by Sandra Olmsted

Directors Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin head up giving the yellow creatures from Despicable Me (2010) and Despicable Me 2 (2013) a movie of their own. The fast paced opening scene, narrated by Geoffrey Rush, reveals that the immortal, indestructible Minions have been around since the beginning of time and always in need of an evil villain to follow; unfortunately, having the Minions as minions isn’t exactly good luck for all those villains through the ages.

After the Minions cause yet another disaster, they seclude themselves in an ice cave. Unfortunately, without an evil leader to inspire their antics and mischief, the unusually jolly, manic yellow beings sink into a deep, collective depression. Kevin, the taller, smarter looking one, decides to go out in the world and find his fellow Minions a new evil leader. The childishly eager Bob, who carries a Teddy bear and has Heterochromia iridum — two different colored eyes, and the reluctant one-eyed Stuart, who plays the ukulele, don’t really volunteer to go with Kevin, but they are going, anyway. Director Pierre Coffin voices Kevin, Bob, Stuart, and the rest of the 896 Minions in this film who speak “Minionese,” which is a combination of several languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hebrew, Bahasa Indonesian, Malay, and mostly delightfully, silly Gibberish.

When Kevin, Bob, and Stuart land in New York city in 1968, Minions takes a turn towards a fish-out-of-water story for a while, until the trio discover that Villain-Con is in Orlando, and they hit the road. While the trio returning to the quest theme isn’t a bad thing , the film’s story line, unfortunately, never really gels because what’s at stake, the depressed Minions in the ice cave, never seems as serious as is necessary to make Kevin’s quest important. In fact, Kevin, Bob, and Stuart don’t seem to miss their fellow Minions at all. Once at Villain-Con, Kevin, Bob, and Stuart are eager to enlist superstar, super-villain Scarlet Overkill (voice of Sandra Bullock), as their new leader. Scarlet and her husband Herb (voice of St. Louis native Jon Hamm), who creates incredible gadgets, are in the market for some new henchmen because Scarlet plans to steal the Queen of England’s crown, literally and figuratively.

While the Minions aren’t as maniacally fun as they were in supporting roles, they do have lots of fun with pop culture and music references. Keep your eyes open for Richard Nixon’s 1968 Presidential Campaign slogan, Gargarmel from Smurfs, references to The Beatles Abbey Road album, a young Gru, the Minions eventual master, and Comic-Con spoofs.

There’s also fun with Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute when Stuart falls for a fire hydrant or two and he calls them “Papagena.” Keep your ears open for the Minions having fun with a host of mostly 1960s ditties, including work by The Rolling Stones, The Turtles, The Doors, and The Kinks, such as a song from the musical Hair, “Make ‘Em Laugh” from Singin’ In The Rain, a guitar solo of Van Halen’s “Eruption,” Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow,” Universal logo animation music in the beginning, and The Beatles song “Revolution” after the credits end.

The 3D is subtle, and even stunning in a few places, but Minions would probably be as much fun without it. Minions, a Illumination Entertainment production and Universal Pictures release, runs 91 minutes and is rated PG for action and rude humor.

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