The summer of 2014 was a slow time for the movie industry because there was less number of animated films as compared to 2013. Nonetheless, “Minions” is a disappointingly meh effort from Illumination Entertainment, even if you would never hold the upstart animation studio to Pixar standards.
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But that is not the case, as these characters somehow manage to hold youngsters — and lots of oldsters as well – in the palms of their little yellow hands.
But this movie is really for the kids (“Banana!”) and I can’t knock “Minions” too much as it does seem to succeed in that aspect. They may not be as evil as they think they are, but they’re a millions times cuter.
However, mirth of living wears out gradually with depression, and they get bored with no master to serve for.
Back when “Despicable Me” came out, kids sort of enjoyed the movie, and adults sort of tolerated it. But there was something common between both camps – the Minions featured in the films were a laugh riot and everyone ended up falling in love with them. It’s up to one ambitious Minion, Kevin, to venture out and find a worthy supervillain to serve.
Kevin rises from the bunch and declares that he will go out in search of a new leader and asks for volunteers to go with him.
Because Gru has yet to enter the minions’ lives, the prequel introduces Scarlet Overkill, the world’s first female super-villain. After Scarlett Overkill puts up a game of stealing a diamond from her hand to become her recruit, Bob gets it and swallows the diamond leaving his teddy in her hand, and they ultimately win!
They travel from frigid Antarctica to 1960s New York City, ending in mod London, where they must face their biggest challenge to date: saving all of minion-kind from annihilation.
Being an animated film, the 3-D effect works well and is used throughout.
Minions, the wide eyed, metal goggle-wearing and gibberish-spouting yellow helpers of Gru, the protagonist of the Despicable Me franchise endeared themselves to critics and audiences alike in the series. It was the flawless seasoning in an entertaining movie. But if you haven’t seen the movie or aren’t a fan, there’s really no reason for messing with this app. The film also zips and zooms by its short runtime so there’s little time to breathe, except for an unnecessary scene featuring a bedtime story. Your kids and you will probably watch it all of once and then move on to the merchandise. It’s fairly straightforward, with not that much substance.
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Also missing are the things that have made “Despicable Me” releases so good are either very limited or completely non-existent. Through Rush’s narrations, we further learn about their history. A new story of how the minions hooked up with Gru presents deliciously wide open possibilities, but the ones the film explores land more like an early draft that needs re-tooling.
