Movie Review: Minions
This just in, in case you hadn’t heard, kids like movies too. After the success of Despicable Me (2010) and its sequel, Despicable Me II (2012), it was inevitable that we would see more little yellow fellows doing hilarious things while making the oddest of sounds. Since no summer movie season would be complete without several films made especially for children, we’re treated to the third entry in the 
series, Minions, a prequel to the Gru-oriented films. This time around, we follow Stuart, Kevin, and Bob (all minion voices done by Pierre Coffin). Basically, it’s an origin story for the minions at large.
Minions is directed by Kyle Balda (The Lorax [2012]) and Pierre Coffin, from the prior minion-related movies and written by Brian Lynch (Hop [2011] and Puss and Boots [2011]). Of course, once you have Coffin, the original voice of the minions, you are long way towards ensuring success for the film.
The story begins with the back-story of the minions. They have been with us since the dawn of time and have had a bit of a rough go of it. As we all know, the minions passion is to find an evil master to serve in order for them to feel fully complete. They are, after all, born henchmen. However, finding a fitting boss back in the Jurassic period or the Dark Ages, for example, proved to be difficult indeed as the masters had a tendency to die off at some point. Usually due to unforeseen, possibly minion related, circumstances. Eventually we find the minion tribe alone in a cold icy cave where they stay for many years. Safe to build their own uniquely odd civilization of sorts. The problem is that this leaves them feeling somewhat incomplete. They must serve in order to be happy. Sort of like Captain America but with much more yellow involved. Kevin, the tall one, decides he must venture back out into human civilization to find the tribe a villain to serve under. He takes his two trusty, if less than Mensa-level, companions along on this journey. They are Stuart and Bob. Bob is the shortest minion and carries a teddy bear, Timmy, with him everywhere.
The fellows happen across information that there is a meeting coming up that will gather villains from all over the world. They decide to head that way forthwith –to Orlando. Along the way they meet, via a hitchhiking misadventure, the Nelsons. Walter Nelson (Michael Keaton) and Madge Nelson (Allison Janney), along with their entire family, are on the way to the big meet-up in Orlando too so the minions get a free ride to the big show.
Once in town the minions meet the greatest super-villain of all time, Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock). The minions are quickly recruited by Scarlet and whisked away to her lair where they meet her husband Herb (Jon Hamm), who is a mad-inventor of epic proportions. Naturally, at this point we proceed with an initiation mission, a plot to overthrow the world (or parts thereof), and several spectacular set pieces. But I won’t ruin any of that for you here. The important thing is that the kids will have fun.
The animation work is a perfect match to what has come before, so there can certainly be no complaints on that front. The film is very much of a piece with the prior movies. From the sounds (Coffin) of the minions to the ratchet-clank of the Rube Goldeberg-esque inventions, it feels like you would expect and that is a plus. No unnecessary re-booting or re-imagining here.
Based on the standard Frankenstein kid test pattern, whereby I analyze how many times my child gets nervous/worried or simply freaks out during the louder and more violent scenes, I rate this a one on the ten point scale. Only one nervous incident occurred during the entire movie – which should be welcome news for any parent.
The slapstick, juvenile humor of the minions is perfectly sprinkled throughout the entire film. But, at the same time, the historical references and the performance of Bullock who clearly attacked this role with gleeful abandon, as it is so against type for her, both serve to make the film enjoyable for adults as well. (There is nothing worse than sitting through an awful kid film.)
The only downside to Minions is the predictably small role that Gru (Steve Carell) has in the film. There is simply not enough Gru. I understand that he is the small fry this time around and that the minions are stepping up from comic relief to headliners, but you cannot have too much Carell. All in all though, this is a good flick for all concerned. But one tip to parents, there is another kid flick out at your local multiplexes that is, shall we say, very “emotion” based, that is really a fair bit better. Both are good, but if you only have room for one film in your movie budget then Minions should not be the first choice.
Steven Gahm
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