The Minions is a spin-off film from the incredibly successful Despicable Me franchise. It is a story of little baby sized, yellow gibbering bean-like creatures who, since the time of the dinosaurs and the dawn of man have been after one thing: to find a super evil villain to serve.
Now, throughout the millennia, the minions found it easy to find their evil masters, the trick however was keeping them. This struggle can be seen in the opening sequences where a T-Rex, a big angry caveman and Napoleon all meet disastrous yet hilarious ends. With the minions at a loss for a master to serve they become chronically fatigued until Kevin (above, middle) steps in to save the day with his companions Stuart and Bob. Their mission, to travel and search the world for the evilest master known to man!
The three amigos end up in 1960's New York City to begin their search. Cue references about disgraced President Nixon and rock legend Jimmy Hendrix. They then come across a 'store robbing' suburban family, which results in the three minions travelling to Florida to a Villain Convention. The film's best moments shine when they enter the convention as they come across a scientist name Flux and see the evil-super-villain Scarlet Overkill in action (voiced by Sandra Bullock).
The film did turn a bit wayward though when the action turned to London after the minions traveled there to work for evil temptress Overkill. The stereotyping of the British way of life makes it obvious the film was an American animated production. Although I did chuckle quite often with the over exaggeration of London police and their obsession with tea. In fact there is one clip where one of the 'coppers' is sternly pouring his tea during a high speed chase through London.
All in all though, I thought Minions succeeded. After all this is the film that every child and even a few adults have been waiting for. It is a film completely about the adorable little friends that have took every toy store around the world by storm. The jokes are a bit slap stick at times, which bodes well with kids, but their are subtle jokes that adults will laugh at too; such as the faking of the moon landing.
The minions themselves are voiced by French co-director of the franchise Pierre Coffin. Therefore when the minions speak, a slight nod to the french language can be heard. There are words such as "le" and "mademoiselle" littered throughout their gibberish speech.
What this film lacked was a sense of self realisation, a characteristic that was strongly present in Despicable Me 1 & 2, but Minions compensates with outright fun and slap stick innocence.
It really tickled me yellow! 7.1/10
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