Animation film “Minions & Monsters” is the first Minions flick I can wholeheartedly embrace without any shame or regret. Yes, these Minions are still a bunch of silly and wacky creatures which may annoy you a lot at times, but now they give us something much funnier and wittier than expected this time, and we can all rejoice for that.

Since their first appearance in 2010 animation film “Despicable Me”, the Minions have become quite popular that they had their own spin-off animation movie “Minions” (2015) and then the following sequel “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (2022). Although these two animation films are not exactly very good in my inconsequential opinion, they are fairly amusing and entertaining on the whole, and their considerable box office success certainly made the Minions all the more enduring than before, regardless of whether you have already got tired of them (FULL DISCLOSURE: I have – to some degree).

Fortunately, director/co-writer Pierre Coffin, who provides all those gibberish voices of the Minions as before, hits a relatively fresh ground for them. This time, the Minions come upon the Hollywood during the 1920s, and the film has a lot of fun with mixing their usual silly gags and actions with a heap of various movie references ranging from “Metropolis” (1927) and “Modern Times” (1936) to “Citizen Kane” (1941) and “Casablanca” (1943).

The story opens with a movie history museum employee, drolly voiced by Allison Janney, introducing a bunch of visitors to two certain Minions who actually played an important part in the movie history. They are called James and Henry, and then the movie gives us an amusing flashback sequence showing how they and their fellow Minions steadily searched for any big bad guy they could serve for many years. At one point, they attempted to work for a certain very big dude who may be a winking nod to the latest work from Christopher Nolan, but, not so surprisingly, their well-intentioned attempt led to a disastrous result mainly due to James and Henry.  

Anyway, after one failure after another during next several centuries, the Minions happen to end up arriving in Hollywood during the 1920s. Although they are not welcomed much at first, they inadvertently become very popular silent comedy movie stars, and James, who has been an aspiring storyteller, is particularly delighted as learning more and more about filmmaking from their movie director, who is warmly and humorously voiced by Christoph Waltz.       

However, once the twin brothers running their studio, both of whom are voiced by Jeff Bridges, begin to make talkies instead of silent films, the Minions soon find themselves unemployed and then abandoned. Nevertheless, James comes to have a possible movie idea which may help them get back in business, and he is encouraged more by his mentor, but there is one problem. He is going to make a big monster flick, so he needs some monsters to appear in front of his camera, but there is no monster available for him and his fellow Minions right now.

Fortunately, the Minions have kept a magic book which can summon various monsters from wherever they have been imprisoned (This is from one of many unfortunate former masters of theirs, by the way). When James, Henry, and their deaf Minion colleague Ed summon an entity nicknamed Goomi, they are not so impressed to say the least, but Goomi, who is mischievously voiced by Trey Parker, promises to give them the monsters they need, and they willingly go to a remote island along with him.  

Of course, it soon turns out that, as reflected by his actual name, Goomi has some other plan behind his back, and that eventually leads to a big climactic action sequence later in the story, but the film still maintains enough amount of wit and humor to amuse and entertain us. I like some nice Lovecraftian touches involved with Goomi and his cheerfully hideous monster colleagues, and I also enjoyed a subplot involved with one supporting character who will take you back to those old classic SF Hollywood movies such as “The Day the Earth Stood still” (1951). It seems at first that this figure, who is incidentally voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, can be another big bad dude for the Minions, but, what do you know, he turns out to be as soft-hearted as the grumpy “villain” hero of “Despicable Me”, and we get a couple of sweet moments from his unexpected love interest.  

Above all, I was tickled a lot by those numerous inspired movie references to be cherished by any serious movie fans like me. I love a very brisk but fun reference on the three great silent comedy films stars of Hollywood during the 1920s, and I had a big chuckle when one of the Minions struggles to deliver handle something not so far from the very famous opening scene of one of the greatest Hollywood films in the 1940s (The film is often quite anachronistic, as you have already noticed).

In conclusion, “Minions & Monsters” is more enjoyable than its two predecessors, and I think that is a notable achievement. In fact, I happened to watch it right after getting both exhausted and entertained by the sheer intensity and tension of South Korean film “Hope” (2026), and it somehow delighted and then recharged me enough to write the respective reviews on them immediately during this afternoon. That says a lot about its considerable entertainment value, isn’t it?