There's a particular scene (well, moment) in the first Despicable Me film that I think about a lot: it's the moment when Gru storms Vector's stronghold in order to rescue his daughters.
Even though the plot of the entire film has turned on Gru's inability to get into that building, fuelled by a father's righteous anger he vaults over a cluster of heat-seeking missiles that smash into the gate. And that moment when Gru stalks through the rubble, rendered invincible by his determination to rescue his kids, is awesome.
I don't entirely love the emotions this scene stirs in me—in particular, it reminds me of times when, as a teacher, I would encounter a dad who came into the building full of the wrath of a righteous protector. This may have been unfair, but I often suspected that these guys were less committed to, say, making sure lunches were packed and dishwashers were emptied, but felt that they could compensate for a lot of day-to-day neglect by intimidating some staff members when it really counted. And, in fact, Gru himself is, specifically, compensating for having been a pretty lousy dad up to this point.*
So one interpretation of Despicable Me is that it doesn't matter how bad a father you are, as long as you can unleash hellfire on those who mean your family harm when it really counts. I think this is a bad way to think about parenting.
On the other hand, one of the things I love most about Despicable Me is how expansive its view of "family" is. The minions, clearly, are family—not just with each other, but with the humans. I think it's notable that one of the first things we see Gru doing in the film is greeting a series of minions by name. Even if it's never clear to the viewer how many minions there are in total, Gru seems to care about them all as individuals. Then Gru's daughters, Margo, Edith, and Agnes, don't seem to be related to each other biologically—they just care about each other. And as the films carry on, one thing they do really well is capture the mundane moments of parenthood, and the lengths we go, to, say, give our kids awesome birthday parties.
My final thought about the missile scene is that although I feel conflicted about it, I love it so much. And thinking politically, we parents need some of that energy. We'd burn down the world for our kids—so we should be able to fight like hell to stop the world burning.
*In contrast to Despicable Me 4, whose "drinking a cup of coffee in the car" scene is one of the greatest cinematic depictions of parenthood EVER.