Minions & Monsters Opens as 7th Franchise Film Draws Revenue-Driven Review
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jun 30
Minions & Monsters Opens as 7th Franchise Film Draws Revenue-Driven Review
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 30
Summary
Minions & Monsters opened in Australian cinemas and reaches the UK and US on July 1 as the seventh Despicable Me franchise film and third Minions spin-off.
Late-1920s Hollywood gives the film its central hook: the Minions become silent-era stars, then lose their studio jobs when sound arrives because they cannot speak English.
The review says that clever premise fades as director Pierre Coffin adds pathos, a monster-movie plot and cluttered subplots involving a spell book, a robot and the women’s rights movement.
That sprawl leaves the film circling back to familiar Minions chaos instead of clarifying what the characters are, undercutting an attempt to give the franchise more emotional weight.
Illumination’s highest-grossing animated franchise is portrayed as increasingly driven by commercial demand, with the Minions now serving box-office needs more than creative ambition.