Minion Henry, voiced by Pierre Coffin, left, and Goomi, voiced by Trey Parker, in a scene from Illumination's Minions & Monsters.Illumination/The Associated Press
Minions & Monsters
Directed by Pierre Coffin
Written by Bryan Lynch and Pierre Coffin
Starring Pierre Coffin, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges
Length 90 mins
Classification G
What if the Minions made a monster movie?
That was the idea that Illumination founder Chris Meledandri proposed to Pierre Coffin, the French animator-director who has co-directed four films in the franchise and voiced every single one of the globally beloved characters. Coffin had thought he was done with the Minions, but the idea of the gibberish-speaking vivid yellow creatures making movies was a light bulb moment. He signed on to the project, his first solo directorial turn in the series.
The plan – to tell a rambunctious, ridiculous and totally true (wink, wink) story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, broke into factions, accidentally unleashed monsters set on destroying the world and then come together to save everyone from the mayhem they created – works, for the most part. The movie doesn’t feel overly long, lurching from one gag to another pratfall, all the while giggling with derisive delight that’s infectious. The story meanders in parts to serve a larger narrative purpose that’s absurd. Is it fun? Yes. Is there any larger purpose? No. Will there be endless memes? Bien sur!
The film details the Minions' long history in Hollywood.Illumination/The Associated Press
Minions & Monsters is an ode to Hollywood. The movie opens with a sequence that unspools the Universal Pictures logo of today back to the 1900s origins of the studio. And wouldn’t you know it, in this make-believe world, the Minions were part of that crackling, black-and-white silent film era.
We get into the story through museum tour guide Olivia (Allison Janney), who is aghast that a group of visitors is not aware of the Minions’ long history in Hollywood. That this follows a cameo by George Lucas stuck in a Perspex glass case is just the beginning of the logic-defying leaps of narrative. As Olivia tells her enthralled audience of young and old alike, Minions tribes have been around across history. Their search for the most villainous master to serve has led them across many terrains, but the lovable mischief-makers always managed to kill their “evil boss,” as the Minions like to address their chosen leader, in a range of hilarious disasters.
Their search eventually leads them to a movie set, where a German-accented director Max (Christoph Waltz) is trying to shoot a carefully staged scene featuring a train robbery in the style of a classic western. The Minions’ invasion of the set should have been catastrophic, but Bright Brothers studio heads Frank and Elwood (Jeff Bridges playing both) are delighted by the chaos. The Minions become overnight stars. It seems as if the world is at their diminutive feet.
The Minions with German-accented director Max, voiced by Christoph Waltz.Illumination/The Associated Press
But when the silent film era gives way to the talkies, the Minions fail to deliver the dialogues. Suddenly they have fallen out of Old Hollywood’s grace. The tribe once again begins their search for an evil boss. Except for three Minions: James, Henry and Ed.
From the outset, James had been an outsider, the artistic Minion with a soul and penchant for storytelling. His medium is drawing, and he keeps documenting the group’s many antics. When the Minions make it to Hollywood, James finds a purpose. His interactions with Max fill him with dreams of making his own movie. Henry is James’s best friend and champion, always ready to giggle when they’re slacking off or championing James’s idea. And Ed is the first hearing-impaired Minion, who joins James and Henry’s mission to make a monster movie.
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The monsters come by way of a prior interaction with an evil boss – a wizard. His spell book unleashes Goomi (Trey Parker), whose tiny, green, somewhat cute appearance belies his true intentions. Ostensibly helping James to make their monster movie, Goomi releases more monsters to take over the planet.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Minions have found another evil boss, the mysterious robot-alien Dort (Jesse Eisenberg). Additional threads of the suffragette movement are also thrown in for good measure. Somehow it all comes together to a raucous end. Friendships torn asunder are repaired, the Minions take on the monsters and save Hollywood, James earns a Banana award.
Does it make sense? No. Nevertheless, the film is entertaining across generations and well into the credits roll. The young ones will be delighted by the Minions’ pranks, chortling along with their devilish grins and guffaws, and their Esperanto-inspired gibberish yelling por favor. Older audiences will enjoy the throwback to vintage Hollywood that we rarely get to see or hear these days – that swell of music, that elevated movie language inspired by movies such as Casablanca or Singin’ in the Rain or the slapstick comedy of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. The cinephiles will recognize all manner of Easter eggs, including references to iconic scenes from Modern Times and Citizen Kane, among others.