The Minions return to own your wallet.
“Minions” is about 30 minutes of material stretched to feature length. While the film isn’t excessively long, I can’t help but ask why it exists. The music is off, the narration is plodding and I’m not sure if I needed to see the history of the Minions. From the business side, I’m impressed by Universal’s ability to saturate every aspect of Western living with the Minion visage. I can’t remember a time of this much pop culture saturation since Episode I or Batman (1989).
“Despicable Me” grew on me with time and I enjoyed the Minions in small doses. However, I don’t need to see how they grew, evolved and experienced history. It’s nothing but a series of sight gags and a chance to introduce new voices into a paper thin universe. The jokes are uninspired and the cultural lampooning belongs to the worst issue of a Drucker laden Mad Magazine. But, you get Michael Keaton and Allison Janney as the heads of a bank robbing family.
The problem with the narrative is that there’s barely enough material to warrant a feature. Back in the 1970s, Paramount used to release Peanuts movies that ran under 90 minutes. But, that was back before cable and other means of entertainment. If anything, this material could’ve been a Holiday short on NBC. I know that NBC/Universal/Scheinhardt Wig Company still puts them on and this feels like TV material thrown into the mix for the Summer of the Rotating Movie Globe.
Ultimately, I watched my young daughter watch this movie and I studied her expressions. The early stuff in the ocean, the dinosaurs and the basic setup entertained her. But, once they hit Villain Con and the England heist, the point of boredom had been firmly crossed. The Blu-Ray 3D comes with a stunning 3D transfer and a pretty amazing 2D transfer. The 3D transfer has immense field of depth, while helping to sell some long range jokes.
The 1080p transfer is stunning, but almost all digitally animated modern movies can pull this off. Notice how I said “almost”, as we’re going to be touching back upon this week. You get three new mini movies, an interactive map, a documentary, a deleted scene, Jingle Bells minion style and a DVD copy as the special features. The selling point is the 3D transfer that shows zero drop off from the 3D theatrical exhibition. Everything else just keeps up that nice streak that Universal has had since the first Despicable Me release. If you have kids, you’re probably going to buy it.
RELEASE DATE: 12/8/2015