Tag: Minions

From Sunset Strip to Cthulhu’s Lair: Minions and Monsters Pulls Off a Wonderful, Essential Send-Up

With Minions and Monsters now out on home video, it’s a terrific film, but where’s the beef? The bonus features need to be buffed up to match the tribute the film makes.

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Available to purchase on Amazon USA

Minions and Monsters finally gives those little yellow, pill-shaped critters from Despicable Me a proper calling, and it is about bloody time. The home-video release looks superb on Blu-ray, although its basic selection of bonus features makes this less of a must-buy package than the film deserves. Ever since Sergio Pablos pitched the idea to Illumination, I have regarded them as natural heirs to cinema’s early comedians, like Buster Keaton. And to pay tribute to that fact, I’m glad what directors Brian Lynch and Pierre Coffin massaged into shape acknowledges all that and more!

And for those people who missed seeing this film on the big screen, the home video release gives viewers a chance to watch this film multiple times to pick out the scenes where this tribute shines the most. It is a marvellous send-up of the Silent Era and Hollywood’s Golden Age, with a specific Minion, James, taking centre stage. And I have to assume the narrative imagines how a new film industry might develop without D.W. Griffith defining its early days.

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It’s No Secret. Who Will Dominate The Charts When The Rise of Gru is on Home Video?

With the Rise of Gru on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K, the stage is set for next year’s return to the Despicable franchise

Minions Rise of GruAvailable to purchase on Amazon USA

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.

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One Little, Two Brave or Three ‘Stewart’ Minions, A Review

The world of Earth is still without heroes in Minions.

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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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.

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Mass Marketing Minion-Mania is with Kinder Surprise!

despicable_me_2_minions-wideBy Ed Sum (The Minion Addict)

Unless you have been living under a rock or cave, the Minions are invading the planet! That is, from grocery to big box stores, there are more than toy products. While I was out shopping this past month, I saw General Mills Minions cereal, licensed boxers from Despicable Me 2 and Chinese knock-offs at the gift shop in Chinatown. These adorable yellow puff n’ stuffs might also be set to invade the television screen too. Well, if a series is in development, Illumination Entertainment is not telling but I will not be surprised. These single-celled organisms have one simple goal: serve someone evil and show they are not inept. There’s no better strategy than to appear anywhere so they tell everyone they are willing to help!

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The Minions Third Trailer Sheds a Clue with Gru?

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

despicable_me_2_minions-wideThe Minions are getting a better explanation in what they’re up to in this new trailer for their self-titled movie. Not only does it summarize the events from the previous two but also it goes into new territory. Just what this film’s story is about gets revealed, and the potential tie-in to how they met Gru — well at least the father of Dr. Nefario might have been revealed. The Queen’s royal guard who protects the Royal Crown looks suspiciously familiar. The plot to steal this piece of history is the deux et machina here, and the tale in just how well these little yellow minions will fare with their chief Scarlet Overkill (Sanda Bullock) from way back then, well 42 years before Gru, shows that no matter how hard they try, the villains just do not understand.

When they are in large group, these boys are proving to be the Keystone Cops for a new generation. When as a trio, their hijinks is like that of The Three Stooges. They’re hilarious in all the crazy hijinks they end up in. The 60’s really has to be worried, fire hydrants notwithstanding.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfql_DoHRKc%5D

The Minions, One Trailer, Two Trailers … An Analysis — Will There Be a Third?

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

despicable_me_2_minions-wideThe Minions has an all-new trailer and the happy banana-loving trio of Stuart, Kevin, and Bob are headed to Villain Con! Unless they have a leader soon, they are going to wilt into less than the single-celled organisms that they are.

In what fans will see is them discovering that the human world needs bad guys in their lives. As strange as that sounds, it will have some viewers wondering just what kind of crazy mixed up world is this? Are there any saviours?

Whatever the reason, the Minions are no doubt going to be the unlikely heroes of this film and series. Their innocence will turn the tables on Scarlet Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock), who takes the three on as her aides. In this trailer’s case, perhaps to adopt them and to teach them the ways of how to be evil. Shades of what made the Despicable Me films wonderful are noticeable, and the relationship dynamics are amped up. Some may wonder if Overkill is the mother of Gru. They both have a tell-tale long and pointy nose.

The humour is fantastic, and hopefully this two and a half-minute short does not give the best scene away. The first two trailers pretty much establish what the first two acts are going to be like. Minions is due in theatres July 10th, 2015.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9-FCC6I7u0%5D
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcRAnhcEYLY%5D