Minions & Monsters Is The Only Kids Movie You Need To Watch This Summer

By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

Having graduated college in 2010, I missed out on the entire Despicable Me franchise for a number of reasons. The biggest is that I was the youngest member of my family by a long shot, meaning I was already 22 years old when the first one came out. I simply wasn’t the target demographic based on my life circumstances alone. I also had a coworker at my post-grad office job who had little Minions plushies all over their desk, and our tastes did not align at all, so there was another layer of abstraction that kept me away from the franchise.

I’m not the type of person to outwardly hate on things that bring people joy if those things are harmless, but I also write things off pretty quickly based on what I know I like and dislike, so I never put much thought into either the Despicable Me or Minions film series.

And then I had kids.

I’ve played these movies in my house after screening them for my kids, and they’re innocent enough, but I’ve also irresponsibly sat down with my kids and watched South Park (more on that later), so take what I say with a grain of salt. When our local drive-in theater announced they were going to be playing Minions & Monsters, my 5-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter lost their minds.

I also lost my mind because it’s been nothing but kids’ movies this summer, which is fine, but I’m still salty about missing the screening of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple because we couldn’t find a sitter.

So we spent our Saturday night watching Minions & Monsters, the latest installment in a franchise I know next to nothing about aside from how annoying their voices are, and I actually had the best time, though not for the reason you’d probably expect.

The obvious reason is that I’ve never heard my kids laugh harder at anything in their entire lives. The less obvious reason is that Minions & Monsters is the seventh feature-length installment in the Despicable Me franchise, among countless other shorts, but you can enjoy it as a standalone piece without really knowing anything about the series at all.

If you really want to enjoy Despicable Me as a parent, just do as my daughter says and “Lock in, Babycakes!”

Zero Lore Dumps. You Can Just Watch The Movie.

The night before going to see Minions & Monsters, I did one of those frantic Wikipedia crawls to get the character names straight, and I gave up shortly after. It’s not that I don’t have patience for my kids’ entertainment choices, either. I’m well versed in Bluey, Blippi, Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, and when the moment is right, I even sneak in some Rocko’s Modern Life when I think they’re ready for the humor.

With such short notice, cramming in six movies and God knows how many games, shorts, and web series just wasn’t happening.

I said, “Screw it,” and went in blind, and that’s exactly how Minions & Monsters won me over.

You can go in totally blind.

So what’s it about? It’s about Minions throughout history who influence world events because they latch onto a master, for better or worse, and wreak havoc because they’re completely enslaved to their impulses. Their behavior almost always ends in disaster.

We’re introduced to James, Henry, Ed, and Dick, all voiced by Pierre Coffin, and these are the Minions we spend the most time with. They all sound the same, obviously, and they all act pretty much the same. They speak in a weird hybrid of English and gibberish, and they leave waves of destruction wherever they go, never fully grasping the gravity of whatever situation they’re in.

Here, they inadvertently sabotage filmmaker Max’s (Christoph Waltz) projects by wandering into frame. To his shock and delight, studio executives Frank and Elwood Bright (Jeff Bridges) love the little creatures and demand they appear in all of his films. When the silent era comes to an end and Hollywood embraces talkies, every film starring the Minions tanks because nobody can understand what the hell they’re saying.

Rightfully dejected, they decide to make their own movie. Their brilliant idea is to summon a demon so they can create the ultimate monster movie. James, Henry, and Ed consult the Book of the Dead and accidentally summon Goomi (Trey Parker), whose full name is Gary Orkam Oliver Magma Ichabod the Deceiver. Dick and the other Minions instead team up with an alien robot named Dort (Jesse Eisenberg), and naturally every plan backfires, leaving them to clean up the collateral damage they created.

Sounds Like The Guy From South Park Because It Is

Like I mentioned earlier, I occasionally watch The Simpsons and South Park with my kids. I think it’s healthy to sit down with your kids and talk about what’s appropriate and what isn’t, so long as you’re not pushing the envelope too far. We’re not watching episodes like “Mr. Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina,” but we’ve definitely burned through “The Losing Edge” several times.

The only reason I mention this is because the second Goomi started talking, my daughter and I both turned to each other and asked in unison, “Is that Cartman?!”I assumed it was someone doing a really convincing impression because the voice is so iconic, but when the credits rolled, it confirmed that Trey Parker was voicing Goomi in Minions & Monsters.

And honestly, it makes perfect sense. If you know your South Park lore, Cthulhu showed up during the “Coon and Friends” storyline, so Parker clearly has a soft spot for absurd monster comedy.

The part I enjoyed most about Parker’s involvement is that he jumped at the chance to voice a character in something his own daughter could actually watch. That’s especially funny when you consider there’s plenty of footage online of him having his daughter record some absolutely unhinged Ike Broflovski dialogue for South Park.

Even If You Don’t Enjoy It, You’ll Enjoy How Much Your Kids Enjoy It

I’m happy to report that I actually quite liked Minions & Monsters. Given the nature of its story and the era it takes place in, it takes countless shots at classic Hollywood tropes while stuffing nearly every scene with parody and chaotic sight gags. If you’re into the kind of physical comedy you’d find in an old Laurel and Hardy or Jerry Lewis routine, you’ll probably have a good time.

I was mostly stoked because it genuinely played like a standalone adventure.

My wife, who is just as unversed in Minions lore, kept turning to me and asking what was going on, and I’d just shrug and say, “I don’t know. They’re little single-celled organisms with poor impulse control,” before adding, “Then they fall down and stuff.”

That was apparently an acceptable answer.

My favorite part of the movie, though, was hearing how hard my kids were laughing. It reminded me of that Family Guy scene where Brian calls Stewie out for having an obnoxious laugh whenever he thinks something is really funny, except three or four octaves higher and about ten times louder.

I joke around constantly, but I guess I’m not that funny because I’ve never heard them laugh this hard.

It was good for my soul.

I still don’t really know what the Minions are all about, but they gave us a pretty great Saturday night, so honestly, I have no notes.

Minions & Monsters is currently playing in theaters everywhere. Bring some earplugs to knock down a little of the high end, and you’ll have a great time with your kids watching this one.