Where do the Minions from the "Despicable Me" movies come from? Here is the answer. We follow the yellow-gibberish speaking blobs from single cell organisms through evolution and then there decade long search for a villain to serve. After multiple failures in this goal, they go into hiding, where eventually they fall into a deep depression. One Minion named Kevin comes up with a plan to find a new villain to follow. He takes Stuart and Bob with him on his quest. The year now is 1968 and after going to Villain-Con in Orlando, they decide that the greatest villainess, Scarlett Overkill (Sandra Bullock) will be their new master. She takes them to England to pull off the greatest caper of all time. But will it all go according to plan? Does it ever when the Minions are involved?
Cast
Pierre Coffin as Kevin, Stuart, Bob and the Minions
Sandra Bullock as Scarlet Overkill
Jon Hamm as Herb Overkill
Michael Keaton as Walter Nelson
Allison Janney as Madge Nelson
Geoffrey Rush as the Narrator
Who will like this:
A family film that young kids will especially like. Moms and women over 30 are drawn to the cute little buggers for some reason. So let Mom take the kids while Dad goes to see Terminator Genisys.
Phantom Thoughts
I happen to like the Minions. I thought they were a great form of amusement in the "Despicable Me" movies. But they are, in fact, just supporting players. When you go about making a movie with them in the staring roles, it proves to be difficult. It's like making a movie starring the Dozers from Fraggle Rock. Or the Jawas from Star Wars. Nice additions, but not the main focus.
So in order to move the story along, you add in some English speaking characters. Because really....there's only so much of a cute made-up language you can take. BTW- the "minion-ese" is taken from several different languages, including American, Spanish, French, Indonesian and Hebrew, to name a few. So enter in Scarlett Overkill and her inventor husband Herb, voiced by Sandra Bullock and Jon Hamm. This is Bullock's first role as a bad guy and plays the part of the armed-rocket-powered-dress-wearing Super Villain pretty well. She's no Gru, of course, but being that she's in virgin territory, we'll cut her a break.
There were a few things I did find interesting though. Kevin in this picture was a bit different from the minion Kevin in the first movie. Bob's two different colored eyes were not present in the original or even the trailer for this one. And all three minions were designed to resemble Gru's daughters: Margo, Agnes and Edith.
The Villain-Con Expo was done in a very Comic-Con fashion, down to the main event being held in "Hall H" just like all the big panels of the San Diego Comic Con. In the audience we catch a glimpse of Gargamel from the "Smurfs". As a nice tie-in as well, in the background on the Con vendor scene, we see a young Gru and his Mother being shown a new invention...the Freeze Ray!
Possibly lost on most viewers were the references to Mozart's opera The Magic Flute scattered throughout the movie. Not so lost though, was Stuart playing Van Halen's "Eruption" on the guitar. (A good 10 years before Eddie played it).
But it was a fun movie. Not as good as the originals, but not bad. Probably worth waiting to watch it at home and not necessarily a movie you HAVE to see this Summer. But if Mom needs to get the kids out of the house during Summer Break, then by all means, go for it.
Until next time, see you in the center seat.
