Minions 2: Auf der Suche nach dem Mini-Boss

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Chris Meledandri has been in the film business since 1984. He got his start through Daniel Melnick, who hired him as an assistant on the film FOOTLOOSE. In the following years, he eventually became a producer himself and was involved in some classics such as COOL RUNNINGS and ICE AGE. In 2007, however, things were to change with the founding of his first own film production studio. Illumination Entertainment has released a total of 12 films in the past 12 years, all of which have been impressive box office successes with the support of Universal Pictures. DESPICABLE ME was the first film to see the big screen and immediately managed to increase its production costs almost tenfold in revenue. The main reason for this was the sidekick Minions, who triggered a great deal of hype and immediately brought with them a huge wave of merchandise.

In the meantime, the film has been continued twice and also received a spin-off, which can actually also be considered a prequel. With MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU, this prequel is now being continued by Kyle Balda, who has become increasingly qualified for the director’s chair over the years. He also worked on the first part, but at that time still in the animation department, which he left back in 2012 for DR: SEUSS’ THE LORAX and has now finally left behind with his directing work for the first MINIONS film. The success of the series is also due to the high-quality animation that Illumination Entertainment has established in all its films. In addition, the studio is considered extremely family-friendly and features animals and mythical creatures in particular as essential characters.

What it’s about

With Scarlet Overkill out of the picture, the Minion race is in dire need of a new supervillain to follow in the future. Gru, who is only 12 years old, immediately takes a liking to them and from then on the quartet around Kevin, Stuart, Bob and Otto tries to offer the little boy their own services. Gru, however, finds the Minions a nuisance on his career path to becoming a super-villain, which he wants to crown by joining the infamous Vicious 6. This group consists of the most feared villains in the world and is celebrated as pop stars in the scene. But since they won’t even listen to him, the little boy has to draw attention to himself by stealing a valuable and powerful amulet from them. From then on, the Visious 6 hunt Gru, who in turn is kidnapped. His last hope is the Minions and Kevin, Stuart, Bob and Otto embark on a rocky road to save their master.

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Review

Even though the first part easily managed to crack the magical one billion US dollar mark, the film had to contend with some difficulties of a content-related nature. For the first time, the focus was shifted away from the central main character Gru and placed solely on the original sidekicks. This concept was doomed from the start, as the audience was given an overdose of the actually cute and totally chaotic creatures. In such a concentration it was almost impossible to keep the actual comedic part, which the Minions usually embody, at an acceptably high level without risking a collapse in entertainment quality, which we unfortunately also got, as was to be expected.

However, Kyle Balda does not make this mistake in MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU. Instead, we get more like a 0th part of the DESPICABLE ME series, as suddenly the character Gru slips back into the centre and the Minions are given the opportunity to develop as supporting characters. This was absolutely the right decision and works brilliantly. The film team never misses an opportunity to exploit the yellow men in their clumsy way to the hilt and to assign every gag, no matter how silly. In doing so, they attach great importance to appealing to both children and adults, on the one hand relying a lot on slapstick in combination with cuteness, but on the other hand also satirising films and entire genres and satirising current events (criticising the school system, addressing child abduction,…).

Out of time

MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU pretends to be set in the 1970s, thus making a clear reference to the release of JAWS. At the same time, however, the work is full of anachronisms, as many technical developments appear that only became established to this extent in recent decades or are still in the development phase. References to films such as KILL BILL, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, KUNG FU PANDA, LEGO BATMAN and AIRPLANE! are clear signs that temporal accuracy is of secondary importance in favour of entertainment and that the main aim is to offer fun for all generations. Whether a reference to EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is more coincidental remains unclear, but it brings with it a wonderful charm and revives the age of wiggle eyes.

An enormous amount has been done right in character building. As in the first part, a few Minions are focused on and all the others are only used for a few gags. While Kevin, Stuart and Bob don’t exactly have the deepest personalities, the production team still manages to pick up the character traits from before, re-establish them and even refine them. It’s a very similar story with Gru, who appears here in a young version, but where a development into the later villainous figure is clearly recognisable.

Children’s films are becoming more and more exhausting

Despite the much better adventure, which all the characters have to face in their usual strong animation quality, there is room for improvement. MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU, for example, is unfortunately far too loud and explosive in many places and offers pacing that is tantamount to a sugar shock for our children. Only rarely does one take the time to cut back on the action and humour, to simply let the plot work or to deepen relationships. Instead, one exhausting sequence follows the next and offers us no time to take a breath. Moreover, it simply has to be mentioned that although the whole scenario is sweetly and nicely intended, on closer inspection a deeply racist approach is glossed over here, in which an entire ethnic group is denounced in the properties and ultimately even oppressed. Even though the Minions themselves seek this form of domination, values are conveyed here that children would be better off not being confronted with.

Although many good approaches are spread over the perfectly acceptable running time of just under 90 minutes, the film unfortunately keeps trying to top itself, which unfortunately culminates in an absolutely disastrous finale. Instead of relying on the strengths of the specially developed characters, a magical event is finally used as a trump card, which is supposed to drive the problems to their peak. Any form of supernaturalism that creeps into the story aside from the already imaginative Minions, however, is completely superfluous and unfortunately seems utterly unimaginative in terms of developing an appropriate finale. Many wonderful song remixes of 70s hits are supposed to hide the lack of creativity, but unfortunately only incomprehension forms, when a large part of the story seems largely successful.

Conclusion

Mistakes made in the first part have been recognised, examined and corrected. The continuation of the franchise from Illumination succeeds much better and offers some delightful new gag machinations, which can now finally be projected onto the Minions in their sidekick position again, while the central story takes place away from the yellow creatures. Even if you can’t exactly expect any depth in terms of content, director Kyle Balda manages to pick up the strong essence of previous parts and pack it into a nice new story, which only weakens massively in the big finale and thus trips itself up. Loud and boisterous, the work comes along and offers good humour for young and old, but also pop classics of the 70s and a lot of cinematic references. As much fun as the film is, it is also exhausting and you leave the cinema feeling overwhelmed.

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