Rating 8/10
Kevin, Stuart, and Bob are usually the Minions who run the show, but not this time. Minions & Monsters introduces an entirely new group. It’s 1927, and silent films are making way for sound. Meet James, a one-eyed minion with an artist’s soul. While most of the little yellow troublemakers are obsessed with finding the world’s greatest villain to serve, James has a more sympathetic goal. He wants to make movies.
He teams up with fellow minions Henry and Ed. Like the others, all three are voiced by director Pierre Coffin. Meanwhile, the tribe’s stubborn leader, Dick, is less than thrilled by this creative detour. He’s irritated by James’ filmmaking ambitions and insists the tiny henchmen stick to their time-honored tradition of serving evil masters. That tension sends the plot in two directions: James, Henry, and Ed follow the dream of directing a creature feature, while Dick oversees the rest of the tribe in search of the next great supervillain.
The Minions’ latest escapade finds them in the middle of what looks like a train robbery. Surprise! They’ve actually stumbled into the making of a Hollywood production. Director Max (Christoph Waltz) is horrified, but executives Frank and Elwood (both Jeff Bridges) see box-office gold. James, Henry, Ed, and the others become silent-cinema sensations. Then sound arrives, and the Minions’ gibberish proves less than ideal for talkies.
Calling this a love letter to old Hollywood kind of undersells what it does. The screenplay weaves silent-era slapstick into the story, treating movie history as a toy box of gags. In the opening credits, the Minions are inserted into Eadweard Muybridge’s famous galloping horse images. Later come riffs on Charlie Chaplin’s gear-grinding factory from Modern Times, Buster Keaton’s falling-house stunt from Steamboat Bill, Jr., Harold Lloyd dangling from the clock in Safety Last!, and even a hilarious albeit lowbrow take on the snow globe scene from Citizen Kane. None of these references is random. They all arise naturally out of the story. Adults who love film history will have plenty to enjoy. I certainly did. Children won’t recognize the cinematic homages, but they won’t need to. The silly shenanigans and monster mayhem will still delight its core audience.
Composer John Powell’s score also helps distinguish this entry from the more pop-heavy soundtracks in the series. His boisterous, Golden Age orchestral music gives the atmosphere a sweeping, old-fashioned energy. The score elevates the comedy and makes the chaos feel grand.
The monster-movie second half introduces Goomi (Trey Parker), a small Cthulhu-like creature. He promises to help James find the perfect beasts for his feature, which leads to Phillips (Bobby Moynihan) and Howard (Phil LaMarr), a pair of creatures he frees for his own not-so-innocent purposes. Eventually, all roads lead to Irene, a giant orange blob whose full impact is best left to be discovered.
Meanwhile, Dick’s storyline guides the other Minions to Dort (Jesse Eisenberg), an alien robot they see as their next potential boss. Dort is like Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, although he is far less intimidating. He is more of an awkward romantic. His strange courtship of Debbie (Zoey Deutch), a strong-willed suffragette, is one of the oddest plot deviations. American women had already won the constitutional right to vote in 1920, so the suffragette angle raises questions. Perhaps writers Brian Lynch and Pierre Coffin mean to remind us that the broader fight for equality was far from over. Regardless, I went with it.
The two threads collide when Irene’s rampage forces James, Henry, Ed, Dick, Dort, and the rest of the Minions into a unified finale. The picture does lose some momentum. The saga segues into a chaotic, action-filled free-for-all. However, at a mere 90 minutes, that is a minor quibble. At heart, this is one of the franchise’s most inventive entries, driven by a joy for motion pictures. That affection for cinema is what keeps the whole thing humming. The movie may worship silent comedy, but my laughter did not stay quiet.
07-02-26