ANIMATION; 1hr 31min
VOICES BY: Sandra Bullock, John Hamm, Jennifer Saunders, Pierre Coffin
Fiddle dee dee! Scarlet and her boys
Even before Despicable Me ’s Gru, as smoothie narrator Geoffrey Rush tells it, the age-old aim of yolk-yellow Minion tubsters was “to find the biggest, baddest villain to serve.” With prime-grade depravity in relatively short supply and the Minion tribe languishing in Arctic isolation, the intrepid Kevin, Stuart and Bob (voiced by Coffin) embark on a job search that lands them in 1968 Orlando, Florida, and the evil embrace of “super-villain” Scarlet Overkill (Bullock, living large). Scarlet, who has cocktail-chic dress sense, a spindly, worshipful husband (Hamm as Herb) and an advanced case of megalomania, speedily despatches her new crew to steal the crown of Queen Elizabeth (Saunders) for her personal and political use.
Anyone would know this is a ridiculous idea but it’s nowhere near as nutso as the stuff and nonsense that unspools from there. No-brainers on speed though they are, the Minions — as scripted by Brian Lynch and directed by Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin — are still a cuddle waiting to happen with their helium-infused babble, can-do mojo, sky-high adrenaline and impossible capacity for bouncing back. And aside from the pluses of teamwork, there’s not a virtuous Life Lesson in sight.
