Mediocrity Mires Minions

The Good: Generally good animation and voice performances
The Bad: Not funny, Light on character, Dull plot
The Basics: Minions is an unfortunately unnecessary film that begs the viewer to stick with it until its obvious resolution.


With Summer Blockbuster Season firmly upon us, it is the time of year when sequels reign. Perhaps the most risky sequel of the summer is Minions, which is a prequel to Despicable Me (reviewed here!) and attempts to grow on the momentum and franchise that Despicable Me 2 (reviewed here!) delivered for Universal two years ago. The strategy behind Minions is similar to that of Despicable Me 2, which is to hire impressive voice talents, as opposed to developing an impressive story or developing characters viewers will want to watch over and over again.

Minions follows the adventures of three of the small yellow creatures of the Minion race, leading up to their inevitable and obvious meeting with the villainous Gru. While the Minions have been background characters in the Despicable Me franchise, Minions tries to convince viewers that the little yellow assistants can carry their own film. Unfortunately, for all writer Brian Lynch's efforts, he fails. Instead of creating another Despicable Me sequel or a film that is truly about the Minions, Minions is a Despicable Me film where (save for the last few minutes), Gru is replaced by a different villain and the Minions (unwittingly) assist her in her plot for domination.

After a history of the evolution of the Minions, the Minions end up in Antarctica following the defeat of Napoleon (the last losing side they are on before they flee to try to be self-sufficient). After a brief period of prosperity, the Minions become bored and troubled. The Minion Kevin steps up to try to find a new home for the Minions and/or a new overlord to give the race purpose again. Reluctantly accompanied by Stuart and Bob, Kevin journeys out into the world, where he ends up in New York City in 1968. There, the trio sees a commercial for Scarlett Overkill and the Orlando villain convention. Determined to get to Orlando, the three Minions hitchhike with the Nelsons (who are bank robbers headed to the convention).

At the convention, Kevin, Stuart and Bob are recruited by Scarlett Overkill to join her criminal enterprise. After defeating all the other potential sidekicks, the minions convince Scarlett that they are the best and she takes the trio to the United Kingdom where she is planning her biggest crime. In England, the Minions help Scarlett steal the Queen's scepter, but before she can be made the new queen, Bob inadvertently pulls Excalibur out of the stone and is made king. Determined to take over England, Scarlett Overkill turns her attention to killing Bob and the other Minions so she can take the throne.

Minions is unfortunately bland, a fact I did not consciously acknowledge until halfway through the film when I realized I had not laughed once. Lacking both humor and charm, Minions utterly fails to entertain and my mantra while watching much of the film was "who is this intended for?" There are references for adults (not particularly funny) like Minions on the therapist's couch and reactions in England mirroring girls reacting to The Beatles, and the bright colors and slapstick gags might appeal to children, but it is hard to figure out who the film is geared for. The humor is not sophisticated enough to appeal to adults and it's not manic enough to actually entertain children.

The voice acting in Minions is acceptable, but given that half the lines are gibberish spoken by Pierre Coffin to embody the Minions, it is hardly one of the great voice acting events of all time. Instead, there is a moment of delight when viewers realize that Allison Janney is voicing Madge Nelson and the shrug one delivers when they realize Sandra Bullock's Scarlett Overkill sounds remarkably similar to Janney.

The characters in Minions are not horribly distinctive or compelling; it does not take long before viewers realize they cannot carry the film. That makes it easy to pass Minions by.

For other prequels, please check out my reviews of:
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
Prometheus
Rogue One

2.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Lorax Is The Logical Successor To FernGully!

The Good: Great message, Decent 3-D Effects, Moments of character, Voice acting
The Bad: Very predictable plot, Some moments toned down for children
The Basics: In an artificial, manufactured future, a boy goes on a quest to bring back trees in order to impress a girl in The Lorax!


It occurs to me as I contemplate the latest cinematic endeavor based upon the works of Dr. Seuss, The Lorax, that I had only seen one other recent Dr. Seuss adaptation. I was one of the few critics not overly impressed by Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas (reviewed here!) and I did not even bother checking out Dr. Seuss’s The Cat In The Hat with Mike Meyers as a result. So, I was either overdue for some cinematic Dr. Seuss or I was just intrigued enough by the promotions for The Lorax to risk disappointment when I went to the screening.

Fortunately, The Lorax is a lot of fun. More than just being fun, The Lorax has a strong, smart environmental message tailored toward educating and alarming the younger and recently disaffected generations. Perhaps the last time such an overt effort has been made to wake young people up to pending environmental catastrophes was FernGully: The Last Rainforest (reviewed here!). The Lorax succeeds at educating without ever feeling like it is browbeating, probably because the film is so consistently entertaining. As usual in circumstances like these, it has been decades since I read the book The Lorax, so this is a very pure review of the film, without any comparison to the children’s book that spawned it.

In Thneedville, everything is artificial, manufactured to serve the needs of Mr. O’Hare’s business interests. There, the twelve year-old Ted is growing up with a huge crush on Audrey. When Audrey tells Ted that all she truly wants is to see a real, live – not artificial – tree, Ted leaps at the opportunity to win over her heart. This takes Ted, with the help of his Grandma Norma, on a quest outside the walls of Thneedville. Beyond the city, the world is pretty much a stripped, deserted wasteland. Out beyond the boundaries, Ted finds the hermit Once-ler.

The Once-ler tells Ted his story, the story of how he began the deforesting of the world and his encounter with the Lorax. The Lorax, a small creature that advises strongly against cutting down any trees, and the Once-ler get into a conflict. The Lorax wants desperately to save the forests and the creatures living there, while the Once-ler is caught up in producing his Thneed, a device with 100 uses. Eager to win the heart of Audrey, Ted implores the Once-ler to help him find a tree!

The Lorax is much less about the title character and much more about the Once-ler and Ted, though the Lorax is the highlight of the film. The story is very simple and because one goes into the movie knowing a fair amount about the message, it is very hard to complain about the fact that it pretty much goes exactly where one might expect it to. That said, there are far worse things than when a story about saving the world actually pounds that message home and illustrates the potential consequences of failing to protect the environment. The Lorax promotes that message well and delivers a few snappy, fun songs with it to boot.

The Lorax also works well on the character front. Ted and the Once-ler are characterized as foils, just as the Once-ler and the Lorax are opposites. Ted has a wonderful childhood crush on Audrey and the depth of his affection leads him on a quest that helps him love the world (the environment). In stark contrast, the Once-ler is motivated mostly by greed, a self-love. Ignorant to the consequences, the Once-ler is enamored with his own cleverness in creating the Thneed, and he allows his ambition to get the better of him. The dichotomy may be obvious, but it is potent; Ted’s love is positive and flows from him, the Once-ler’s love is concerned more with self-gratification than anything else. And there are worse reasons to want to save the environment than love or romance!

So, the appearance of the Lorax challenges the Once-ler’s sense of ambition and, despite the logic of the argument, fails to sway the Once-ler. The Once-ler is caught in the moment, unable to deal with hypothetical futures. He needs something concrete and the Lorax comes spouting possibilities (albeit high probabilities). In that way, writers Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul (and Dr. Seuss) also make a potent argument for the usefulness of the bearer of bad news. The Lorax is absolutely right in many of his warnings, but he does not present his argument in a way that the Once-ler can actually hear his point. That introduces the intriguing idea that, had the Lorax (and environmentalists in the real world) simply changed their message to suit the recipient, all of the destruction might have been prevented.

The Lorax is presented in beautiful 3-D much the way Despicable Me (reviewed here!) was. The characters are cute and stylized with big eyes and flawless skin. The fur on the Lorax is beautifully rendered on the big screen making the spectacle a surprisingly high selling point for such a substantial film.

As an animated movie, The Lorax features a voice cast, in this case one of the best I have seen and heard in a while. The Lorax might contain the only performance by Rob Riggle (Mr. O’Hare in the film) that I could stand! Zac Efron, Taylor Swift and Betty White dominate the voice talents of the Ted-portion of the movie. Taylor Swift actually impressed me with how her voice is lower in The Lorax than it is on many of her recordings. The Once-ler and Lorax are vocally created by Ed Helms and Danny DeVito, two people who seem exceptionally comfortable in the realm of voiceover work. All of the vocal talents perform well.

This weekend, for a change, audiences have a very clear-cut decision to make when going to the theaters. There is the comparatively highbrow, socially-conscious, solidly entertaining film (The Lorax) and the disappointingly raucous, vacuous, vomit-inducing flick depicting terrible people behaving badly (Project X). I, for one, hope viewers make the smart decision and help Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax bury the other film. If it does, perhaps a bleak, artificial world like the one depicted in The Lorax shall not come to pass.

For other animated films, please check out my reviews of:
Bolt
The Secret World Of Arietty
Wonder Woman

7/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized list of the hundreds of movies I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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