Minions are little yellow creatures with high-pitched voices that are totally unintelligible. They seem altogether adorable. In Despicable Me, the minions were lackeys to Gru, the supervillain voiced by Steve Carell. The gibberish-spouting simpletons proved irresistible to young tykes. Hence, they have now been spun off as the co-protagonists of their own vehicle, Minions.
The film’s introductory narration by Geoffrey Rush explains that these unicellular organisms have existed since the dawn of time. Though seemingly innocuous, they demonstrate a penchant for subordinating themselves to such dastardly villains as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Count Dracula.
Through sheer ineptitude, the minions inadvertently cause the demise of the bosses, who they aspire to serve. When their giant Jurassic master is precariously balanced on the edge of a cliff, a minion tips it over the precipice into a fiery volcano. Subsequently, a minion pulls the curtain back during daytime, exposing their blood-sucking vampire master to sunlight. You know what happens next.
As depicted here, the minions also served under Napoleon Bonaparte. Were the minions really responsible for his historic defeat at the Battle of Waterloo? This film is a prequel which antedates the minions teaming up with Gru. At the outset, three of the minions, Kevin, Stuart and Bob (all voiced by Pierre Coffin, the film’s co-director and creator of the diminutive characters) set off to Villain-Con, a gathering of all the world’s self-styled meanies. There, they hope to ferret out a new fiend who they can attach themselves to.
Keep your eyes peeled for a younger version of Gru in attendance at Villain-Con. However, he does not yet hook up with the minions at that juncture. Instead, the trio is recruited by Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock), the world’s first female supervillain. Along with her husband, Herb (John Hamm from Mad Men), she plans to take over the world. That’s a modest little aspiration.
Scarlet covets the Crown of St. Edward, the regal symbol of authority worn by the ruler of the British Empire. If she can only acquire the crown, then Scarlet will supplant Queen Elizabeth as regent. Scarlet assigns the minions to steal the crown from the Tower of London. Will these bumbling nincompoops succeed in their task? If they do, what will be the consequences?
The vocal cast also includes Allison Janney, Michael Keaton and Steve Coogan. The film gets less mileage out of these three than might have been expected. The same is true of Hamm, who represents another surprising waste of talent by the filmmakers.
The film is set back in the ’60s, hence the soundtrack features such vintage tunes as The Turtles’ “Happy Together” and Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow.” The film boasts a promising prologue. It concludes with an engaging finale and post-credits sequence featuring Gru back in his earlier days. Unfortunately between these framing aspects the film lags, beset with a litany of gratuitous characters and plot devices. Despite these drawbacks, young kids will love Minions and vouchsafe its triumph at the box office.
Minions
**1/2
Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Baldy
Sandra Bullock
John Hamm
PG
