'Minions & Monsters' Review: A Surprisingly Charming Ode To Classic Hollywood
The chaotic minions are back for the third installment in their spinoff franchise for Minions & Monsters, a surprisingly charming adventure that lovingly pays homage to the golden age of Hollywood.
‘Minions & Monsters’ centers on a sizable group of minions who are traveling far and wide in order to find a new villain to serve. After many failed attempts to do so with a wide variety of nefarious figures, they stumble into Hollywood during the 1920s where they quickly become film icons. However, after their fame fades away with the newfound implementation of sound in film, three of the minions decide to embark on a journey to create their own monster movie using actual monsters. However, utilizing real monsters for their film has inevitably disastrous consequences.
The ‘Despicable Me’ and ‘Minions’ franchises have of course been immensely popular, but the quality of the films themselves have ranged from perfectly fine to quite mediocre. However, placing the beloved banana loving creatures in 1920s Hollywood was an inspired choice to say the least, resulting in by far and away the best entry into this beloved franchise. Seeing the minions dropped into a litany of classic film genres like period pieces, film noir, westerns and sci-fi films is a genuine treat, their bombastic and unpredictable nature well-suited for each as they make their imprint on tinseltown. Safe to say, seeing the minions in their own version of Orson Welles’ ‘Citizen Kane’ is a dizzyingly funny highlight. These bits are where Illumination truly shines here, finally beginning to stray away from their usual visual aesthetic that has become such a singular, but increasingly stale staple.
There are significantly more visual flourishes from the animation team this go around, not only able to give each Hollywood film the minions happen to be cast in have their own enveloping and wonderfully authentic panache, but give the setting the infectious energy it needs to sell the allure as well. With ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ and now this latest entry, the animation studio seems keen on breaking free from the narrative and visual formula that has made them such a household staple, an encouraging sign of innovation and evolution rather than steadfast complacency. Simply put, this is their most visually ambitious film to date and if they continue to push past the parameters they’ve set in years past, they may be able to go toe to toe with their competitors like Sony, Dreamworks and Pixar at long last.
As with any installment in this franchise, it has attracted a bevy of notable voice talent. In this latest entry, the minions are joined by the likes of Zoey Deutch, Jesse Eisenberg, Trey Parker, Christoph Waltz and Jeff Bridges in dual roles as The Bright Brothers, the heads of a major Hollywood studio. Fortunately, their talents are put to good use, especially Waltz who plays a filmmaker named Max who becomes an endearing mentor figure for James, the minion most awestruck and inspired by the magic of filmmaking. Their dynamic becomes one of the film’s highlights, filled to the brim with warmth that also happens to showcase Waltz’s knack for voice work. Eisenberg is also clearly having a grand old time playing Dort, a dorky, but lovable robot who aims to conquer Earth, but instead falls for a young woman named Debbie voiced by Deutch instead. However, it’s the main trio of the minions James, Henry and Ed that is the film’s biggest asset.
Centering the film on these three minions in particular was a welcomed choice. Watching them slowly become best friends and forge their unbreakable bond was incredibly charming, the three of them becoming the offbeat, left of center outliers to their minion clan that are impossible not to love. Their core friendship becomes the beating heart of the film, especially as their monster movie gets out of hand after they discover actual monsters with the assistance of Parker’s villainous Goomi. The chaotic and erratic behavior of the minions can easily become grating so fleshing out this select few of them was a choice that works wonders for the Hollywood drenched tale Illumination weaves here.
Unfortunately, there are still a fair amount of issues that hold this sequel back from being truly great. First and foremost, the usual schtick of the minions is once again on fully display, a fair amount of their humor and slapstick simply not landing, clearly catering to a much younger demographic. While there are certainly some clever touches throughout, much more so than previous installments, the majority of the humor has that lackluster Illumination quality that feels far too predictable and lazy. Making matters worse is the film’s third act, which leans heavily into being a tired and generic disaster film involving monsters. While the final act ups the ante in terms of scope, it isn’t nearly as compelling as the first two acts of the film. It also doesn’t help that the entire subplot involving the remainder of the minions and Eisenberg’s Dort ultimately feels superfluous and underwhelming in the grand scheme of things.
‘Minions & Monsters’ is far better than it has any right to be, not only successfully being a charming homage and love letter to classic Hollywood, but an emotionally engaging tale of friendship and camaraderie as well. For years, Illumination has largely played it far too safe and conventional when it comes to their animated films, but if this latest entry into their filmography is any indication, the animation studio is finally taking steps forward and leveling up, admittedly with some noticeable growing pains.