Mellow Yellow

Rating: 6/10 (19 July 2015)

(Rating: ☆☆ ½ out of 4)
This film is mildly recommended.
In brief: Minions has its shortcomings, but it's the other characters that never rise to their level of fun.
GRADE: B-
Those zany gibberish-speaking yellow creatures are back, this time starring in their own feature length movie. With their limitations fully acknowledged and their inability to speak the King's English as a handicap, could they have enough clout to carry their own film to stardom? The answer to that is still questionable, but Minions is lots of fun as you sit there and ponder the outcome.
Their slapstick antics are still pleasant and silly enough to make any moviegoer grin non- stop, even if the screenplay does quite value their worth. The film starts off very well with a short and clever history of their evolution. Narrated by Geoffrey Rush with a crisp British ironic delivery, these henchman search for a master villain to support, from dinosaurs to caveman to the Napoleonic Wars before the film settles in 1968. It is then we meet Kevin, Stuart, and Bob who are sent on a mission to find a diabolical master mind for the tribes' adulation. The trio bungle their way to a Villain-Con convention and into the clutches of the evil Scarlet Overkill and her doltish husband, Herb, whose sole goal is to get the Crown Jewels. (The story predates their loving master, Gru.)
Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin direct the animated film and the latter voices the Minions to perfection. The film has a nice visual look throughout. The Minions themselves have individual traits and a variety of expressions that make these lovable characters work extremely well. As long as the film deals with the adorable threesome, their mob mentality and their relationships, the film succeeds. It's the story's slender plot that fails them and the audience.
As with most animated films nowadays, the CGI trumps an underdeveloped script. Minions suffers from that malady. Too often the film relies on dumb chases and an annoying soundtrack of 60's pop tunes to add to the supposed merriment. The plot meanders from one situation to the next with no real purpose, adding minor characters that do little to advance the action. The villain isn't the least bit interesting, nor is her mission. The script by Brian Lynch becomes more illogical (even for a cartoon) and less satirical and witty as it finally reaches its clumsy ending. (You actually have seen the funniest parts of this film in its trailer.)
Still, Minions is diverting and amusing, even if it never achieves its true potential. Like its overdone 60's score, the film is just too Mellow Yellow.
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