Minions & Monsters

Today on Peacock, I saw “Minions & Monsters,” which came out theatrically in July but today on Peacock. This was one of my most anticipated films of the year, seeing how I have been a fan of the Minions since the first “Despicable Me.” How did this turn out, seeing how the Minions spin-offs have not been loved by everyone?

Laura started her review by crediting, “Proving seven is indeed a lucky number, cowriter (with "Minions'" Brian Lynch), debuting solo director and voice of every Minion Pierre Coffin gives us the best of the "Despicable Me" franchise yet with his Minionized love letter to Hollywood history. Film aficionados will delight from the onset as Coffin flips back through Universal's Globe logos to its very first, ending with a Merrie Melodies tribute featuring period perfect b&w Minions, before implanting them into the motion photography of Eadweard Muybridge, the Lumière Brothers first film and Georges Méliès' "A Trip to the Moon."” We’ll then be taken to a present-day Hollywood Museum tour led by Olivia, voiced by Alison Janney, who points out “E.T.,” Keanua Reeves in “The Matrix,” and a glass cabinet with George Lucas who wants to get out (Laura points out, “keep your eyes peeled in the upper left corner of the screen for a nod to "Airplane!"”). Olivia tells the guests that James and Henry were a part of making Hollywood’s film industry.

James and Henry include the hearing-impaired Ed to their team while their leader Dick is wanting to find their next boss. After serving a cyclops, pirate, mummy, and a sorcerer, who James disintegrates when he summons a giant bunny from the spell book that can breath fire, the gang will find a new boss with a horse-riding train robber, and end up ruining a film shoot. Now in Hollywood, the Minions will damage the gears of Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” before racing by Harold Lloyd hanging from a clock face and a house falling on Buster Keaton on their runaway train, but when the film’s trembling director, Max (Christoph Waltz), shows the film to Bright Brothers Studio heads Frank and Elwood Bright (Jeff Bridges), they find it hilarious. After making huge hits with “They Came from the Stars to Hit You with a Frying Pan” and “Tiny Barbarians with Chainsaws,” the Minions get affluent, but then everything goes downhill after the birth of sound pictures when they can’t follow the cue cards in films that look like “The Maltese Falcon” and “Sergeant York.” When a Minion drops a snow globe in one famous scene, instead of saying “Rosebud” he says “oh, poop!” (Laura notes, “Coffin goes to town in these sequences, rendering Minions in gauzy black and white and covering them with camera moves like 360-degree pans.”)

Fired by the Bright Brothers, the Minions leave, each saying “Bye Max” while Max says bye to each of them by their name, except for the rightly named Dick, who immediately separates from James, Henry, and Ed to find the Minions’ next boss. Laura said, “That would be Dort (voice of Jesse Eisenberg), a robot who looks a lot like "The Day the Earth Stood Still's" Gort but who announces his intention to invade Earth.” Hilariously, he is immediately distracted when he gets a crush on Debbie, voiced by Zoey Deutch, a young suffragette.

Now that James has a camera and drew out storyboards for “Minions & Monsters,” he’s missing one part – a monster. Laura points out, “Luckily Ed stashed away that sorcerer's spell book, but when they attempt to conjure up a terrifying Lovecraftian horror, they get Goomi (voice of 'South Park's' Trey Parker), a small, green cute version, instead.” What they don’t know is Goomi, who promises scarier monsters and gives them Phillips (Bobby Moynihan) and Howard (Phil LaMarr), has his own plans to conquer the planet when he uses the book to summon the most powerful monster ever – Irene. Dort, transferred by love, says, “But, I have Minions!”

Laura notes, “Coffin and Lynch fashion a climax that is part "The Blob" and part "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers," all, as James will happily learn in the aftermath, filmed by Ed. This is a movie for film lovers to embrace, one which will no doubt yield new surprises with repeat viewings. Coffin, whose Minions greet their monsters with 'Big Kaiju!,' has really poured himself into this one and we can feel his love for both movies and his little yellow guys. Waltz brings warmth to his Teutonic filmmaker while Eisenberg is clearly having a ball as the robot who reprograms himself. John Powell commands a referential orchestral score accompanied by a 65-voice choir while the soundtrack features movie standards like 'As Time Goes By' and 'Hooray for Hollywood.'” Remember to stay during the end credits that have cameos from Gru, his dog Kyle, Dr. Nefario, and Agnes.

No doubt, this is the funniest of the Minions movies. You will love this one a lot and will be cracking up during a good part of the runtime, because I know I did. See this on Peacock, if you have that, because I think the whole family can sit around and watch this and laugh. Bear in mind, there is one really bad word, which I will not repeat on here, in the film, which I am surprised they would put that in a children’s film. Check it out and have a great time laughing.

Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned this Friday for the finale of “Halloween Month 2026.”