There was a point where it felt as though the Minions had exhausted every conceivable avenue of chaos. After multiple Despicable Me entries and two standalone adventures, these yellow agents of destruction seemed destined to endlessly recycle the same collection of slapstick gags, gibberish conversations and increasingly frantic set pieces. Minions & Monsters doesn’t entirely completely escape that formula, but it does find an unexpectedly fresh way to repackage it.
Set largely against the backdrop of 1920s Hollywood, the film follows James and Henry (voiced by director/co-writer Pierre Coffin), two Minions whose search for a new villainous master accidentally leads them to the movie business. What begins as a playful riff on silent-era filmmaking gradually evolves into a celebration of cinema itself, as the pair discover a passion for storytelling and attempt to create a monster movie of their own. Naturally, things go catastrophically wrong.
What makes Minions & Monsters stand out is how genuinely affectionate it is towards film history. Coffin and co-writer Brian Lynch clearly have a deep appreciation for the art form, weaving references to silent comedy, classic monster movies and Old Hollywood mythology throughout the narrative. From nods to Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd to playful homages to Citizen Kane, Casablanca and countless B-movies, the film often feels less like a children’s spin-off and more like a surprisingly earnest love letter to cinema.
The first half is easily the strongest. There’s an infectious energy to the Minions’ rise through the silent-film era, aided by the clever observation that these characters, who communicate largely through physical comedy and nonsense language, are perfectly suited to a world before dialogue became king. The transition to talking pictures provides some of the film’s sharpest humour and most inventive ideas.
It’s also where the film feels at its most ambitious. For a franchise built on fart jokes and banana obsession, there’s something unexpectedly heartfelt about watching these characters discover creativity, friendship and artistic purpose. James and Henry form an appealing central duo, their unwavering support for one another giving the story a surprising emotional anchor.
Unfortunately, Minions & Monsters eventually retreats to safer territory. Once giant creatures begin terrorising the city and the plot shifts into a more conventional monster-adventure framework, much of the novelty evaporates. The second half is entertaining enough (thanks, in large part, to the enthusiastic voice work of Trey Parker as Goomi, a Cthulhu-resembling monster conjured for the sake of James and Henry’s intended movie) but it lacks the spark and originality that make the Hollywood satire so enjoyable. You can almost feel the film wrestling between its more adventurous instincts and the obligation to deliver the familiar brand of large-scale Minion mayhem.
That tension ultimately defines the experience. These spin-offs were never particularly necessary, which may explain why they’ve increasingly embraced a kind of glorious lunacy. There’s an odd, almost sadistic streak running through the Minions’ world, where catastrophe follows them with relentless inevitability. Here, that chaos occasionally brushes against something more interesting – a cartoon cousin to Babylon, filtered through family-friendly absurdity and bright yellow mascots.
The animation remains vibrant and energetic, the voice cast – including Jeff Bridges (as a brotherly duo of film studio bosses), Christoph Waltz (as a film director enlisted to give the Minions their movie) and Jesse Eisenberg (as the oddly adorable Dort, an alien robot that the Minions see as their potential boss) – adds welcome personality, and the film moves briskly enough that younger audiences are unlikely to lose interest. Adults, meanwhile, may find themselves unexpectedly charmed by its affection for the movies.
Minions & Monsters doesn’t reinvent the franchise, but it does remind us why these characters became popular in the first place. Beneath the noise, nonsense and destruction is a surprisingly sincere appreciation for storytelling itself. Even if the film ultimately settles for being good rather than great, that’s enough to make this one of the more enjoyable Minions outings in recent memory.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Minions & Monsters is screening in Australian theatres from June 25th, 2026, before opening in the United States on July 1st.
*Image credit: Universal Pictures Australia.
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