Minions And Monsters 3D Movie Review
Minions And Monsters
3D Movie Review
Written By: Jacob Scarberry
3D
If you’ve seen an Illumination animated film in 3D before, you’ll know they consistently produce some of the best 3D presentations around, and Minions & Monsters is no exception. It’s filled to the brim with stunning depth, natural dimensionality, and constant pop-outs, all without a single flat scene or noticeable flaw.
Even with all the mayhem and shenanigans the Minions are known for, the presentation never causes headaches or vertigo. The entire film is a showcase for great 3D, but if you’re looking for reference-quality material, I’d recommend the early steam train sequence. It offers an excellent preview of the visual spectacle that’s still to come.
Easily the best 3D presentation of the summer, Minions & Monsters is also one of the year’s best 3D experience’s.
Final 3D Score: 10/10, Editors Choice Award
Movie
For 16 years, I've watched every film in the Despicable Me series along with every film Illumination has done, and I can say that they peaked with the first Despicable Me in terms of film quality almost getting to DreamWorks/Disney levels of quality filmmaking, but very quickly falling victim to the lowest common denominator of Hollywood family films of storytelling and making sure merchandise is front and center everywhere in your life for a few months until the hype dies down and then rinse and repeat. I really figured that the series nadir was with the 2015 spin-off Minions would effectively kill off the Despicable Me films, but over $1 billion later, we have had a further 4 films in the franchise, with the latest being the subject of today, Minions & Monsters.
Which starts at a film museum where the tour guide (Voiced by Oscar-winner Allison Janney in a glorified cameo) who tells the story of how the Minions' became legendary movie stars while on their search for their new Big Boss. Three Minion outcasts: James, Henry and Ed (all voiced by director Pierre Coffin) become friends along the Minions' quest of servitude when James repeatedly focuses on his artistic side, much to the dismay of Minion leader, Dick (And acts like his name for much of the film). Their antics cause several of their bosses unceremonious ends due to the trio's lack of focus, which ultimately leads them in the Old West.
The Minions happen upon a horse chase between an outlaw and a group of cowboys chasing after the outlaw, having having believe they struck pay dirt, the Minions give chase, much to the dismay of the outlaw. It leads to a train, a plane, and half of Los Angeles destroyed, and a potential waste of film as the outlaw was an actor in a film, and the director, Max (Christolph Waltz) distraught at the ruined shot. Ordered to screen the footage to the studio heads, brothers Frank & Elwood Bright (both voiced by Jeff Bridges), the brothers love the yellow guys and force Max to hunt for them and make them stars of the silent age.
While their films make them become rich and famous, the advent of sound film ruins the minions careers, and most of the minions set off for servitude of a robot, Bort while the main trio set to make their own film, a monster movie, with the help of a spell book summoning Goomi (Trey Parker, yes that Trey Parker) who plans for world dominance in disguise of making a kaiju fight. More mayhem ensues to save the world and their film from destruction.
I was planning on just writing another review like the previous films I've reviewed of the series (Minions: The Rise of Gru and Despicable Me 4 for those keeping count at home) of it being just okay, made mainly for 5 year olds and their families and not meant for a thirtysomething without children, with the 3D being the best thing about the film and that'd be another Minion-based review done and over with until Despicable Me 5: The ConGruing of Villains in 2028 (not a real film... Yet). Color me surprised that this is easily the best Despicable Me film since the first one, and the best in the Minions subseries of films.
The film is a charming love letter to Hollywood, while extremely loose in actual factual events (though the film is set in 1927, you still have women protesting for women's suffrage well after it had been passed into law, sci-fi films being made despite sci-fi not exactly popular in the silent era, etc.) effortlessly throws in silent era nods to the big stars of the time like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton to name a few while also adding some actual nods to the time period (talkies, most editors being women at that time, etc.) that could lead a child's curiosity to learn more about the artistry and the history of the medium.
The film retains the typical Minions physical humor, which the kids of course laughed at and I chuckled quite a bit, but there were adults laughing at other jokes the kids didn't understand, and that surprised me that they actually made adult jokes. Not like double entredres, but actual jokes only adults will understand if they know about classic film or basic American history. The animation is fantastic as usual, with the film oozing with so much fun in each frame, it's amazing that it costs less than half of your typical Pixar/Disney/DreamWorks joint but manages to look as good as those films despite the lowered budget.
Voice acting is well-done by the cast of A-listers, professional voice actors and the director still capably performing as all the walking Twinkies with distinct differences in each character, but the highlight has to go to Trey Parker as Goomi. While distorted by computers, his vocal performance style manages to make it's way through the hi-tech filtering, giving us a fun performance as the main villain of the piece.
The technical aspects are also great, with a fun John Powell soundtrack, the sound being active and busy without being overwhelming, and the cinematography being lovely and colorful throughout, especially amongst the stylized sections focusing on the films being made.
My only real beef with the film is the filler subplot of Bort and his quest for world dominance being affected by a potential relationship with suffragette Debbie. While not useless or outright terrible, it's clearly filler for an already lean story length of 90 minutes and doesn't make much of an impression. There also wasn't much in the way of why Goomi wanted to take over the world, just a rather simple plot that's been told over and over again and I wish the film focused more on the filmmaking aspect more, but other than that, the film is a surprising hoot and a half.
I don't know if the human species really needed more than one Despicable Me film, let alone a massive 7 film franchise that largely allowed itself to be mediocre babysitting films for the younger Gen Z/Alpha kids of the past 15+ years, that's for history to figure out, but I have to give it to this entry in being quality entertainment. It's a breezy 90 minutes with some truly amusing bits and looks spectacular in 3D, and hopefully we get a physical 3D release in the near future as it truly deserves it, and it's great for the entire family and even childless adults who admire the art of filmmaking and film history. Maybe if this film is a hit, we'll finally get the inevitable Minions film set in 1940s Central Europe and then they can include world history events as told by the popular merchandise sold in stores.
Minions & Monsters is proof this franchise can still surprise me. It’s funny, charming, and far more thoughtful about filmmaking than I expected. I didn’t expect one of the year’s best surprises to come from a Minions movie, but I’m glad it did.
Final Movie Score: 8/10
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