Minions & Monsters - Review: They're Gonna Put Me In The Movies

 

The Minions have taken over Hollywood! Love them or hate them, the little yellow living tic-tacs that debuted 16 years ago in “Despicable Me” are here to stay. Not only have the Minions gotten their own spin-off franchise, but this is also now their third film in said spin-off series, and they aren’t just taking over tinsel town in our world either. This latest adventure, the first with their original creator Pierre Coffin (“Despicable Me,” “Minions”) in the director's chair since 2017, seeks to channel the heart and spirit of 1920s Hollywood; quite the goal for a group of marketable mascots once posited as the death of modern Hollywood animation.

Set in 1920s Hollywood, “Minions & Monsters” follows a new tribe of Minions, voiced by Coffin, in search of an evil boss to follow. Two best friends in that tribe, James and Henry, fall in love with the movie making industry and soon their tribe becomes the stars of the silver screen thanks to the help of their newfound friend and film director Max, voiced by Christoph Waltz (“Django Unchained,” “Inglorious Bastards”). Seeking to make their own monster movie, Henry and James decide to summon a group of monsters, led by the tiny Cthulu-like Goomi, voiced by Trey Parker (“South Park,” “Despicable Me 3”), with sinister motives of their own.

Much of the Minions' typical humor is here in full force, as one might expect. This is, after all, the seventh film in the franchise; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Yet, there’s a narrower scope on things this time around. The slapstick nature of their humor feels more at home in this setting, and therefore it feels more effective, more genuine. This isn’t a complete rewriting of their playbook, so if you’ve hated them from the beginning, you won’t be baptized as a new Minions devotee by the end of the film. But it, somehow, just feels a bit sweeter, a bit clearer, and just better. That’s mostly thanks to the excising of any major human characters from the plot. While there are certainly supporting players in the tribe’s journey, none of them overwhelm the plot like Sandra Bullock’s Scarlett Overkill or Steve Carrell’s young Gru did. It’s remarkably Minions focused and still manages to have a great deal of pathos and payoff. 

Coffin continues to imbue life into his little yellow creations, somehow delivering different vocal inflections, pitches, tics, and speech patterns regardless of the number of virtually identical Minions on screen. Waltz also seems to be having a blast voicing a pint-sized German film director who really believes in James’s storytelling spirit. Parker twists his voice around just as much as he does on his own show “South Park” and is also having a blast. The rest of the cast are almost cameos, but ones that clearly are having a lot of fun: Jeff Bridges (“The Big Lebowski,” “TRON”) as Frank and Elwood Bright, the twin brother heads of Bright Bros. Pictures, Allison Janney (“Juno,” “I, Tonya”) as Olivia, a Hollywood museum tour guide, and Zoey Deutch (“Zombieland: Double Tap,” “Nouvelle Vague”) as Debbie, a suffragette. Jesse Eisenberg (“Zombieland,” “The Social Network”) is a true standout, playing Dort, a robot clearly meant as a tribute to “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” He delivers the exaggerated, muffled robotic voice expected of stereotypical metal men from Mars types with note perfect effectiveness.

Eisenberg’s performance, and the presence of a character like Dort, is a perfect example of the deep reverence for Hollywood on display. Against all odds, Coffin and co-writer Brian Lynch (“Puss in Boots (2011),” “The Secret Life of Pets”) have delivered a plot that not only manages to stuff a ton of references to films and filmmakers like Charlie Chaplin, “Babylon,” “Ben-Hur,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” Buster Keaton, and “Safety Last,” but the setting provides for more than just a backdrop for those references. James and Henry have a clear and deep love of drawing and storytelling, and it shines through in a remarkably authentic way. We see the sets, the cameras, even the editing equipment of that time period. The film also uses the evolution of silent films to talkies as a major part of the plot and this tribe of Minions’ journey. It might take some time to pick up steam, with a slower than expected first 10 minutes, but once it does this film is choked full of genuine love for Old Hollywood to a truly unexpected degree.

John Powell (“How to Train Your Dragon,” “Shrek”) reteams with Illumination for the score and delivers a bold and bombastic tribute to the film’s era in every note. From xylophones to brass trumpets to choirs to simple whistles, the music seems to be right in step with the symphonic works of the 1950s and 60s. Even the animation seems cleaner, smoother, and squishier to accommodate the slapstick heavy nature of the era’s biggest stars like Chaplin and the Three Stooges. More important than any of that, there’s a deep, almost imperceivable passion for the medium running beneath the film and pumping up its energy. It’s as if Coffin has always wanted to make a tribute picture like this and snuck it into Illumination under the guise of the Minions. But, by infusing that passion with the classical early Hollywood slapstick nature of these little yellow guys, he’s crafted something unexpectedly great. Even the Minions themselves are embodiments of the best kind of silent-era humor: purely energetic comedic vessels with no goal other than to entertain.

At one point in the film, this gaggle of Minions finds themselves the stars of various silent movies. And that’s where the purest vision of these characters comes to life. These little yellow guys were always meant to be in the movies, but just not any with sound or color. By placing them in the era of Old Hollywood, Pierre Coffin has unlocked a new spirit within them that creates not only the best film in the franchise, but a full-throated celebration of creative vision and a love letter to Hollywood. Is it packed full of references? Yes, absolutely. Are there more detailed depictions of the era? You bet. But you’d be hard pressed to find any film that delivers a poop joke and a “Citizen Kane” tribute at the same time and makes them both work wonderfully. If that gets the six-year-old who’s obsessed with Minions to look up what “Citizen Kane” is or who Buster Keaton was, then so be it. 4.5/5