““Minions & Monsters” Review
Minionnnnnnn! That’s the way I start my review. I adore and scream in minionese. I’ve always had a soft spot for “Minions” and I knew going in I was expecting an hour of silliness and stress relief, but I didn’t expect to be teary eyed.
Spoiler Alert: It’s my favourite in the “Minion” Franchise yet.
Returning for another adventure this time we’re introduced to a new group of minions looking for a new evil master to serve and it’s an interesting play for Universal Studios to use this opportunity as a wink to “The Odyssey” arriving in cinemas soon. We’ve seen in the latest trailer for “Minions & Monsters” that we see the minions attempting to serve a cyclops to no avail.
However, in this group of minions we see two minions that are our focal point: James and Henry. James is passionate artist who puts his efforts into his visuals and looking for connection with his fellow minions, but they’re not interested. However, Henry does take an interest and kinship to James and the two become inseparable. The film opens up with a tour in a film museum (a bit of a nod our modern-day Academy Museum) and a group is being given a tour of the different highlights through the exhibition. There are highlights of “Jaws”, “Matrix”, “E.T” and a fun wink at a 70’s director you’ll get a good laugh out of. The tour guide leading the exhibition is names Olivia voiced by Allison Janney and serves as a narrator to our story. Now in the group of tourists they’re confused as to why there are a statue of the minions in the film and Olivia explains that film history wouldn’t be the same without James and Henry. Then we’re explain as to why this occurs.
We see a bit of a montage of the minions trying to serve different masters, but the minions keep harming or killing their master’s by accident as highlighted by the cyclops reference above, but one to keep an eye on is a warlock they served and the spell book that remains. Also, one more minion to keep an eye on is Ed who finishes the normal trio of minions we tend to keep in the “Minions” films, but he’s hard of hearing so it was admirable to see how the minions were able to create a method of communication similar to sign language.
Now we see the Minions wandering the dessert in search of their next evil master to serve, but they end up getting caught up in the middle of train robbery. They follow the robber and want to serve him, but it turns out that this robbery was staged, and the minions have stumbled onto 1920’s Los Angeles during the silent films era. We’re introduced to Max (voiced by Christopher Waltz) who serves as the film’s director and is furious that the minions ruined the filming of the train robbery and chases off the minions. However, once Max approaches his film executives Frank and Elwood (voiced by Jef Bridges) with the cut of the film featuring the minions he’s very fearful of this, but it turns out they love the minions in it so Max must go get the minions back. The minions then become a global sensation during the silent film era with nods to Charlie Chaplin, ‘Sunset Boulevard’, ‘Safety Last!’. ‘Creatures from the Black Lagoon’, ‘Metropolis’ ‘Ben-Hur’ and more.
This is a dream made for James being able to connect his passionate for the arts and is thriving during this era of becoming a movie star during this time, but then you have the arrival of “the talkies” or sound now being using in the film. This is a huge setback for the minions because they’re not able to communicate with our language and it becomes a liability to the studio to have them on and they’re fired. However, James doesn’t want to give up and comes up with his own movie titled “Minions and Monsters” where the minions would fight against a giant kaiju like monster, and this would hopefully lead to James being recognized as the best director and get his Oscar. However, this causes the minions to split ways because they want to serve an evil master and not be in the movies anymore.
It truly is a cinephiles’ ode to their love of cinema making, structure and quite frankly if you ever had any interest in film because you’re seeing how it’s not an easy route. Now I don’t want to tread too much into spoilers, but hijinks occur with the minions trying to get this movie off the ground. However, one of my favourite scenes involves that of Max meeting with James, Henry and Ed to discuss the idea of this project and Max giving his first camera to James to film it.
Now Ed who has the spell book from the warlock they served suggests they can get the monster they need from the book, and this is where all goes down. We’re introduced to Goomi (voiced by Trey Parker) who is the first monster the minions decide to summon, but to everyone’s surprise he’s a lot smaller than expected, yet ultimately more dangerous.
We’re also introduced to Dort (voiced by scene stealer Jesse Eisenberg) who’s a robot determined to invade earth, his love interest Debbie (voiced by Zoey Deutch) and the rest of the minions to ensure in hijinks and help Dort to pursue Debbie. It’s a sweet tie-in into the Minions’ story and the plot of the film really moves along in this 90-minute film. However, big shoutout to Pierre Coffin who voices the Minions, directed and produced this film and showed that the Minions’ property has real strength and looking forward to the next one.
I do hope you catch the film to see how this all ties together, but I will say to see how James is able to let his passion for his dreams to be realized and the support he has with Henry and Ed really warms my heart. I’m expecting a solid box office from “Minions & Monsters” this weekend and I can’t wait to see it again!
https://letterboxd.com/goldenwinter_28/film/minions-monsters-2026
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