This is a quick review of the newly released film Minions & Monsters. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.
Plot
Via Letterboxd: This is the rambunctious, ridiculous, and totally true story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, unleashed monsters onto the world, and then banded together to try and save the planet from the mayhem they had just created.
Review
I’m 37 years old, and even though I honestly feel like I’m ten years younger, and have often been mistaken for someone younger, I’m at an age where the Despicable Me and Minions movies just don’t resonate with me the way they do with younger moviegoers who came of age during the 2010s. I’ve visited Universal Orlando enough times to experience the Minions ride and see the endless sea of Minions merchandise, and while I definitely find the little yellow guys funny, I’ve never had the same attachment to them that I have to the Disney Renaissance films or the Pixar classics I grew up with.
It also doesn’t help that I consider many of those Disney and Pixar movies to be among the greatest animated films ever made, whereas the Minions universe has mostly produced movies that are, at worst, just okay and easily forgettable, and at best, perfectly decent entertainment but hardly masterpieces.
What’s surprised me over the years, though, is how these two franchises have moved in opposite directions. The Despicable Me series has steadily depreciated in value for me. I gave the first two films a B+, but the third and fourth entries barely squeaked by with B- grades, and even then I was probably giving them a little extra grace because they’re aimed primarily at kids. The Minions movies, on the other hand, have somehow managed to improve with each installment. Minions & Monsters continues that trend and is, without question, the strongest film in the spin-off franchise.
The biggest reason why is that this movie feels like it was made by people who genuinely love movies.
The first half is an absolute delight for film nerds. It’s essentially a love letter to the history of cinema, taking audiences from the silent era through the Golden Age of Hollywood while weaving the Minions into some of the most iconic moments in film history. There are nods to the Lumiere brothers, A Trip to the Moon, Buster Keaton, Fritz Lang, the Warner Brothers, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and even Babylon, among plenty of others. The references come fast enough that cinephiles will constantly be spotting something new in the background, yet they’re never so overbearing that younger audiences will feel left out.
In fact, one of the biggest strengths of Minions & Monsters is how successfully it plays to both audiences. Kids will get exactly what they came for in goofy slapstick, ridiculous physical comedy, and the lovable chaos that has made these little yellow weirdos international icons. Adults, meanwhile, get a surprising amount of movie history, clever industry jokes, and even a handful of Oscar references that made me laugh much harder than I expected. There’s even a Citizen Kane gag that absolutely had me howling in my seat.
I also appreciated that the movie understands exactly how long it needs to be. At under 90 minutes, it never overstays its welcome. Family films don’t always need to chase two-hour runtimes, and Minions & Monsters wisely gets in, tells its story, lands its jokes, and gets out before the energy wears thin.
That said, the second half isn’t quite as strong as the first. Once the movie shifts away from its celebration of cinema history, it leans much harder into the more frantic, zany style of Minions comedy. Your mileage will vary there. Some of the gags landed for me, while others felt like the kind of random chaos that’s always been a bit hit-or-miss with this franchise. The kids in my audience absolutely adored every second of it, so it’s clearly accomplishing what it sets out to do.
I was also less invested in the subplot involving Dort the robot and his romance with a women’s suffrage protestor than I was with the Minions’ quest to make a movie. It occasionally interrupts the momentum of the main story, though I have to admit it pays off with a genuinely funny gag during the film’s big finale.
No, Minions & Monsters isn’t operating on the same level as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which remains one of the gold standards for modern animated family films. But it doesn’t really need to. It’s funny, charming, consistently entertaining, and far more lovingly crafted than I expected going in.
More importantly, it continues the unlikely trend of the Minions movies getting better while the main Despicable Me series has been heading in the opposite direction. I certainly wasn’t expecting to walk out saying this, but here we are.
Minions & Monsters is a blast for both little ones and cinephiles alike. Kids will leave laughing at the slapstick, adults will appreciate the affection for film history, and movie lovers will have a great time catching all the classic Hollywood references hidden throughout. It may not reinvent animated filmmaking, but it’s easily the best Minions movie yet and, somewhat surprisingly, the best creature feature we’ve gotten so far this year.
“TL;DR”
Pros: First half is a love letter to the history of cinema through the silent era to the golden age of Hollywood; An easy choice to take the little ones to which the adults will be able to enjoy well enough; Gets in and gets out in less than an hour-and-a-half
Cons: Second half is much more disjointed and relies on more zany Minions comedy that can be hit and miss though the kids will love it; I wasn’t as invested in the side plot of Dort the robot finding love with a women’s suffrage protestor as I was with our main Minions trying to make a movie but at least it leads to a fun gag in the big finale
