Minions & Monsters

Minions & Monsters

Director ~ Pierre Coffin

Writers ~ Pierre Coffin, Brian Lynch

2026, USA

Stars ~ Pierre Coffin, Trey Parker, Allison Janney

Well, from the start this isn’t what you might expect implied by that title – that’s “&”, not “versus”. Rather, it is a paean to movies and filmmaking with a host of in-jokes from the silent era through to Kaiju, ‘The Mummy’, and ‘The Blob’. There’s Harold Lloyd; ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’; Cthulhu; ‘Citizen Kane’ is amusing (the minions can’t quite the transition to talkies). But it is not one of those films that is for kids with a few in-joke bones thrown to the accompanying parents: it doesn’t expect the youngsters to recognise silent film references but just to enjoy the slapstick and the giggling stupidity of the minions. And, having taken its time setting things in place, it becomes about the minions trying to make a monster movie (and sowing the seeds for the next generation of filmmakers?). 

Perhaps the Dort (Jesse Eisenberg) storyline doesn’t offer much more than time-filling and diversion, but the whole is fast, frenzied, mildly anarchic and amusing, colourful, and often surprising in its insistence in being cine-literate. The minions have emerged as a superlative comic invention from their ‘Despicable Me’ origins, and certainly a franchise film at this stage (it’s their seventh appearance) is surprising in its validity for existing rather than just cashing-in.

Pierre Coffin, one of the original creators and their continued voice, is reported to have been averse to making another minions movie until he heard the premise. It is stuffed full of gags and detail in the contemporary rapid-fire style that (in this case) rewards repeat viewings. Celebrating friendships and collaboration as much as giggly chaos, and the triumph and joy of creativity against the shortsighted cultish need to find a Big Boss. It is a kids’ film with oodles of wider appeal for cineasts. And like any bunch of gigglers, it’s immune to churlish criticism.