Opening this Independence Day weekend, here comes Minions & Monsters (not to be confused with an identically-named 2021 short of the same title), the latest in the animated comedy series which has shown considerable legs after spinning off from the Despicable Me franchise.
I’ve had to endure a few of these movies and found them all to be excruciating in varying degrees, but let’s face it – I’m not the target market here. This is a movie made primarily for kids, and with that in mind, I recruited my own minions, Olivia and Silas, to help offer up their own take on the latest outing of the chattering, yellow, silly, and some might say lovable, Minions.
The latest film is an indirect prequel to the familiar canon, primarily set in the 1920s and featuring a different cast of Minion characters. The main plot finds the Minions getting mixed up in Hollywood and summoning up Lovecraftian monsters – including Goomi, a pint-sized Cthulhu (Trey Parker in a voice that sounds a lot like South Park‘s Cartman).
The 1920s setting is the film’s best and most unique attribute, placing the Minions in silent-era Hollywood and, I think not coincidentally, contemporary to the works of H. P. Lovecraft. These are the film’s most interesting elements, and the best gag is a genuine tribute featuring the Minions hurtling, Pee-Wee Herman style, through iconic set-pieces from the original slapstick masters, Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd.
Like most of the films in the series, Minions & Monsters features an unduly stacked voice cast that unbelievably features Christoph Waltz, Allison Janney, Trey Parker, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, and Bobby Moynihan, alongside many staple animation voice artists (real ones know), like Phil LaMarr, Eric Bauza, John Kassir, Fred Tatasciore, Jessica DiCicco, and of course Pierre Coffin – he’s the voice of the Minions, and also the director of most of the films in the series, including this one.
That all being said, I found it pretty interminable overall, featuring the usual low-hanging humor that bounces off me. Certain elements and supporting characters felt slipshod and random. But kids were laughing, and the crowd was into it – the film’s end was met with a hearty applause.
Here’s what my kiddos, 11 and 9, shared.
Overall, they generally liked the film and its humor, with Olivia being the tougher critic. Both were less than enthused about the new group of Minion characters, preferring the familiar classic cast featuring Kevin, Stuart and Bob.
Liv cited a late cameo of those familiar characters as her favorite part of the movie, while Sy leaned more into the humor. He had some audible fits of laughter and his favorite scene was a slapstick gag involving a character painfully stepping on, and then sitting on, some Lego-esque building blocks.
When asked to analyze decisions that characters made, or glean a lesson from the movie, both looked past the displays of friendship or courage, instead landing on “Don’t open monster portals” as the moral of the story. (And in a sense, they’re not wrong – the Minions routinely make terrible decisions for comedy’s sake and to advance the story, including using a book of spells to open up portals and unleash evil entities).
Finally, the prospect of rewatchability was met with an emphatic “Yes” and more reserved “Maybe”, in keeping with their overall scores.
Olivia: ⭐⭐⭐
Silas: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Austin (Dad): ⭐½
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