After a brief stint direct to digital, Illumination Entertainment‘s latest Minions film is now on home video. And if their proliferation is any sign, they are everywhere! With the Rise of Gru on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K, the stage is set to hint at next year’s return to the Despicable franchise, where Gru has to contend with his nasty twin brother, Dru. When watching this movie again, I get the feeling Wild Knuckles will play some kind of role in this upcoming film.
Where this tale concerning the pill-shaped compatriots’ relationship with the Gru guy takes place is years after Marlena and Felonius have settled down. It seems to ignore a few details from the last Minions movie concerning how they found their new leader and when he accepted them.
My review back in July goes into greater detail, and what I’ll look at here is the bonus material offered in this home video release.
The world of Earth is still without heroes in Minions.
By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
The world of Earth is still without heroes in Minions. Just where they are to defeat the bad guys does not need to be asked, and nor are they required when these funny yellow critters (all of them voiced by Pierre Coffin) finally get their own movie. After tiny appearances of their hijinks in the Despicable Me movies, the producers from Illumination Entertainment thankfully took five years to get a product out to feature them as bumbling heroes whereas DreamWork’s The Penguins of Madagascar, their rivals, took ten.
These cute little yellow, capsule shaped, creatures are on a quest to serve the most vile villain they can find. The only problem they have is their ineptitude to help them rise to power. Just what happens to these ruthless tyrants under their Igor like care is hilarious and the voice-over narrative Geoffrey Rush provides is touching. Sadly, the best moments are given away in the trailers.
In the history lesson that’s provided, it’s merely a sampling of the rulers they met over the millennia. To see how these Minions served other past dictators like Caligula, Genghis Kahn, Blackbeard or Stalin would have added more flavour instead of reiterating what the teasers have shown. At least one ruler is missed: in the Middle Ages, perhaps King Edward I of England got the brutal end of a blade and that was not included in the film. This exclusive moment in the trailer suggests a longer cut was animated but in what’s pared down for the film, nothing new is added.
Minions have been on this planet far longer than we have. so the story goes. In the first official trailer, they are revealed to have gone by many names like Dave and Carl ever since they emerged from the sea. Just what they evolved from is probably not even going to be addressed. They are single-celled simple organisms after all. In what kind of world they are living in shows that they are as old as the first dinosaurs.
In a documentary style introduction by perhaps Geoffrey Rush himself, it’s revealed that they have one simple goal, and that’s to serve the most despicable master around. Just how much of that will persist in the film is unknown, but it just may very well work in the same style as March of the Penguins.
Who they will face is a rogue’s gallery of former tyrants like the mighty T. Rex, a ruthless Egyptian Pharaoh (Rameses?) and a cunning Dracula, to name a few, but with their lemming like mentality to follow the leader, all they end up doing is causing problems in the long run. The hilarity in this trailer shows that Illumination Studio’s Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy have the magic touch when it comes to offbeat humour. Directors Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda are in mighty fine company that has assisted them to craft a laugh out loud comedy that will no doubt put the smack down in what the Penguins of Madagascar movie can do if they were ever to be challenged to a standup comedy showdown. Brian Lynch wrote what may be a very good screenplay that might lead up to them meeting Gru in his heydays as a bad guy.
Before they do, there’s a huge adventure in store for them. That means meeting up with some humans, one of whom could be their next evil overlord, Scarlet Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock) and Herb (Jon Hamm). Just what Minions Kevin, Stuart and Bob have in mind by teaming up with them can be trouble for both the Overkills and the Minion mob.
This trailer can be watched time and time again and yet still feel refreshing. Sorry Penguins. Even though your movie is not out yet, this trailer’s off the wall humour shows that you’ve been defeated.
Available to purchase on Amazon USA
