MINIONS (review)

Narrated by Geoffrey Rush

For every child I know between the ages of 3 and 12 (and some of quite a bit older), the Minions were hands-down the best part of Despicable Me.  

They stole every scene (as they were written to do) and had viewers laughing all the way to the sequel, Despicable Me 2. 

After the success of a straight to DVD collection of 3 mini movies, there was only logical step for the Illumination Entertainment, Universal, and the creators to do:  Feature film. 

All Minions.  All the time.

Foolproof. Right?

You know how sprinkles on an ice cream cone is what makes it extra special instead of just some ice cream you bought at the grocery store? 

Sprinkles on a cone, awesome! 

However, a bowl full of sprinkles with no ice cream, no substance, would be kinda gross to anyone over the age of 7 after the first bite; that’s what the new full length Minions feature was like to me. 

Entertaining at first, but the further along in the movie I got, the more bored I became. 

However, from start to finish the children in the theater laughed in all the right butt-joke places.

To Illumination’s credit, the animation was good.  For an animation studio that isn’t one of the Big Two, it holds it’s own.  Unfortunately, writer Brian Lynch did not seem up to the task.  The plot was a simple A to B to C with little care taken on the journey there. The Minions purpose in life is to serve.  Their journey is to find a villain worth serving.  Disappointingly, the most interesting part of their search is revealed in the trailer, which makes up most of the first 10-15 minutes of the movie.

Voice of the Kevin, Stuart, Bob and the rest of the minions, Pierre Coffin (also co-director, by the by) did a great job giving each of the little guys their own personality, helping them to retain their watchability.  That being said, the Minions were the only characters with any depth.

Sandra Bullock (Gravity) and Jon Hamm (Mad Men) were both underused as main villains Scarlet Overkill and her inventor/husband, Herb, respectively. Scarlet Overkill only having a range of two emotions, nice crazy and crazy-crazy.

Most of a clearly talented cast including Oscar winner Michael Keaton (Birdman), and British comedy nobility Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge, Tropic Thunder) and Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous) were given paper thin caricatures that only served to give the Minions an environment to interact with.

Yes, I get it, it’s a kid’s movie.  It is not Shakespeare.  Then again, neither was Despicable Me, and both that and it’s sequel managed to have supporting characters that played more than one note.

The film takes place mostly in late 1960’s London.  It is rendered in such a way that I felt the design team had done all their research on London and British Culture through Google and Wikipedia, the stereotypes were so bold. 

Tea joke told once, possibly funny.  Tea joke told 8 times, I’m looking at my watch. 

It’s the equivalent of showing all Californians as surfer dudes or Texans as cowboys. The one saving grace was the very solid British Invasion inspired soundtrack.  It’s hard to go wrong with the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and the Who.

Will the kids enjoy it?  Yes.  It’s filled with bright colors, frenetic action, and grade school humor. 

Will the adults like?  One viewing, possibly. 

But if you have kids, (or nephews, nieces, best friend’s small human, etc.) you know that they will watch a favorite movie 85 times in 2 days.  Repeat viewing may induce head banging on walls, poking one’s eye out, or narcolepsy. 

Well, okay, nap time isn’t terrible, if you can sleep through all the Beedos.

Just stay home and watch Despicable Me 1 and 2 again.  You’ll be much happier.