Minions and Monsters

When the first Minions movie was released in 2015, I thought there was only so much of those wild, yellow characters that it wouldn’t be able to sustain a full movie. Fast forward eleven years later and now they have a trilogy. Thankfully, Minions and Monsters actually proves that there’s still plenty of gas in the tank as it’s the funniest, most exciting and zaniest Minions movie yet.

This third installment takes place in 1927 and it features once again Pierre Coffin supplying the voices for all the Minions as they want to conquer Hollywood. At the beginning, we’re shown how they want to find an evil leader to serve but then they discover a train robbery which is later revealed to be part of a movie being made. Jeff Bridges is the voice of twins who run a film studio and wants to hire the Minions due to their amusing, frantic antics. Christoph Waltz is the voice of a director trying to guide them through their supposedly hopeful burgeoning careers.

When sound gets invented, the Minions can’t quite adjust to the new technique which leads to them getting fired, but they refuse to give up their dream of making a movie. Soon they’re wanting to conjure up a monster from a book of spells but it ends up being a tiny one. Trey Parker is the voice of the monster Goomi who brings along a couple of his own monsters.

There’s also a robot named Dort (Jesse Eisenberg) who is clearly inspired by the robot in the original version of The Day The Earth Stood Still. Dort wants to conquer Earth but the Minions see him as their potential new leader.

The movie has a lot of homages to classic movies such as Citizen Kane and Casablanca as well as sci-fi fare like E.T. and The Matrix but, thankfully, the movie is able to contain itself and not run amok with numerous pop culture references.

Minions and Monsters is actually a pleasant surprise in a sense. It has just enough story to keep it serviceable although it has too many plot threads at times. The rest of the movie features the same amount of zippy chaos and colorful imagination that fans of this series will appreciate.

I think the Despicable Me franchise might be wearing out its welcome but the Minions have enough energy, spirit and humor to make at least another adventure if the next film can remember what made this one work well. I don’t think the series is ready to yell cut, print and wrap, and maybe that’s a good thing.

Grade: B+

(Rated PG for violence/action, language and rude/macabre humor.)

Reviewer’s Note: I saw this movie at the Historic Strand in Jesup.