Yellow, Mellow, And Old Hollywood: Why New ‘Minions’ Movie Won Me Over

I never thought I’d see the day I would give a Minions movie a good review, let alone see one. Since these tiny yellow one-and two-eyed creatures appeared as monsters created in the first “Despicable Me” film in 2010, they have been making constant appearances in follow-up “Despicable Me” sequels along with their own films. I’ve been doing my best to avoid them. I don’t even like watching trailers of their films. As sparsely-used comic-relief, they’re tolerable. But a film of their own where they’re in every scene? No sir, my head would explode.

That brings me to “Minions & Monsters,” and as you can see above, I’ve given this film an 8 out of 10 rating. Even that boggles my own mind, but to be fair, open-minded, and, gulp, non-judgmental, the film deserves this kind of praise. It’s a wildly creative and inventive use of these yellow blobs of whatever-they-are in a story that traces their fictional rise in the film industry harkening back to Old Hollywood. And the filmmaker’s clever use of blending the ridiculous nature of these irritating babbling creatures into the classic lore of Tinseltown circa 1920s-1930s was a stroke of genius.

Credit goes to the screenwriting team of Brian Lynch and Pierre Coffin with Coffin directing, doing what is arguably a 180 for a Minions movie, shifting the story as a tribute to the origins of the American film industry that began in earnest in L.A. in the 1920s. What they’ve done is fictionalize the Minions as an integral part of that growth, placing them in one-after-another hilarious spoofs of iconic characters of the era…Harold Llyod, Charlie Chaplain, Buster Keaton – and classic films such as “Citizen Kane” and “Casablanca.” The spoofing is side-splittingly hilarious poking fun at our own film industry as tastefully as possible, this being a Minions movie.  The genius behind this central storyline is simple: it uses the Minions as minimally possible while somehow keeping them in the foreground, but cleverly within the context of the film that serves as one big studio setup, which is something you don’t realize until the end. With the Minions appearing in 6 previous films (2010-2024), this being their 7th film, these annoying little creatures have amassed a huge following amongst children who don’t know better, fed a steady diet of fart and below-the-belt humor, a trademark style of their humor…and to nauseating effect.  But not so much in this film. Yes, there are your standard brainless sight-gags designed to make the 6-to-10 kids giggle, but broadening its audience in paying homage to classic Hollywood for those who know these legendary comedians or movies being spoofed, giving the film added punch. In this film, the Minions have become narratively “relevant” to older folk, though most children will be clueless as to who Chaplain and Keaton were. It’s a welcome dynamic to a Minions movie.

Despite prominent voice talents including the likes of Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Bridges, Zoey Deutch – even George Lucas – the incomprehensible babbling the Minions unleash still remains annoying, aimed to amuse youngsters of their goofiness. I’ve elected to only give you an overview of the film’s concept which, to me, matters more than describing specific subplots that would likely confuse many in the audience. This broader perspective serves a more useful purpose to encounter the film on its own outrageously wacky terms. “Minions & Monsters” opened at theaters on July 1st.

If you like this story, you can get a whole lot more practically every day of the week by subscribing to journal-topics.com. Click here to choose your preference of either print or online, or call 847-299-5511.