While some Christians are sounding alarms over the film’s magic moments, Charles Merritt believes that Minions & Monsters is actually a fun ride through Hollywood clichés, friendship, and learning who to trust
Film: Minions & Monsters
Age rating: U
Runtime: 89 minutes
See this if you liked: Minions: The Rise of Gru, Citizen Kane
Synopsis:
When the minions discover Hollywood, James the minion has dreams of making an Oscar worthy movie but in order to do so, he needs monsters…
Review:
I’ll be honest. I was avoiding this movie. After the last few Despicable Me/Minion movies, I’d been burnt too many times.
However, I genuinely think this is the best in the franchise since Despicable Me 2.
The movie opens inside a museum that holds Hollywood artifacts (chockful of cameos and easter eggs for all movie fans), where the tour guide begins to tell the story of James and Henry the Minions.
There’s some really amazing animation, comedic action sequences and fun moments
There is a fun sequence of the Minions trying to find their next bad boss, including an eye-watering moment featuring a Cyclops and some Lego that genuinely made me gasp! It’s worth noting that there a few moments like this that I’m not sure how they managed to sneak that past the U rating it’s been given…
The film centres around James, who’s more interested in creating stories than working for villains. He becomes best friends with Henry and another Minion who is deaf, called Ed, and they develop Minion sign language to help him communicate.
When they accidentally (and literally) crash a Hollywood movie set, they are hired to be actors in the classic silent movies of the 1920s. There are lots of historical jokes around the roaring 20s and plenty of fun references to classic Hollywood silent comedies that the Minions so clearly take inspiration from – Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and the like. In fact, there are so many Hollywood jokes and easter eggs, it did make me wonder whether children (and indeed many adults) would really care for them/appreciate them enough to warrant them being included.
It’s a kids movie more than a family movie, although there are so many Hollywood jokes that I was thoroughly enjoying catching them all
The Minions success in Hollywood is short lived, however, with the introduction of talking movie pictures. Unable to deliver their lines coherently, the Minions are kicked out of Hollywood. But James, Henry and Ed stay to make James’ dreams of becoming a Hollywood director come true. The remaining minions find a robot from space that falls in love with a suffragette. Yep. I don’t really understand how this fits into the movie, but you learn to just go with it. It helps that Jesse Eisenberg does an incredible job at voicing Dort the robot, that you shrug your shoulders and go ‘I guess we’re doing this’.
James’ vision is to create a big blockbuster filled with monsters. However, they don’t have the budget. Fortunately(?), Ed has kept the spellbook from a previous bad boss and they use it to summon a terrifying monster, Goomie. Except Goomie isn’t all that terrifying, he’s smaller and cuter than a big threat so they go off in search of Goomie’s friends who are much scarier.
One thing leads to another and they release a big eyeball monster that tries to take over the world.
Read more:
Girls by Freya India is the wake-up call every Christian parent needs
What Toy Story 5 can teach us about discipleship, technology and the power of play
There’s some really amazing animation, comedic action sequences and fun moments. The energy, on the whole, is well maintained. The plot, if you couldn’t gather from the robot/suffragette storyline, is a bit wacky and full of convenience and logic defying elements. It’s a kids movie more than a family movie, although there are so many Hollywood jokes that I was thoroughly enjoying catching them all.
It did strike me at the end that James so badly wanted to win an Oscar, and I can’t help but think this might be Illumination’s attempts of trying to win over the academy in order to win the franchise’s first Oscar. It’s such a love letter to old school Hollywood and the art of filmmaking that I could see it working – if it weren’t for Toy Story 5 that is (you can read my review on that here).
Faith thoughts:
Let’s address the elephant in the room.
Yes, the minions use a spell book to summon monsters from another realm.
No, I don’t think this movie encourages witchcraft (you can save your pitchforks and torches for Disney’s Hex, coming this November, which very much focuses on witches and witchcraft…).
It’s very clear that monsters/demons from other realms are not the good guys. Goomie literally introduces himself as Goomie the Deceiver. And he lives up to his title.
If there was a message for this movie, it would be to be careful who you trust. Not everyone has your best interests at heart
At the end of the film, the tour guide explains that the message of the movie was about ‘sticking together and working alongside your friends’. If I’m honest, that was not the message of the movie. They mostly save the day by plot conveniences.
If there was a message for this movie, it would be to be careful who you trust. Not everyone has your best interests at heart – especially demons summoned from other realms…
Hollywood is a business of false promises, false relationships and false realities. It’s a shame the movie doesn’t really lean into that but maybe it can be a way in to talk to our children and young people about who we can trust and who is going to look out for us.
In comparison, God genuinely has our best interest at heart – offering us life in all its fullness
James wants to use his creativity to tell exciting stories that will entertain. Goomie pretends that he wants to help James with his dream but is really using him to take over the world.
The Enemy pretends to have our best interest at hearts – tempting us with fame and riches. He takes our gifts and skills and tempts us with the offer of ‘success’. But success can only last so long and success doesn’t satisfy. There’s always more we can own, achieve, and strive for.
In a world of social media and reality TV, it’s difficult to know what is genuine. Which app is actually there to help us and which is there to profit off us? TikTok isn’t just about creativity; it’s about data mining and advertisement opportunities. Reality TV isn’t about finding love; it’s about finding a way to make money and gain more influence.
In comparison, God genuinely has our best interest at heart – offering us life in all its fullness. We already have all we could ever need. It doesn’t mean there isn’t pain or suffering, but we have something that the Enemy could never offer us. True, tangible hope. Not false hope. But real, living hope of something bigger and better than ourselves.
