,
even threatening to kill him before eventually deciding to let him go. Dr. Nefario, meanwhile,
would go on to betray a now-adult Gru a couple of times, being the one to call Miss Hattie to
prompt the return of the girls as well as briefly going to work for El Macho. These
are some pretty big mistakes to overlook, but we feel that both Nefario and Wild Knuckles make up
for them enough to keep their relationship with Gru out of the toxic tier. Speaking of which…
We’ve finally arrived at the worst familial relationships around. If you guys need an
example of bad parenting, just take a look at these guys. These are the Toxic Relationships.
Earning our Bronze Medal of Toxicity is Gru and Marlena. Yes, Marlena is somehow worse
than the parental figures who betrayed and threatened her son. She truly is
THAT BAD. Starting off with the fact that she literally told Gru that his birth father “died of
shame when he was born”, Marlena continued being dismissive of her son throughout all of his life,
never encouraging him or bonding with him and just doing the bare minimum of parenting. When
it comes to being a mother, she’s incredibly self-centered to the point
of ridiculousness. Gru meanwhile, despite all the contempt he has for his mother,
still wants to try and make her proud, taking many of her negative comments to
heart. If there’s anything positive about this relationship, we can say that at the very least
Marlena was willing to take Gru to Villain-Con, as seen in the background of the first Minions movie.
Later on, after Gru officially adopts the girls, she FINALLY tells him that she’s proud of him,
stating that he "turned out to be a great parent, just like her. Maybe even better." It doesn’t
make up for everything, and we see in future films that the two of them still aren’t close,
but hey, it’s still something! That’s more than we can say for our final two parents.
For our Silver Medal of Toxicity, we’re going to give it to Jimmy Crystal and his daughter,
Porsha. On the surface, you would think that Jimmy would be pretty loving towards his daughter,
seeing her as “Daddy’s Princess” and all that. It’s quickly shown, however,
that this couldn’t be farther from the truth. He spoils her and gives her whatever she wants,
including a part in Buster’s show, but this is more to keep her satisfied than anything else.
Jimmy also barely pays attention to Porsha, leaving their relationship feeling shallow.
When Porsha gets ‘fired’ from Buster’s show, Jimmy cares more about how this will affect his
public image than his own daughter’s feelings, being incredibly unsympathetic towards her,
not once checking in on her and even calling her things like “spoiled brat” and “talentless
loser”. Ouch… It’s unsurprising - and more than a little satisfying - then that Porsha happily
goes against her father’s wishes and performs in Buster’s show, effectively putting an end to any
remaining relationship they might have had. But hey, we’d say that she’s way better off.
Finally, our Gold Medal of Toxicity is going to the Once-Ler and his mother. What’s worse than a
narcissistic parent? How about a manipulator? When we first see the Once-Ler’s mother,
she couldn’t care less about her son’s dreams and isn’t encouraging whatsoever, to the point
of flat out telling him that he would fail. This all changes however when she sees that her son’s
thneed is actually selling. From there, she pushes the Once-ler to accept her and their family into
the new ‘family business’ so that they can all be rich. She also manipulates the Once-ler into
breaking his promise with the Lorax. Granted, this was still the Once-ler’s choice to make,
and he was still partially driven by his own desires of success and feelings of greed,
but we’re sure that his mother trying to persuade him with promises of love and
respect wasn’t exactly helping matters. What’s worse is that once the money dries up and it’s
impossible to make more thneeds, the Once-Ler’s mother not only leaves, but disowns her son and
declares that one of her other son’s is her “new favorite”. Simply put, there are no bright sides
to this mother and son relationship. Filled with only manipulation and shallow bonds, the
Once-Ler and his mother are easily the most toxic parental relationship in Illumination history.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking,
and tell us what we should cover next! Remember to hit that notification bell
and binge more of our videos. But most importantly, stay wicked!