Minions & Monsters review: Hilarious homage to Old Hollywood
The Minions have a direct line to my funny bone. I find these yellow gibberish-speaking fellas to be hilarious, even after four Despicable Me movies and now three Minions prequels. Their latest film, Minions & Monsters, is no exception – I laughed loads!
During a tour of The Magic of Hollywood exhibition, the tour guide (voiced by Allison Janney) tells her group the story of Minion filmmaking legends – James, Ed and Henry. While searching for their next big boss to serve, they accidentally infiltrate a Western movie and get involved in a chase. They prove to be a great hit and become Hollywood stars, until the talkies come in and their lack of English holds them back. James, Ed and Henry decide to make a movie of their own, Minions & Monsters, but with only a camera and no budget, they conjure monsters for real using a magical book.
I knew instantly from the concept that this would be right up my street. I love movies about making movies! This pays homage to old-school Hollywood studio filmmaking and is littered with nods to movies like Casablanca, Modern Times, Singin’ in the Rain (and so many more). There are so many references in this that it would take many eagle-eyed watches – and an impressive knowledge of Old Hollywood, silent films and classic monster movies – to spot them all. Obviously, most of these will go over children’s heads, but there’s plenty of slapstick, adventure and Minion silliness to keep them entertained while the adults can nerd out on the film stuff.
The first half is significantly stronger than the second. I thoroughly enjoyed a brief history of the Minions’ time with various big bads around the globe and their introduction to Hollywood. It feels less focused when the Minions go their separate ways – the filmmaking trio go off to make their movie with real monsters and the rest of them find a new master to serve, a robot named Dort (Jesse Eisenberg), who intends to take over the world. But it comes back together brilliantly in the finale when they have to face off against a ginormous orange blob.
The voice cast is stacked. In addition to director Pierre Coffin – who voices all of the Minions – there’s Janney as a tour guide, Jeff Bridges as studio bosses, the Bright Brothers, Eisenberg as the robot Dort (based on Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still), Zoey Deutch as his Suffragette love interest Debbie, Christoph Waltz as an European filmmaker named Max, Trey Parker and Bobby Moynihan as monsters Goomi and Phillips. They are all solid voice performers, but they don’t have a patch on Coffin. He’s so good as the hilarious Minions, and his ability to give them different personalities and make us grasp what they’re saying is very impressive.
Minions & Monsters is a fun family film that has plenty to offer both kids and adult movie fans. The most enjoyable animation of the year so far.
In cinemas from Wednesday 1st July