Hollywood’s latest summer blockbuster has hit theaters. Minions & Monsters is the seventh and latest installment in the Despicable Me franchise. While the slapstick, cartoonish humor is meant to appeal to kids, the gags are surprising and outlandish enough to earn plenty of laughs from teens and adults alike. The film also includes a wealth of cinematic references, offering nods that both casual moviegoers and film aficionados will recognize and appreciate.
The seventh film in the franchise serves as a prequel to the others. It is structured similarly to 2015’s Minions, following the yellow, pill-shaped creatures as they search throughout history and across the world for an evil leader. Eventually, they arrive in late-1920s Hollywood, where Henry, James, and Ed (Pierre Coffin) work with Goomi (Trey Parker) to summon monsters for their own creature feature, while Dick and the rest of the Minions choose Dort (Jesse Eisenberg) as their ruler and follow him on his quest to conquer the world.
Most of the film takes place during Hollywood’s transition from silent films to talking pictures. From the opening credits, the movie serves as an ode to filmmaking, superimposing the Minions into some of cinema’s earliest films. References to classics such as Modern Times, Safety Last!, The Maltese Falcon, and Citizen Kane are sprinkled throughout. The film is clearly intended as a love letter to Hollywood, and its painstaking attention to detail shines through.
Despite having little connection to the rest of the franchise’s storyline, Minions & Monsters may be one of, if not the best, films in the series. Its standalone nature allows the filmmakers to create a self-contained story that expands the Despicable Me universe without being constrained by established continuity. Every major character is new to the franchise, giving each room to grow and develop without competing for screen time with familiar faces. The split narrative also helps balance the film, as either storyline on its own might have felt underdeveloped. At its core, the movie plays like a feature-length classic cartoon: a continuous string of jokes tied together by a heartfelt story about friendship and pursuing dreams.
Ultimately, Minions & Monsters has a tremendous amount of originality and heart, making it an entertaining experience for audiences of all ages.
Score: 🍿🍿🍿🍿 (4 out of 5 stars)
Runtime: 1 hour, 30 minutes
MPA Rating: PG
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