The supporting cast of Despicable Me get a chance to front their own standalone movie with an origins tale. The chances of this despicable spinoff be as successful as the franchise that spawned it is high seeing how the Minions stole both films with their unique and engaging humour. But will the interest behind the yellow dudes be enough to generate gold or will they wear out their welcome at the box-office?
The Story The film opens with the origins of the Minions and how they evolved from single-celled organisms with a single purpose to serve the most sinister and evil masters. From T-Rex to Dracula, and Pharaohs and even Napoleon, the Minions fail spectacularly to secure a master to serve for an extended period of time. Left without a master, they soon fall into a depression which results in a Minion named Kevin to concoct a plan to find the most evil boss of all-time for him and his brethren to serve. Together with his pals Stuart and Bob, the trio set forth on an adventure, which sees them arriving in America where they come across a vile supervillain called Scarlet Overkill, who may well be their best shot at survival.
What Worked The film sells you on cuteness, which the Minions are in no short supply of. There’s a corpus amount of slapstick humour and pop culture references as well and the animation is pretty decent despite the fact it’s a bunch of little yellow guys that are shaped like pills.
What Didn’t Where Despicable Me manages to lure audiences in with humour, heart and fun, the Minions just goes for the short route for laughs. Taking a page out of the Looney Tunes handbook, the Minions make no qualms who their main audience members are – the kids.
Plus Points Despite being total gibberish, the Minions do deliver some pretty funny moments and one of them even manages to speak Malay for a bit as well.
Minus Points The blatant slapstick nature of the film. The Minions were undoubtedly the stars of Despicable Me but they suffer from being a bit too over exposed in this solo effort.
Conclusion It’s fun and not without its moments but Universal Pictures dropped the ball somewhat in delivering what could be one of this year’s best animated features for the guaranteed shot at the box-office and lucrative merchandise deals. A film the kids will love to bits but a wasted opportunity in some ways to captivate its older audience.