Those lovable yellow henchmen get their own movie in Minions. Minions have existed since the dawn of time, with their primary goal being to serve the most despicable of masters. Having caused the inadvertent deaths of all their previous masters, the Minions are on the bring of depression in their Antarctic hideaway. This results in three Minions, Kevin, Stuart, and Bob, to head out into the world and find the perfect master, with them finding a possible candidate in female supervillain Scarlett Overkill (Sandra Bullock). However, when a plan to to rob the British Crown Jewels goes awry, Scarlett turns against the Minions.
The little yellow pill-shaped Minions are the breakthrough characters from the two Despicable Me films, which has now resulted in them getting their own movie. However, the question that has to be asked is whether or not the Minions, best known for their brief comedic hijinks, would work in a feature length film.
Minions focuses primarily on the three central Minions, who go on a quest to find their new master. Kevin is the leader of the group, Stuart is somewhat absent minded, and Bob is highly enthusiastic and the source of much of the film's comedy. With the Minions only speaking barely legible gibberish, the story has to be filled with a number of human characters. This primarily involves Scarlett Overkill and her husband Herb (Jon Hamm). Sandra Bullock gives a very other-the-top (and nearly unrecognizable) performance as Scarlett, who quickly goes from seemingly nice to absolutely psychotic. Other voices in the film include Michael Keaton and Allison Janney as the parents of a family of criminals, as well as Geoffrey Rush as the opening narrator.
Despite being quite funny characters, it can probably be said that the Minions are best experienced in small doses. It definitely seemed to be a challenge to expand their hijinks to a feature length story, which much of the plot of Minions coming off somewhat as filler. However, that doesn't really make the film any less fun to watch, even though this is very much an animated film that is best suited for pretty young children.
It is ultimately left to the viewer decide whether it was worth it to spin the Minions off into their own film or if was simply too much of a good thing. Personally, despite the film aiming towards a very young audience, I have to say that I had quite a bit of fun watching Minions.
★ ★ ★ ★ | LIKED IT
