If you’ve ever watched The Simpsons and remember the episode where the kids kept asking to go to Mount Splashmore, you’ll get an idea of what it was like as soon as Ms10, Mr 14 and Ms 17 (and their mum!) heard that Minions & Monsters was being released. “CAN WE REVIEW MINIONS & MONSTERS? CAN WE REVIEW MINIONS & MONSTERS?”
Yes, yes we can. And it had to be all of us, because if I’d gone to see this without even one of the Kid Critics squad or my sister, I’d have had to review it using a pseudonym.
However, as keen as we all were, there were still some concerns – was it going to be the film that we didn’t need? Would it reach the heights of previous films?
This one doesn’t follow along chronologically, so does kind-of sit outside of the Despicable Me movies. We start out in a museum, and you can pick Allison Janney’s voice straight away as the museum guide. She is that tour guide who loves her job and inspires everyone to listen, and explains the story of how the minions saved Hollywood.
All across the world, different groups of minions set out to find the right evil leader for their group. It starts in the early 1900, and we meet minion friends James and Henry. James doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the minions because he is artistic. He loves to draw and come up with stories. Henry notices this, and as a fellow arts fan they become fast friends. In the meantime, the minion crew are trying to find their evil leader. Unfortunately, because James isn’t paying attention because he’s too focussed on his drawings, he keeps accidentally killing off the leaders. It was me snort laughing the most every time James killed another leader and the rest sighed, “Oh, JAMES!”
One of the evil leaders is a wizard, and this time it’s Henry who summons a monster, and the monster then kills the wizard. Oops. In the race out of the tower, another minion, Ed, decides to take the spellbook. I mean, it makes sense, you never know when you might need a spellbook, right???!
On the way to find the next evil leader, they come across a cowboy who has just robbed a train and is being chased by the police. The minions are so inspired they chase after him, causing chaos along the way while trying to help the cowboy. They chase him all the way up to the end… which is Hollywood – it was all a movie! It turns out that the minions are absolute screen dynamite and become movie superstars. This is the early 1900s, so the movies are black and white silent films and slapstick humour was very much in vogue.
With the advent of technology, sound becomes part of movies. We all laughed our heads off watching the minions in their first speaking roles. Of course, those minion voices didn’t translate to movies with sound, so the minions are fired, homeless and still without any evil leader. James has learned a lot along the way and decides that he’s going to bring his artwork to life and make a film. It’s going to be called Minions and Monsters, and the minions will fight against the biggest monster they can find. Not all of the minions are on board with this (especially not the new minion leader, aptly called Dick), but James, Henry and Ed are determined to make this film together.
What could possibly go wrong, right?
I’m not going to give away any spoilers, otherwise you won’t snort laughing as much as we did. We all loved it. There were so many clever silly little things to pick up along the way (not just that the minion leader who was bossy and unlikeable was called Dick) that we spent ages chatting about it afterwards. We’re sure that Trey Parker being involved was the reason for this. My sister and I had great fun explaining that this film is actually based on history – there were silent film stars who were box office gold who could not transition to sound as they had terrible voices. (NO, auntie Michelle was NOT alive back then, thankyouverymuch.)
Even though we loved both Toy Story 5 and Minions and Monsters, my sister pointed out that Toy Story 5 relies on the nostalgia and how much we love the characters, while Minions & Monsters has more of a story.
There was also the discussion about how Inception this could be – remember, this is a movie about Alison Janney the museum guide telling the story about how a movie is made…
There are some scary bits for younger kids – one of the evil leaders is beheaded, and there are a fair number of monsters though they are only really scary towards the end. This is still another movie that kids of all ages, and adults, will love for plenty of different reasons.
There are also fantastic cameos made by George Lucas – yes, plural! It is his first film cameo in just over 20 years.
And naturally, stay for the credits.
Reviewed by Michelle Baylis
Rating 5 out of 5
Distributor: Illumination
