Minions & Monsters Review
A serviceable if occasionally baffling Minions outing if that’s your thing, with a few nice old time cinema references.
The Minions are back, and this time we explore their centuries-long journey to get close to where they are today. From working with some of the biggest baddies in history, to stumbling upon silent era Hollywood, the Minions discover a passion for filmmaking that tests their commitment to helping the big bad.
Minions and Monsters isn’t for me. There are plenty of kids films that try to play to both audiences - hell, Toy Story 5 came out the other day and that has to be the perfect blend of that concept. But Minions and Monsters isn’t trying to win over its adult audience. And that’s ok.
For the kids, there are shenanigans galore. Little yellow kippers travelling through the ages, plying their services to any bad guy they can find until they stumble upon the biggest bad of them all - Hollywood. And there, they find a home for a time. At least until the talkies descend on the place, and the Minions, with their lack of understandable English, are out on their butts again.
The film has a lot of fun with its historical references, and here some enjoyment can be derived for the adults. Think references to not only ancient mages, but also early era cinema stars like Charlie Chaplin and classic slapstick sequences. The actual plot involving the monsters doesn’t rear its head until quite late in the piece, which is a blessing because it is short shrift indeed. But overall, this rockets by at an amiably pace with little drama, and without over extending its welcome. The kids in the audience loved it, particularly the young ones.
