The Esperanto-spouting servants of fiendish evil romp through their first full feature and they're helped along by a very starry cast.
The yellow numbskulls from Despicable Me get their own spin-off movie and while it’s no ground-breaking Pixar wonderment, Minions will enthral the kids and raise a few wry smiles for the grown-ups.
The star power is as bright as the yellow Esperanto-spouting Minions themselves. America’s sweetheart Sandra Bullock and man’s man Jon Hamm lead the cast and comedy stalwarts Steve Coogan, Allison Janney and Jennifer Saunders also turn up. Throw in sonorous narration from none other than Geoffrey Rush and Minions has all the hallmarks of a bespoke animation feature.
Rush cheerily narrates the evolution of Minion-kind from single-celled organisms in the Jurassic era as they set out in their lifelong search for an evil genius to serve. It’s an entertaining introduction that sees the hapless peons slog through history attempting to serve early man and despotic pharaohs before taking a final dejected trudge through the Russian snow with Napoleon. Interestingly, they never quite make it to Nazi Germany.
Leaderless, our jaundiced friends sink into a dejected torpor until the prat-falling trio of Kevin, Bob and Stuart determine to set out to once and for all find the baddie they’ve been destined to serve.
Their road trip takes us to the hippy swirl of New York in 1968 and then to Orlando, where they fall under the toxic spell of Scarlet Overkill, the world’s first female super-villain (the movie is set some ten years before Thatcher came to power). Scarlett is the wasp-waisted embodiment of pure evil and she is played with lip-smacking gusto and a cut glass English accent by Sandra Bullock.
She takes her new servants back to a still swinging London town where we meet her hubbie, Herb. He's a Carnaby Street beanpole voiced by Jon Hamm who, in a nice touch, looks like Pete Townshend - beak and all.
As we scamper through London, American and French directors Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin get to indulge in every quaint cliché about the English, from tea-drinking reserve to stiff upper lips to questionable dentistry.
It's got a great retro look and Minions doesn’t bother with lessons about individuality and the dangers of the herd mentality. It's just too busy having a good time all of the time.
Alan Corr
