“Minions & Monsters” Review: Old Hollywood Gets Wrecked
Fall is one of my favorite times of the year as a film critic. Studios begin sending out awards screeners for movies I missed in theaters, hoping to earn my vote. By this time, I usually have a stack of dramas waiting for me, so I was pleasantly surprised to see “Minions & Monsters” among them. Sometimes, it’s nice to spend an evening with a bunch of little yellow characters causing mayhem at a movie studio.
The third “Minions” prequel and the seventh “Despicable Me” movie takes us back to 1927, 41 years before “Minions” and 49 years before “Minions: The Rise of Gru.” Directed by Pierre Coffin, who shares screenplay credits with Brian Lynch and once again voices the Minions, “Minions & Monsters” is produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination. In this film, the Minions head to Hollywood to find a villain to serve and end up trying to make a monster movie. Naturally, they accidentally summon a real monster, making them a studio insurance nightmare.
Christoph Waltz voices Max, the director who hires the Minions, while Jeff Bridges portrays studio bosses Frank and Elwood Bright. Allison Janney plays the tour guide Olivia, and Zoey Deutch voices the suffragette Debbie. Jesse Eisenberg voices the one-eyed alien robot Dort, Trey Parker voices the pint-sized monster Goomi, and Phil LaMarr and Bobby Moynihan complete the monster crew as Howard and Phillips.
One of my favorite aspects of the movie is its setting: Hollywood figuring out sound. Imagine spending years learning to tell a story without dialogue, only for someone to hand a Minion a microphone. This joke works whether you know much about silent films or enjoy hearing these characters make noise. I also appreciated the nods to classic monster movies, especially when Dort evoked memories of “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
The opening stretch is so committed to absurdity that I found myself laughing harder than I expected. Things settle into a familiar rhythm once the monster plot takes over, but the new batch of Minions keeps the gags feeling fresh. Part of the fun lies in guessing which Minion is about to make a bad situation worse. The animation captures these moments perfectly, often with a look or a beat of silence before everything goes awry.
Watching at home, I could easily imagine a theater full of kids laughing at some of the bigger gags. By the end, “Minions & Monsters” left me glad that I took the time to watch it. After seven movies, it seems the Minions just needed the right setting to wreak havoc.
Final Grade: B
‘Minions & Monsters’ is now available for digital download, as well as on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD.
