Illumination sends the yellow menace back to Old Hollywood for a monster-movie origin story that’s stuffed with silent-era references and sea-creature chaos — and somehow still finds time for a robot romance.
Minions & Monsters is the latest installment in the Despicable Me series of films from Illumination and Universal Pictures, giving us the “true story” of how one Minion tribe rose to fame in Hollywood, lost it, and then regained it.
The animated film is directed by Pierre Coffin (who also voices the Minions) and was written by Coffin and Brian Lynch. It tells the story of a Minion tribe who, like the others we’ve seen in the previous films, search for evil bosses to serve, which usually ends in disaster.
The film starts in the present day with a tour group in a film museum with tour guide Olivia (Allison Janney, The West Wing) describing the exhibits. When a little girl asks about an exhibit showing two Minions, Olivia reveals they are named James and Henry, kicking off our story.
They were part of a Minion tribe searching the globe for an evil boss to serve. James is not as interested in those pursuits, preferring to draw fantastical things, and he ends up befriending Henry. Another Minion, Ed, who is mute and has developed a Minion sign language, also hangs out with them. One of their first attempts with a boss is a Cyclops who kicks them out after several disastrous attempts at servitude (including an incident involving some proto-LEGO bricks). Eventually they end up serving an evil warlock who leaves them unattended near his spellbook, which leads to calamity when they summon a deceptively cute-looking beast who kills the warlock. As they leave, Ed manages to grab the spellbook from the castle ruins.
After many long years they end up in the desert, where they encounter a gunman being chased by lawmen. The chase proceeds on a train that ends up crashing in Hollywood, ruining a silent film shoot. Director Max (Christoph Waltz), furious with the Minions, sends them away, but then he screens the footage for the Bright Studios owners. Frank and Elwood Bright (Jeff Bridges) realize that the Minions are comedy gold and anoint them the darlings of Hollywood. However, when sound shakes up the film industry, their fortunes crash due to their inability to speak non-Minion gibberish.
Max feels sorry for them and gives them a camera, which they decide to use to create the monster movie that James has always wanted to make. They summon a creature from the spellbook, but instead of the giant tentacled monster pictured in the book, they get a small creature not unlike a miniature Cthulhu, named Goomi (Trey Parker of South Park fame).
Meanwhile, the rest of the tribe have abandoned the filmmaking trio, hooking up with a robot named Dort (Jesse Eisenberg) that they met at the first science fiction convention. Dort’s plans for world domination are derailed when he falls for Debbie (Zoey Deutch), a suffragette who can been seen protesting in earlier scenes. Dort, who bears a striking resemblance to the imposing alien automaton Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, starts hanging out with Debbie, with the Minions predictably tagging along.
Meanwhile, Goomi frees two sea monsters, Howard (Phil Lamarr) and Phillip (Bobby Moynihan), who have been on ice for ages, to star as the monsters in James’ movie, duping the Minions into summoning Irene (a giant orange blob with thousands of eyes) as part of an evil plan to devour the Earth.
Things get even crazier as the story threads collide, with the filmmaker Minions trying to stop Irene with the help of Dort and the other Minions before the creature can devour Hollywoodland.
Overall, this is a fun take on Old Hollywood, with many nods to classic Tinseltown, but it all rushes by at a pace so fast that it can be hard to keep up. The storyline can get quite silly, but it will conjure a lot of laughs for the kids in the audience as well as observant adults. Film buffs will especially enjoy all the cinematic references, notably including a cameo by a famous flannelled filmmaker.
Minions & Monsters doesn’t really require any knowledge of the prior Despicable Me or Minions movies (although diehard fans will catch a lot of references in the amusing end credits). If you have kids, you will be as entertained by these escapades as they are – if not more so.
Minions & Monsters opens everywhere on July 1.
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