Stuart, Scarlett Overkill, Kevin and Bob
“MINIONS” My rating: C+
91 minutes | MPAA rating: PG
It is the perennial dream of second bananas to become the star of the show.
Sometimes they’re better off as second bananas.
That’s the case with “Minions,” the new spinoff from the wildly successful “Despicable Me” animated franchise.
In the “Despicable” features the Minions are the banana-yellow, fireplug-shaped workforce of the evil mastermind Gru voiced by Steve Carell. Outfitted with huge safety goggles and tiny overalls, they cheerfully do their master’s bidding while babbling in a hilarious helium-voiced language.
Though loyal to their evil boss, the Minions are morally neutral. More important, they’re inept, which means their efforts hinder as much as help the big guy’s agenda.
“Minions” follows the template set last fall by “Penguins of Madagascar,” elevating one movie’s sidekicks to leading men in their own stand-alone story. But where “Penguins” gave us chatty waddling birds with very specific personalities, the various “Minions” are pretty much interchangeable.
Equally frustrating, by eliminating the Carell role, co-directors Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin and writer Brian Lynch give their sawed-off protagonists no worthy character to play off of.
“Minions” begins in prehistory, showing how the creatures evolved over the eons. According to Geoffrey Rush’s narration, the Minions always sought an evil boss to work for, be it a tyrannosaurus rex or an Egyptian pharaoh. Invariably they bring their leader to ruin and must seek out a new benefactor.
After living for centuries in a polar ice cave, three minions — Kevin, Stuart and Bob — strike out on a quest to find a new boss. They wind up in NYC circa 1968, an era of protest, long hair and bell bottoms (not to mention the sounds of The Who, The Doors, The Kinks, The Stones and other classic rock acts that pepper the soundtrack).
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