Narrated like a National Geographic documentary by Geoffrey Rush, the film opens with an amusing history of the minions (all of whom are voiced by co-director Pierre Coffin), who apparently crawled out of the sea along with the world’s earliest vertebrates and immediately set about finding a villain to serve. Their first charge is the king of the dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurs Rex, but, in the first instance of a developing gag, he meets an untimely end, which leaves the minions masterless. They quickly glom onto humans, first serving a club-wielding Cro-Magnon man before graduating to increasing evolved members of the species, including Dracula and Napoleon. In each case, the minions inadvertently do something to cause their master’s demise, which sends them on a new quest. They finally hole up in an Arctic cave, thinking they will be happy just amongst themselves. But, soon boredom and depression set in, and three minions led by one named Kevin decide to set out into the world to find a new arch-villain to serve.

By this time it is the late 1960s and the minions wind up in the heart of swinging London, which supplies screenwriter Bryan Lynch (Puss in Boots) and directors Kyle Balda (The Lorax) and Pierre Coffin (Despicable Me) plenty of cultural material to work with. Jokes involving lava lamps, Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, the Beatles walking across Abbey Road, and groovy mod lingo proliferate, which will give adults in the audience an additional level of humor to smile about as their kids wallow in the anarchic glory of the film’s relentless slapstick humor.

After being picked up by a bizarro family of criminals (the parents are voiced by Michael Keaton and Allison Janney) riding in a station wagon, the minions find themselves at Villain-Con, the grand meeting place of all the world’s villains, criminals, hoods, crooks, and would-be henchmen. The star of the show is Scarlett Overkill (Sandra Bullock), a bee-hived, crowd-pleasing diva of a villain who just happens to be in the market for some assistance, and the minions immediately latch on. Aided and abetted by her adored husband Herb (Jon Hamm), a spaced-out, Ringo Starr-looking mod who is great with nefarious inventions, Scarlett plans to become ruler of England by nabbing the crown of the much-beloved Queen (Jennifer Saunders). Things don’t go exactly as planned, as the minions cause havoc with her plans and quickly become her number one enemy.

There isn’t anything exactly new here, but what Minions does, it does quite well. Despite speaking in helium-voiced, unintelligible gibberish (much of which appears to be bastardized Spanish), the three primary minions nonetheless emerge as distinct personalities for whom we can root. Like the Despicable Me movies, the film’s primary enjoyment lies in its visual humor and offbeat take on familiar locations (the European-ness of the animation is still very much in effect, which distinguishes the film from reigning Pixar and its would-be competitors). I don’t imagine that much more can be done with the minions as characters, but they make for a surprisingly fun protagonist and one that all but assures no possibility of sticky sentiment.

Copyright ©2015 James Kendrick

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