Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * *
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Pierre Coffin, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan, Jennifer Saunders, Geoffrey Rush, Steve Carell, Katy Mixon, Michael Beattie, Hiroyuki Sanada, Dave Rosenbaum.
They seem to be everywhere and perhaps with good reason, for in amongst all the merchandising, the paraphernalia, the produce and products making the type of money on the side that would help towards a small nation’s debt, there is no doubt that the Minions, the real stars of the Despicable Me films, are big, bigger in some child’s and possibly some adult’s mine too than John Lennon.
It was only natural after the success of the two Despicable Me films that The Minions would get their own spin off, success of a character, especially it seems in a day and age where the face of one can adorn a plate, a theme park ride or even be used as a satirical joke on the world, demands it.
Take away the adornment and the angle that studio executives would place first above a good story, Minions is the type of animated film that really gets beneath the skin of anybody who watches it. It is good old fashioned knock about fun which delivers a series of punches and blows which really tickle the funny bone and allows the feeling of the absurd and the wonderfully illogical to infiltrate with joyous results into the minds of the young.
Minions looks back at the time before they met Gru, the times when they served everything from dinosaurs to Napoleon Bonaparte, normally providing their boss’s downfall upon the way. It is the prequel that really sets up the riches to come and allows for the type of mischief making that really makes a film worthwhile.
Delivered in splendid detail and with seemingly great affection, Minions is heart-warming, wonderfully ridiculous and in the same way that Despicable Me caught the attention of the audience by offering an anti-hero to look upon as a figure not to be despised but in which the basic humanity came through, so too does Minions. Helped in the form of Kevin, Stuart and Bob, these fascinating creatures tunnel their way into mindset and in some sort of 21st Century version of the likes of The Goodies, Monty Python and Beyond The Fringe, the complex absurdity really follows you all the way home.
With an exceptional performance by Pierre Coffin who voices all the small yellow pill like Minions and aided by Sandra Bullock as Scarlett Overkill, Minions is surely going to be the film in which families bond over and the thought of a follow up a serious prospect for all involved.
Wonderfully imagined, a film to keep an eye out for!
Ian D. Hall