Starring: Pierre Coffin, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 91 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2015
| 
| 
This American computer-animated comedy tells the story of a species of yellow organisms that have been evolving since the dawn of time looking for someone terrible to serve. The film is a spinoff of the fantasy movies, “Despicable Me” (2010) and its popular sequel, “Despicable Me 2” (2013), and is essentially a prequel to those two movies. “Despicable Me 2” lost out to “Frozen” for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature film in 2013.
Minions are small creatures, who have one main purpose in life – to serve history’s most despicable masters. People they have served include Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and Dracula. After being unsuccessful in their efforts to find the right master, they decide to start life afresh in Antartica. By 1968, in their ice cave, they are depressed, knowing that they are purposeless in the absence of a villain to lead them.
One of the Minions, Kevin, devises a plan to find a truly terrible master and he joins forces with a rebellious teenager, Stuart, and young Bob to go on the hunt for one. (The voice of all the Minions is that of the co-director of the film, Pierre Coffin, who has co-directed all three Minion films). Minions have served some appalling masters and they know that they have been not very good in finding the right person to serve. Accidentally, they have been responsible for the death of all their previous choices.
Under Kevin’s plan, the Minions go in search of the world’s first super-female villain, Scarlet Overkill (Sandra bullock), who is the leading “nasty” of the movie. She is ambitious, stylish and sexy, and is determined to dominate the world and become its first female super-villain. Scarlett is assisted by her husband, Herb Overkill (Jon Hamm), who invents things to keep her focused efficiently on her evil plans for domination.
The three Minions find their way to Orlando, USA, where there is an international conference organised especially for villains. At the conference, Kevin, Stuart and Bob compete for the attention of Scarlett Overkill who heads the gathering. Impressed with their initiative, Scarlett recruits the three Minions to do her dirty work, and desperately wants them to steal the British Monarch’s crown. All move off to the city of London, which gives the cartoon fantasy a contemporary look and feel. Minions face annihilation, however, under the evil plans of Scarlett, who turns against them.
It is tricky to build a children’s movie, albeit a fantasy one, around the worthwhile nature of serving only people who are terribly bad. But goodness changed bad people for the better in “Despicable Me”. So too, this movie shows friendly goodness in Kevin, Bob and Stuart, and it tells children what can happen when you are silly and weak enough to be thoroughly awful.
Minions have characteristically behaved in a comical way through the ages, and there is never any doubt about where their hopes and desires are going to lead them. In this movie, it all turns out right in the end, and viewers know that the Minions have taken steps to survive – possibly suggesting that future sequels (or prequels) to this film will eventuate.
This is a slight film that quickly goes into random fantasy overkill, and it satirises Britain with complete abandon and with a degree of cultural insensitivity. Its interesting premise is sensibly turned around, and it provides purely escapist PG fare for parents possibly looking for a film to share with their children.
The animation in the film is good, but very computer driven, and its fantasy elements are consciously derivative of the original 2010 and 2013 movies. The film ensures that there is something to smile and laugh about – from time to time. Faced with fantasy competition on the local cinema screen, however, “Inside Out” is definitely parents’ better choice.
12 Random Films…
