Score: 4/5
There are few words that can be used to describe “Minions,” seeing as the movie’s dialogue is spoken primarily in the gibberish language of the plot’s three protagonists — Kevin, Stuart and Bob. But, as expected, this movie was painfully cute. Painful because my abdominal muscles weren’t given a break from this humor packed spin-off of the “Despicable Me” series. Cute because, well, they’re short, quirky, round-eyed creatures that make weird noises. That pretty much fits the formula, right?
The story follows the evolution of the unnaturally unlucky tribe of tic-tac shaped henchman whose inexplicable goal in life is to serve the baddest villain around. The beginning takes viewers on an amusing journey through time as the minions are juxtaposed into the lives of history’s most notorious creatures and villains — all of whom suffer an accidental death at the hands of their well-meaning yellow followers.
The tribe is eventually exiled to a remote cave where the minions live a peaceful life of songs, games and solitude. This would be a nice conclusion to an extremely brief film if it weren’t for the fact that the minions cannot be truly happy without a villainous boss around. Thus, the tribe enters a state of depression as they long for a leader.
In order to restore happiness to their comrades, Bob, Stuart and Kevin, all voiced by the film’s director, Pierre Coffin, venture to an outside world at the peak of its groovy ’60s era. This throwback element is a nice touch, in addition to being chronologically correct. The trio travel to Manhattan, New York, where it stumbles upon a commercial for a secret convention, Villain-Con International, in Orlando. They also learn about the most popular evil villain to date, Scarlet Overkill, voiced by actress Sandra Bullock.
With ambitions of recruiting the perfect boss for their tribe, the trio hitchhike to Orlando for the convention with a seemingly normal bank-robbing family, the Nelsons. As the minions bond with mom, dad and the kids, viewers, especially the youngsters, are left questioning the morally ambiguous nature of villains. Take the Nelsons, for example. Aside from their lawbreaking habits, they’re actually a kind and welcoming family. So what really defines a villain?
Scarlet Overkill is the answer to that question. At the convention, after a freak accident lands the minions a job with the biggest, baddest, most intelligent and talented villain around, Scarlet, the trio move in with her and send word to the tribe.
The tribe, who had come to learn that they had been living in a Yeti cave, found work with the returning homeowners. Unfortunately, with the status of their luck, they kill off yet another leader and are chased out by the remaining Yetis. With the good employment news they received from their journeying heroes, the group sets off on its own adventure — traveling the world and landing in the wrong places.
The trio, eager to prove themselves to Scarlet, are tasked with a seemingly impossible request: stealing the Queen of England’s crown. Equipped with technical gear from Scarlet’s inventor husband, voiced by “Mad Men” actor Jon Hamm, the minions make an attempt to please Scarlet and fail. As they are chased around Great Britain, Bob unknowingly pulls King Arthur’s legendary sword, Excalibur from the rock, and is crowned King of England.
Livid, Scarlet targets the trio, while the rest of the minions show up and chaos breaks out as Scarlet tries to steal the crown and escape. She is stopped short by a freeze ray which turns out to be the work of a young Gru. Amazed by this invention, the minions follow Gru into the sunset, and the rest is history.
The story was nice, and I think the movie did well in giving personalities to the protagonists, even if they didn’t speak a comprehensible language. But I feel as though more layers could have been added. It would have been cool if Scarlet ended up being the mother of Gru’s arch nemesis in the first film because her husband’s personality reflected that of Vector. Aside from the unreached potential in the plot, it was a funny movie.
Zoe Geauthreaux is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from New Orleans.