Tag: Pierre Coffin

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.

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

On The Rise of Gru, Minions and Fatherhood. For Better or Worse, How Bad Can It Get?

To see how the Despicable Me franchise started requires watching this prequel, Minions The Rise of Gru.

Minions The Rise of GruSpoiler Alert

Fans of the Minions’ antics can only take so much before going bananas themselves. Their craziness can’t carry a film from start to end, and the latest (subtitled The Rise of Gru) puts this lead back to the fore–sort of. As a result, we finally get to see why these little yellow guys are adored by him. That’s because their relationship with Felonius (Steve Carell) is steadfast, and it’s cute to see how often they’re helping each other out.

Throughout the film, I was sad to see this boy on his own. Marlena, his mother, doesn’t always give him the attention he needs and she’s even kookier than ever at her young age. Although we know where his other parental unit went (most of that story was revealed in Despicable Me 3), Gru really needs a father figure in his life. All he needs is love.

Pretty soon, we find Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin) is the man with the plan! His drama and Gru’s are similar enough to help them bond. Continue reading “On The Rise of Gru, Minions and Fatherhood. For Better or Worse, How Bad Can It Get?”

All Good Things Does Not Come in 3 in Despicable Me

Despicable MeBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The heart of the Despicable Me franchise lies in how to tame the ruthless heart of Gru (voiced by Steve Carell). He’s an eccentric misanthrope who learns the value of community. The first film sees him take advantage of others to further his own gains (until the children he adopts win his heart), and the second movie sees him trying to settle into a parental role. The third film sees him managing the family. He’s married, and the struggles is more with him accepting who he is now.

The children Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Grier) and Agnes (Nev Scharrel) do not play an important role in this outing. They are merely there to remind audiences that Gru is a family man. He’s happily married to Lucy (Kristen Wiig), but after losing their job at the Anti-Villain League (AVL) after a botched attempt to prevent Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker) from stealing a huge diamond, just what’s next requires him to evaluate what can he do next? This turn of events has Mel (the leader of the Minions) unhappy and Dru (Gru’s long-lost twin brother) trying to convince him to return to a life of crime.

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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.

Continue reading “One Little, Two Brave or Three ‘Stewart’ Minions, A Review”

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