Movies can make life difficult for parents and caregivers. Because child-raising isn’t challenging enough, those generating films for families sometimes decide to break the rules.

They might not look like trouble makers, especially as they create animated wonders. But what about the part where, sometimes, animated films have villains as heroes? Hang on, doesn’t everyone agree the baddie is the nasty pasty who does bad stuff? They can’t be the hero, the good egg who trounces bad, can they?

Set to send post-screening discussions into moral meltdown, several new animated sequels position villains where heroes should be.

This month at cinemas, Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University should mess with kids’ minds. The former centres on Gru who, in the first Despicable Me, craved being the World’s No. 1 Villain. As happens in feature-length cartoons, niceness eroded Gru’s schemes and he begrudgingly saved the day. But his desire to be the best criminal was his defining attribute, sustaining the contrary premise of a bad guy being the hero.

Follow-up to Pixar’s Monsters Inc., Monsters University is a prequel to its successful forebear. Reminiscing about campus adventures of Sulley and Mike, Monsters University will ask us to cheer on these lovable monsters. Even though they’re being tutored in how to scare kids.

Like children’s literature, animated films have, since their inception, included villains who are memorable and mesmerising (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to Toy Story 3). Parents and caregivers can struggle to explain what’s not to like about appealing baddies. This gets harder when traditional divisions between hero and villain are further blurred (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Megamind, Wreck-it Ralph).

What children (and adults) are usually taught by movies such as the Despicable and Monsters series is something has to compel someone bad to do good. Once they do the right thing, all is puppies and ice-cream. No matter if, as with Despicable Me, the villain reacts to circumstances and cajoling without demonstrating a major change of heart.

Is this a take-home message for kids? Behave; don’t worry about total internal overhaul? While most would agree that celebrating the villain isn’t cool, plenty may endorse the ‘it’s all right in the end’ conclusion. What matters here isn’t genuine contrition or transformative redemption, but actions; she’ll be right, if we see less bad and more good.

We’re attracted to villains because there’s some of them in us all. While it’s easy to tell ourselves we’re not as extreme as they are, villains mirror our inclination to not always do the right thing. But when the kids ask if Gru, Sulley or Mike are bad or good, point out the faulty framework of the imagined universes they populate. Then cut to the chase of how, in our cosmos, Jesus’ heroic sacrifice is the answer.

Explain the distinction between remorse and repentance, as embedded in the salvation act of Christ and its vital link to God’s forgiveness of our wrongs. Saying sorry, or trying to do right, are trivial actions. Desiring God’s Spirit to turn our hearts and minds from bad to good is the only way we can make that fundamental shift.