movie review
MINIONS & MONSTERS
Running time: 89 minutes. Rated PG (violence, action, language and rude/macabre humor). In theaters.
One of the best odes to Old Hollywood in a long time comes courtesy of … the Minions?
Yes, somehow the funny yellow Tic Tacs, who heretofore clumsily served supervillains, are leading a smart and detailed tribute to Georges Méliès, Orson Welles, Boris Karloff, “Casablanca” and countless other pieces of movie-making history called “Minions & Monsters.”
Improbably this fantastic animated kids movie, sure to be a highlight of the summer, is an adult cinephile’s dream.
It doesn’t make a lick of sense. It also makes a ton of sense.
Because years ago, French director Pierre Coffin, who co-created the talking Tylenols in 2010’s “Despicable Me,” realized that the real scene stealer wasn’t Steve Carell’s baddie Gru at all, but rather his pellet-shaped henchmen who speak in European gibberish.
I unabashedly love the Minions. They are never less than hilarious, and they are much more colorful and creative than most of what Pixar and DreamWorks are churning out. You could put them in pretty much anything, like Stanley Tucci. Come to think of it, they bear a striking resemblance to Stanley Tucci.
And that’s what Coffin has done with “Monsters,” which is their finest hour… and 30 minutes. He’s plopped ‘em far away from “Despicable Me” in the 1920s Golden Age of Hollywood, with its bustling sound stages, eccentric personalities and the monolithic studio system.
How do the yukking yolks get to Tinseltown of all places? While traversing the world in search of a new “big boss” — and cycling through a cyclops, a sorcerer and a mummy — the Minions (also voiced by Coffin) flock to who they think is a Wild West gunslinger and finally land in sunny Los Angeles.
Actually, what the mischief makers did is botch a train robbery film shoot. In the process, they are discovered a la Marilyn Monroe by a director named Max (Christoph Waltz), who wears a monocle like Erich von Stroheim.
Right away, they’re the toast of the town. “The biggest stars the world has ever seen,” proclaims Max. They appear in such hit films as “The Good, the Bad and the Stupids.”
But, like tiny Norma Desmonds, their careers are destroyed with the advent of cinematic sound — a k a “the talkies” — and they are unceremoniously given the boot. Can you believe this plot? Incredible.
The main Minions this time are Henry and James, creative rebels who are more concerned with art than villainry. James sketches storyboards in a notebook and longs to be an Oscar-winning director. To save his friends, James concocts “Minions y Monstras,” a Hollywood horror blockbuster. However, he’ll need to recruit frightening creatures.
Most of the movie is in Minionese. With just a sprinkle of English, it’s practically a foreign film like “Sentimental Value.” Only enjoyable.
Nobody can compete with the crowd-pleasing scamps, of course, however there are some amusing non-Minions.
“South Park”’s Trey Parker voices Goomi, a tiny tentacled creature who helps the guys hunt down terrifying beasts. When he approaches two fearsome titans, Goomi gets one of the film’s funniest lines:
“We are no longer evil,” he announces. “We work in the motion picture industry.”
And there’s Dort (Jesse Eisenberg), a lanky robot — a geek in a suit perhaps? — who a splinter faction of Minions makes their new leader.
While the first half of the film is a deluge of insider cinema jokes, the emotional story of James and Henry as against-the-grain innovators grounds the delightful, Criterion Collection chaos.
Once Goomi and Dort arrive, “Monsters” swerves into a more familiar, save-the-world race to the finish. Even so, the Minions always make the would-be banal into something perfectly weird and wonderful.
I know, I talk about these CGI cocktail weenies like they’re Meryl Streep. But there’s something to that. Critics often remark of summery blockbuster comedies, like “Mamma Mia!,” that the cast looks like they’re having so much fun. And so, we do as well.
What’s weird is the same is true of the Minions. While the opposite of realistic, they are a rarity in the constructed world of animation. The viewer leaves really believing that those little dandelion CGI blobs had a blast making their movie, and they can’t wait for the next one.