** ½ out of ****
The gibberish-speaking Twinkies-with-eyes from the Despicable Me films now have their very own animated movie. Minions is a pleasant enough if unspectacular comedy romp.
This movie shows the origin of the Minions and how, even in cell form at the dawn of time, they were on a mission to find an evil mastermind to work for. One of the funnier sections of the movie – which is in the trailer – shows in darkly humorous fashion, how the Minions, throughout the ages, keep accidentally dispatching their new masters. Eventually the little yellow guys find a cave to live in until Kevin, Stuart and Bob (Pierre Coffin does all the Minion voices) decide to go out into the world again to try and find a new evil genius to follow. Cut to1968 and the three Minions get wind of a super villain convention and that is where they meet Scarlett Overkill (voice of Sandra Bullock), who is bent on world domination. Kevin, Stuart and Bob do become her minions, but what the little guys don't get is that she's really quite evil, so evil in fact that she makes no qualms about executing her henchmen when they screw up a task.
The funniest parts of the movie are in the first half. The biggest laughs for me are in the scenes when the three Minions hitch a ride with a weird family (Michael Keaton and Allison Janney voice the parents) who turn out to be bank robbers.
Minions never reaches the laugh-out-loud hilarity of the Despicable Me movies but it is charming and it will have you consistently chuckling throughout.
