BackFilm Review: Minions
The yellow fellows go bananas in the first of a spin-off movie
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The Minions movie plays out like a chapter out of a children’s book that could be titled “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About The Minions But Were Afraid to Ask". Fans of the Despicable Me franchise will be happy to note that there are plenty of secrets revealed about the history and personality of these yellow-coloured happy pills in this origins tale. If you don’t already know, Minions are a tribe of jolly mischief-makers designed to serve only the most evil of (and highest grossing) criminal masterminds.
What you will learn in their latest 3-D presentation is that if they are not hard at work messing up an evil master’s lofty plans to steal the moon or England’s crown jewels, they get depressed. And we mean, they get fatally blue when they are bored. But with hair, without hair, with a smile or with a frown, the Minions have an uncanny ability to keep themselves (and everyone else) amused no matter where they are: Point of time in history, geographical location, underwater, on land or in a vacuum in space.
As superstars in their own film, the Minions (all voiced astonishingly by the superb Pierre Coffin) do go everywhere; including prehistoric times to serve the most badass dinosaurs and cavemen, Dracula in the 17th century, Napoleon in the French Revolution, a temperamental pharaoh in ancient Egypt and several dozen incompetent villains in the 1960s, the period in which the movie is largely set. Those blue overalls? Blame it on the retro stylings of the groovy decade that best suits these slap-happy yellow fellows.
To keep the comedy somewhat controlled, only three Minions are chosen to make the trek to London (via New York City, Orlando, Florida, Australian Outback and even India) to steal Queen Elizabeth’s (voiced aptly by Jennifer Saunders) most popular possession—the St Edward’s Crown. The rest are freezing their perfectly-rounded bottoms to serve a group of Yetis in a remote location for most of the 91-minute film.
The big brother-like Kevin, the hippie-go-lucky Stuart and baby-of-the-trio Bob are currently reporting to the world’s first female supervillian, Scarlet Overkill, voiced almost too perfectly by Sandra Bullock. Of course, Overkill is portrayed as an irrational adult, who has been dying to be a Disney Princess (therefore she needs her very own tiara, ugh) ever since she was a little rascal herself.
But all you need to know is that there are plenty of fast-paced slapdash sequences, hilarious song-and-dance numbers including an incredible Minion-rendition of “Make ’Em Laugh" and innocent pot-shots on nostalgia and popular culture to keep the entire family practising their gibberish before, during and after the film. There was never a better time to go bananas.
Minions released in theatres on Friday.
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