The untold story of one twelve-year-old’s dream to become the world’s greatest supervillain.
The giggles and laughs begin early in this film when the infamous map to the legendary Zodiac Stone gets into the wrong hands, and the corrigible Minions are there to save the day for their formidable partner, 12-year-old Gru (Steve Carell). While the endearing denim-suited, yellow movers and shakers continuously engage Gru with their own minion language and body movements, they are determined to make fans love their humor and compassion just by being minions. During a heist by the Vicious Supervillains who have ousted their aging Leader, Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin), due to their own personal greed, Gru gets the opportunity to live out his dreams by attempting to join the group of supervillains who are looking to replace the original 1970’s member, “Wild Knuckles.” Gru pretty much becomes the laughing stock of the audition when the evil villains realize that he is only a child. Determined not to have his dreams derailed due to a small oversight, Gru finds a way to take command of the Zodiac Stone that they have swindled from Mr. Knuckles, and he heads off into a bewildering chase that leads to the mobilization of his entire group of minions. Gru, who had just dismissed his yellow army before he took on the sole job of chasing his dream, finds out soon enough that the highly intelligent and non-fearing Minions still have his back and are willing to risk it all to save their beloved Gru.
In an early twist of fate, Gru gets his hands on the Zodiac Stone and runs right into the path of Mr. Knuckles, who had devised a plan to steal the zodiac necklace from Gru. While his initial goal is to keep it for himself, he learns more lessons than expected as Gru explains to him repeatedly that he is his hero and wants to be just like him. When the villains get too close for comfort in the quest to get the stones back, Mr. Knuckles finds out that instead of making Gru his own personal servant as he originally intended, he actually needs to partner with him to share his skills and work together to fight the villains to get the Zodiac jewels back to where they belong. In the end, Gru and Mr. Knuckles can come together with a solid plan to place the stone where it belongs and to ensure the Villanous Six are put away for a long time.
While the Minions have gained popularity over the years, the lessons that come with the beloved creatures are often filled with a mixture of easily understandable and somewhat perplexing situations that certain kids would never be able to grasp. In a nutshell, it appears that the bit of adult humor that sometimes goes straight over their heads ends up being a bit frustrating when the same catch-all shenanigans are used repeatedly to garner laughs. At the same time, the silly fart noises and goofy jokes keep the kids’ attention during the entire hour and a half it takes to cycle through every single minion-filled mishap. At the end of the day, directors Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson, and Jonathan del Val do a great job gathering a stellar list of actors, including Taraji P. Henson (Belle Bottom) and Julie Andrews (Gru’s mom), whose goofy roles keep the theatre filled with giggles and screams while promoting both good and bad behavior with childish innocence and criminal motives.
In Theaters Friday, July 1st
