Minions & Monsters Movie Review

“Minions & Monsters” is the third sequel to the ‘Minions’ spin-off from the original “Despicable Me” movie. The funny yellow henchmen are now the main event, once again. They are spouting more nonsense and creating more havoc than ever before. Prepare to see them take on Historic Hollywood.

The weird little yellow fellows are called Minions (all of them voiced by Pierre Coffin). Where do they come from? Let’s just say ‘Minionistan’. What would you call a large group of Minions? Let’s just say a cluster of them are called a ‘Bumble’. What do they say? It is jumble of gibberish called Minionese.

This Bumble of Minions from Minionistan somehow winds up on movie set in the desert. Movie Director Max (voiced by Christoph Waltz) was filming a train robbery scene for a old-time Silent movie. The goofy Minions mess it all up. But the Studio Bosses, named Frank and Elwood (both voiced by Jeff Bridges), are loving the wacky addition of the Minions. These guys have found a new home.

The Minions become the greatest stars of the silver screen, during the Silent movie era. But the ‘talkies’ start being made — the Minions get the boot. Nobody can understand any movie made with the Minions when they start speaking Minionese. This just about ruins the Movie Studio. Director Max banishes the silly sidekicks from any new productions.

One Minion named James, along with his pals Ed and Henry, wants to make his own Movie. It will be a real blockbuster named ‘Minions and Monsters’. They locate a squid type monster called Goomi (voiced by Trey Parker). The small group of Minions wanted the move to feature them fighting huge Monsters. But Goomi tells them he would help find creatures much larger than himself.

Goomi leads the small movie-making troop to the Sea Monsters, named Howard (voiced by Phil LaMarr) and Phillips (voiced by Bobby Moynihan). Now the Minions can start a movie with a fight between them and the large, angry Sea Monsters. But little do the Minions know — this was part of any evil plan by Goomi to unleash a much larger horrific Blob Monster (named Irene).

Away from James, Henry and Ed — the other Minions have found a new leader. This is an alien robot named Dort (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg). This evil leader wants to dominate the entire world. But unfortunately, he has been smitten by love. His plans for conquering the Earth have taken second place to his love for tough-minded suffragette named Debbie (voiced by Zoey Deutch).

But like all things in Minion life – everything goes haywire and all efforts go off the rails. The ‘Monsters’ in the new movie that James wants to make have become out of control. The Minions that are following Dort are wondering why he is not Conquering the World. Dort is much more interested in the love of his life. So, the Minions decide to help him out with that — with bad results.

Hollywood in the late 1920’s was not ready for the bizarre and wacky antics of the Minions. But then both of the Minion groups team together to take down Goomi and the massive Blob of Irene. The entire ‘Bumble’ of Minions, along with a more heroic Dort, take on Irene, Goomi, Phillips and Howard. The little Minion named Ed is rolling the movie camera the whole time.

Since this entire story has been book-ended with the idea of a Movie Studio tour. Tour Guide Olivia (voiced by Allison Janney) has explained the History of Hollywood, and of the cherished place that the Minions hold in Tinsel Town. Everyone on the Tour has a new appreciation for the weird little yellow fellows. Except maybe for George Lucas — because he is still ‘trapped in a glass cage of emotion’…

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“Minions & Monsters” is much, much better than a typical throw-away cash grab. This movie makes the decision to give the Minions actual goals and dreams. These weird little yellow fellows have a blast seeing, and then becoming, Historic Hollywood legends. For the cast of voice parts, it helps to hire some Hollywood heavy hitters.

Anyone with a passing knowledge of older Hollywood movies will enjoy seeing the numerous shout-outs to all sorts of famous early ‘Moving Pictures’. It also helps that this particular ‘Bumble’ of Minions is a separate group from the ‘Despicable Me’ crowd. The story is zany and crazy – but at least there is a tangible thread of reason (for the most part).

Of course, the target audience will have little background of Early Hollywood. But that will not stop kids from loving the shenanigans that all the Minions can stir up. They just happen to be located in a place where they can walk down a Boulevard of Dreams. This is a place where everything is made up, and people like it that way.

Another shout-out to John Powell for the movie score. He takes bits and pieces of ‘olde-timey’ music from the classic Birth of Hollywood. He incorporates music that changes genres in a flash: from Western, to Epic Romance, to Film-Noir, and Honky-Tonk. Each one is sweet and it perfectly matches with the movie action.

“Minions & Monsters” puts the Minions front and center, with their goofy weirdness turned up to eleven. This time, they take on Monsters – and Hollywood. Let’s see which one survives…