‘Minions & Monsters’ movie review: A yellow-blue love letter to old Hollywood

George Lucas clutching a cup of coffee inside a glass cage begging to be let off is one of those silly-smart, giggle-snort-inducing moments in Minions & Monsters, the third film in the Despicable Me prequel series.

During a film history tour with the Lucas exhibit, the tour guide, Olivia (Allison Janney), talks about James and Henry, and their important contribution to films. When the tour members reveal no knowledge of James and Henry, Olivia decides to tell them the story of how these goggle-eyed yellow creatures ruled, ruined and raised Hollywood.

A different group of minions (not Kevin, Stuart and Bob, who are Gru’s henchmen), led by Dick, sail the seven seas in search of an evil master to serve. While all the minions are happy following Dick’s lead, one minion, called James, loves to paint and tell stories. He becomes fast friends with Henry. Ed, who is hard of hearing, joins the duo.

An unfortunate event involving a painting causes the minions to be banished from the Cyclops’ island. Another ill-fated encounter with a spell book puts paid to their ambitions of serving an evil enchanter. After mistaking a mummy’s bindings for toilet paper and other mishaps, the minions land in 1920s Hollywood.

While their brush with movies starts as a series of catastrophic events, they are soon the toast of tinsel town, living quite the movie-star life till the appearance of sound causes them to be fired since no one understands their language. James, who dreams of making a film, decides to go ahead and do just that, dusting off the old spell book to find the requisite monster. All comes right after all manner of merry mayhem.

A still from ‘Minions & Monsters’
| Photo Credit:
Illumination

The colours are lovely and the action frenetic. The voice work is excellent. Everyone, from director Pierre Coffin, voicing the minions, to Trey Parker as the villainous Goomi, Christoph Waltz as the film director Max, who helps the minions, Jesse Eisenberg as Dort, the alien who wants to take over the world, and Jeff Bridges as Frank and Elwood Bright, the film bros and studio bosses, inject verve into their characters.

The humour is smart and silly. Inserting the minions into classic Hollywood scenes, from getting trapped in the assembly line with Charlie Chaplin (Modern Times) to hanging on the hands of the clock (The 39 Steps) and a façade falling down (Steamboat Bill, Jr.) is funny in a warm, fuzzy way. While younger audiences might not get all the Hollywood nostalgia, the visual gags are funny on their own.

The Dort story arc is sweet, from his apartment-lair to his grumpy landlady for whom he stops his world domination plans to get blueberry muffins and milk. The humour has no time to get repetitive in the brisk 90-minute running time.

The fact that we have no trouble following Minionese, the entirely made-up language the minions speak, underlines the fact that the language of cinema is truly universal.

Minions & Monsters is currently running in theatres