© Photos courtesy of Universal
I attended an early screening of Minions and Monsters, and as someone who grew up on Despicable Me and Minions movies, my expectations were high.
As I’ve aged, I’ve begun to realize that no small child goes to children’s movies alone. Because of this, in any given theatre playing Minions and Monsters, about half of the audience will be adults. Because half the ticket sales are grownups, then, I feel it is fair to expect a kid’s movie to be entertaining to adults as well as children.
I am satisfied to say Minions and Monsters is just that. The humor, while definitely geared towards children, is pretty successful.
I was genuinely shocked, however, at how visually appealing this movie is in comparison to other Minions films. I especially appreciated that, even though it is the seventh in a very drawn-out franchise, it still feels original.
In some ways the film, directed by Pierre Coffin, is a period piece about early Hollywood, and serves as a love letter to that era—definitely not what I expected. Its frame narrative, just one piece of its originality, gives an almost legendary feel to the story of Minions James and Henry, who, according to this movie, make a significant impact on film history.
Minions and Monsters is expectedly short (90 minutes)—probably to accommodate the short attention spans of modern children—and unfortunately because of that there isn’t much character depth. Among many plot complications, for example, a character named Debbie seems to serve only as a romantic interest for another non-major character, and in an attempt to counteract a vaguely sexist characterization, the writers—Coffin and Brian Lynch—make her an early 20th century suffragette.
The non-Minion cast members—including celebrities such as Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan, and Phil LaMarr—are somewhat underused. Jesse Eisenberg and Jeff Bridges are given minor roles, where their voices are all but unrecognizable.
All of these shortcomings can be overlooked because at the end of the day, this is a children’s movie. It doesn’t have to have depth, or contain some deep moral message. It just has to be fun, and as far as these goofy types of films go, this one is pretty fun.
If you have children, I recommend accompanying them to see Minions and Monsters.