Minions and Monsters and Friendship and Dreaming
When I initially started writing this review, I was going to write something funny. For the previous Minions film, I painted my face and dressed as a Minion. But I don’t think that’s a proper response to Minions and Monsters. While the film is still hilarious, there is a story about going against what society expects of you and the boxes you fit into. The film makes you walk away feeling inspired to stop worrying about the roles society puts on you and to do the things that make you feel fulfilled.
While Minions and Monsters is very much a love letter to cinema, it is also a letter about friendship and chasing your dreams. Henry and James are very different from the other Minions who came before them and guide this film to the top spot in Illumination’s entire catalog. Minions and Monsters steps outside the Minions’ usual path, becoming something entirely new.
In Minions and Monsters, heroes James and Henry have a different plan from their people and break away from their tribe. They have fallen in love with making movies and want to make an awesome monster movie of their own! With the help of a spellbook taken from an old boss (an evil sorcerer they used to work for), James and Henry summon some fearsome monsters to play the villains in their movie. When things go haywire, James, Henry, and all their buddies must work together to save the world from a band of rampaging monsters.
As we know them, the Minions follow the most evil leader that they can find (Big Boss). We have followed them with Gru and other charismatic villains through the films, but Minions and Monsters break free from that mold. They go through a few new bosses in the beginning of the film, including a cyclops, the Queen of England, a Mummy, and more. They also solve the “Germany in the 1940’s” problem by showing that Minions DO have free will and that they cherish life as sacred rather than being truly evil. But the film doesn’t retread old ground, as it revolves around them breaking away from following an evil boss. Henry and James break the mold.
Instead of being Minions who mindlessly take orders and often screw them up with lethal consequences, we meet James, who draws stories in his notebook. He yearns to tell stories and express himself in ways we haven’t seen before. This is a Minion with his own hopes and dreams as written by Brian Lynch and Pierre Coffin. To say these aren’t your typical Minions is apt: when directly ordered by their leader, Dick, to follow a master, they push through to find their own identities.
While we have seen Bob, Stewart, and Kevin together in the past, it never felt like the level of friendship Henry and James share. Making friendship the emotional anchor for the story was a powerful choice because we see these two supporting each other and sticking their necks out for one another from the beginning.
They are treated as the outsiders of their tribe, but never once do they feel alone when they have each other. There is a beautiful scene in the film where they are supposed to be asleep away from the tribe, but they stay up sharing their stories and ideas. While much of the film relies on humor and spectacular references to films from throughout the years of filmmaking, the emotional heart is Henry and James’ friendship. For younger viewers who may feel like outsiders, seeing that you can exist outside the norm alongside people who understand you is a meaningful message. Friends push us to pursue the things we believe we aren’t capable of, and that is why this film stands above the rest.
The art form that Henry and James choose to express themselves through is film, and the film itself pays homage to cinema as a creative whole. One scene in particular homages one of the biggest scenes in history, with Citizen Kane‘s Rosebud performed by a Minion who made me choke on my laugh. Minions and Monsters runs the gamut of references, ranging from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton to the Minions creating the noir film genre and so much more. Even if it is stuffed to the gills with allusions, they never feel tacked on but are integral to the time period in which the story is set. The film also includes a cameo by one of its most important voices, George Lucas, in a scene that will leave you rolling with laughter. All of this is wrapped together by John Powell’s incredible score, which combines modern sound with allusions to the sounds that made film what it is.
Henry and James aren’t the only ones chasing their dreams, though, as their tribe also finds a new big boss in Jesse Eisenberg’s Dort, a mechanical alien conqueror come to take over Earth. While that could be his motive in the film, it quickly becomes more about Henry and James’ journey to chase their dream of falling in love. Dort is a charming and wonderful character who I won’t get too deep into, because it should be experienced; it wasn’t highlighted in the film’s promotion. It’s a beautiful journey of love that includes the Minions taking part in the Women’s Suffrage Movement to help them fight for the right to vote. Not a joke, not a bit: the Minions literally fight for women’s equal rights. This is what a feminist looks like: a little yellow guy in overalls.
I walked away from the theatre after watching Minions and Monsters with a huge smile on my face. I am someone who thinks a lot about how much I love cinema, my friends, and who chases his dreams no matter how unrealistic they are. It’s a film about finding your joy with the people who inspire you, which I believe is one of those universal truths. You can always get by with a little help from your friends.