Minions & Monsters Review – A Break From The Formula

Just when it may have begun to feel like the Despicable Me franchise from Illumination Entertainment was running on fumes, the company dropped what may be its most creative and delightfully unhinged project yet. Rather than run on banana-flavored nostalgia, Minions & Monsters (2026) drops both the modern settling needle and the shadow of Gru to give us a perhaps surprising love letter to classic Hollywood.

Something New

At their core, Minions have always been modern descendants of the silent film icons. They rely heavily on physical comedy, exaggerated gibberish, and even chaotic motion for laughs. This movie provides something new by taking that connection literally. Set against the backdrop of the early 1920s Tinseltown, Minions & Monsters tracks the story of James and Henry, Minions who rise above their station of just worrying about “Big Boss” to become accidental stars. The setting for the film allows the Minions to move out of the modern setting and be free from Gru’s shadow, allowing them to simply be Minions. We get a chance to see that while the previous movies in the Despicable Me franchise have shown the variety of personalities within Minions, there are different groups of Minions some of whom have different goals.

A Love Letter to Hollywood

The Minions arrive in Hollywood at the peak of the silent film era. While the movie inevitably dives into the hyperactive monster-filled craziness that kids will love, director Pierre Coffin bridges the gap well early in the movie for adult cinephiles with various easter eggs. What becomes a genre-bending romp starts out as a surprisingly sophisticated homage to people like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Coffin manages to keep the Minions true to their character while paying tribute to those famous silent film era actors and filmmakers that serve as the progenitors of what makes the Minions work.

Working Overtime

As we see the third Minions prequel and the overall seventh film in the Despicable Me franchise, it’s understandable that fatigue may be setting in. There’s an undeniable assembly-line style of predictability as to how Universal handles the Despicable Me properties, but it really feels like the cast and crew of Minions & Monsters work overtime to fight the inevitable cynicism and fatigue. In taking a chance and trading the traditional setting for 1920s Old Hollywood, and limiting Gru to some post-credit shorts, the film works to stand on its own against the established formula.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Minions & Monsters is another satisfying entry into the Despicable Me franchise. There are definitely franchises making new movies that should have stopped long ago (looking at you Fast and Furious), but this movie takes chances and breaks away from the formula that has been used for most movies in the series so far. For some people, that will really work; for others, they may find themselves wishing the movie had just followed the formula. I genuinely enjoyed the movie, and it provided plenty of laughs. That said, the movie is essentially a tale of two halves, with the first half of the movie feeling new and fresh, while the second half feels like it begins to collapse under the weight of the frenetic action and toy commercial-like chaos. Minions & Monsters is easily the freshest and most creative Minions spin-off to date, even if it feels like it fell back into formula and expectations in the second half.

Did you see Minions & Monsters? Let me know what you thought in the comments below