The world holds few certainties: Death and taxes, of course, but a Minions-related sequel and/or prequel consistently generating a 10:1 return on investment is a close third. Over almost two decades, the yellow-hued, pill-shaped, overall-wearing chaos agents, supporting characters in the long-running Despicable Me series—and the breakout characters of their own profitable spinoffs— continue to enchant slapstick-loving preteens, tweens, and their indulgent-to-a-fault parents.
The third prequel and seventh overall entry in the multi-media franchise that began with 2010’s Despicable Me, the shockingly delightful Minions & Monsters, opens inside a film history museum as an over-enthusiastic tour guide, Olivia (Allison Janney), turns a question about an exhibit into a feature-length story-within-the-film that doubles as a memory refresher. She recounts the historic tale of the eternally juvenile, seemingly immortal, likely indestructible Minions who pursue their preprogrammed mandate to find and serve an unparalleled villain, a.k.a. “Big Boss,” across the centuries. Out of the Minion mass, only the go-along-to-get-along James, a born storyteller, and his friends Henry and Ed pull against the Minions and their genetic heritage.
Except, of course, as well-meaning as the Minion horde might be, the havoc-filled, comical results of their efforts run counter to their collective intent: One villain after another falls, often literally, to an accident or series of accidents, leaving the Minions boss-free and back on their never-ending search for a new master to serve. Here we watch them alongside a giant, ogreish cyclops in a loincloth, a dastardly warlock with a 15-foot beard, and eventually, an Old West, train-robbing outlaw on horseback attempting to escape a lawman and his posse across a desert landscape.
In the first of several increasingly cinephile-pleasing meta-twists, the Minions find themselves not in the Old West, but in Old Hollywood, on an outdoor set in the 1920s. Pursuing the outlaw they pegged as their Big Boss into Los Angeles, the Minions inadvertently hijack a train, leaving an elaborately choreographed, Easter Egg-filled swath of destruction in their wake. Silent film stars Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd all make an appearance, as do the Keystone Kops. Each, in turn, responds in bewilderment to the Minions and their antics.
As they cross paths with a Hollywood director, Max (Christoph Waltz), and his studio bosses, Frank and Elwood Bright (Jeff Bridges), the Minions star in a series of silent films, acquire a mansion, and throw G-rated, Babylon-inspired parties, with James and Henry as the collective “face” of the Minions. Almost immediately, the Minions become Silent Age stars, but as with most stars of the era, their meteoric rise inevitably leads to a meteoric fall back to penury and with it, a loss of purpose and a renewed search for existential meaning.
In any other film, animated or otherwise, the gag-filled vignette- and montage-heavy structure of Minions & Monsters’ first half might be considered a problem, but it only becomes obvious when the second half settles into a conventional story, with the Minions splitting into two unequal factions. One is led by the Big Boss-obsessed Dick, and the other by James. Dick and his Minions believe they’ve found their new leader in an alien robot, Dort (Jesse Eisenberg), who is both ill-suited and ill-prepared for his world-conquering mission, while Henry and Ed help James pursue his filmmaking dreams.
With shades of The Lost World, King Kong, and the kaiju to come, James has a dream filled with the city-smashing, building-sized monsters of the title. But with few resources to hand except his friends and a movie camera gifted by Max, James turns to a book of spells salvaged from their brief warlock-serving days. Their first effort to conjure a Lovecraftian monster from the book, Goomi (Trey Parker), fails in a sense. The new addition to their filmmaking team isn’t building-sized as hoped. He’s pint-sized and looks less like a fearsome, city-stomping monster than a huggable plushie. Seeing their disappointment, Goomi offers to convince a couple of his monstrous friends to help with James’ film project.
While the third act all too predictably stumbles into a “save the city, save the world” rut, the goodwill generated by the first and second acts helps counter the déjà vu moviegoers will inevitably experience. That said, Minions & Monsters is still filled with cleverly conceived and brilliantly executed sight gags, all-ages verbal humour, and rapid-fire film references drawn from a century’s worth of history and genres. James and his filmmaking dreams, the late-arriving Dort’s swerve into a romantic subplot involving a strong-willed suffragette, Debbie (Zoey Deutch), and Goomi’s heel turn make the third act’s familiarity all but moot.
Ultimately, children will be entranced, parents reasonably engaged, and cinephiles pleasantly surprised with this seventh entry in the Despicable Me franchise. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to ask for anything more from a sixteen-year-old series, let alone a prequel where the once central character, Gru (Steve Carell), doesn’t make even a token appearance. Undoubtedly, Gru will return in another Despicable Me sequel down the road, as will the Minions—in both the Gru-led entries and in their own, standalone series. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Minions & Monsters opens in theatres on Wednesday, July 1, via Universal Pictures Canada.
