Minions

It was inevitable that the yellow, goggle-eyed squeakers who dominated Despicable Me would get their own spin-off. This animated prequel is set before the Minions became loyal servants of the evil villain Gru. Narrated by Geoffrey Rush, the prologue reveals that these tiny, single-celled organisms have been around since the beginning of time, searching for masters to serve. Over the ages, a T-Rex, an Egyptian pharaoh, Dracula, and Napoleon all fell because of these nefarious henchmen's ineptitude. Exiled to Antarctica, they're depressed—until Kevin decides to embark on a quest to look for a new scoundrel to serve, accompanied by Bob and Stuart. Washing ashore in Manhattan circa 1968, they don denim dungarees before hitchhiking to Orlando, FL, with bank robbers (voiced by Michael Keaton and Allison Janney), bent on reaching Villain-Con, where they meet the “world's first female supervillain,” Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock). Then they're off to tea-slurping, scone-gobbling London to join Scarlet and her daffy inventor husband (Jon Hamm) on a mission to sneak into the Tower of London to steal the Crown jewels, the prize property of the Queen (Jennifer Saunders). Director Pierre Coffin also vocalizes the babbling Minions' bizarre gibberish, but given their linguistic limitations, they only come across as silly, slapstick, supporting characters. Without any clear, relationship-based narrative to connect their anarchic, absurdist escapades, Minions is a scattershot film, albeit one with a killer soundtrack of ‘60s nostalgia, including Donovan's euphonious “Mellow Yellow.” Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “Jingle Bells Minions Style” song (2 min.), a deleted scene, and trailers. Excusive to the Blu-ray release are behind-the-scenes featurettes (14 min.), the mini-movies ‘CroMinion” (5 min), “Binky Nelson Unpacified” (5 min.), and “Competition” (4 min.), and an “Around the World” interactive map (with a game, trivia, storyboards, and stills), as well as bonus DVD, digital, and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a fine extras package for this so-so animated franchise entry.] (S. Granger)