Including the Despicable Me franchise there have been six films with the yellow creatures of chaos and the latest film ‘Minions and Monsters’ like the previous two stand alone’s ploughs its own furrow this time taking us back to their origin and their rise to fame in film.
Behind the Minions and Monsters…
Their story is told by a film studio tour guide that starts with two of the Minions, James and Henry, that positions them as changing, if not history then certainly Hollywood. Though they were first seen as Gru’s evil sidekicks in Despicable Me this standalone film sees them serving different masters of monstrous evil that includes Egyptian mummies, rampaging pirates and of course Meghan Markle ( OK , maybe not that last one just yet). But it sees them land in Hollywoodland as the movie industry was taking hold where they get involved in a train robbery unaware that its part of a movie being shot. Its only when the director nervously shows the footage to two obese studio bosses who love it that their careers take off with their own films and of course merchandise with the film makers taking a self-deprecating dig at themselves.
It’s entire film chock full of parodies and nods to the other movie moments and even takes the plot device from Singing in the Rain where the introduction of sound derails the minions career with their speech being incomprehensible gibberish making them role m models for Prince Harry. From here the story splinters with the introduction of a green monster Goomi, a metal robot Dort and a determined suffragette and culiminates with an amorphous orange blob a role that would have been ideally voiced by Gemma Collins.
Parodies galore….
This third film is quite brilliant and made by people who love cinema and the references are many and varied taking in films as diverse as Citizen Kane, The Blob and The Day the Earth Stood Still and even a cameo from George Lucas himself. Like the very best animated films there is something for both the kids and the adults to enjoy.
Monstrously good….
Few if any could have predicted that an animated bunch of tics tacs with jaundice spouting gibberish would become one of the most successful animated franchises of all time and Minions and Monsters defies the convention of dwindling returns on sequels. This is as deliriously daft as we’ve come to expect and its all the better for it. All hail the Minions of mayhem.
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Here’s the trailer…..
