Maybe it’s sometimes good if we don’t know how Stan Laurel met Oliver Hardy or how the Joker became so evil.
Much of the delight of the first “Despicable Me” was wondering how wannabe supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) would ever succeed in his diabolical plans when his literal minions were as bumbling as they were loyal. There was something comforting about the way the little yellow guys would never inflict harm on anyone else because they were just too stupid to inflict any damage.
With “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” we meet the future merchant of menace when he’s only 12. Apparently, wanting to be a supervillain isn’t a popular goal for a kid growing up in ’70s San Francisco. Little Gru is a latchkey kid because his mother (a sadly underutilized Julie Andrews) would rather run a yoga studio than deal with him.
This might explain why the lad applies to be part of the Vicious 6. The team of supervillains led by Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson) has just captured a magical amulet and plans on inflicting untold damage with it.
The opening for the sixth slot on the team has happened because the rest of the team has betrayed their previous boss and Gru’s hero Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin). Knuckles risks his own skin to obtain the amulet, but the 6 do what villains do and betray him.
Despite their dangerous reputations, apparently the 6 (or currently 5) can botch things as badly as the minions, so Gru and his posse end up with the amulet.
An origin story for Gru and his army of gibberish-speaking luckies (courtesy of Pierre Coffin’s voice) could have had potential but ends playing like one of the supervillain’s dubious aspirations.
In addition to barely establishing what Gru and his compatriots see in each other, the new characters seem like an afterthought. Belle and Knuckles manage to give Henson and Arkin a decent workout, but you’d be forgiven if you didn’t notice that Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo and Lucy Lawless were also providing voices for the bad guys. By the time we learn their characters’ names, they’ve left the screen. At least “The Bad Guys” spent a significant amount of time introducing the title miscreants.
Similarly, it seems criminal to feature Michelle Yeoh as a martial arts teacher when she has so little to do.
Much of the time that should have been spent building new characters or enriching existing ones is squandered on topical humor that will leave toddlers bewildered and adults pausing to jog their memories.
The minions can still amuse, but except for a scene where they are turned into animals, the filmmakers don’t seem that interested in helping the characters reach their comic potential. One of the refreshing aspects of the under-appreciated “Light-year” is that the team at Pixar tried to do something new and challenging with the characters.
Even little yellow guys with funny voices aren’t that amusing when they’re going through the motions.
‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’
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Cast: (voices of) Steve Carell, Taraji P. Henson, Pierre Coffin, Danny Trejo, Alan Arkin, Lucy Lawless, Julie Andrews, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, RZA
Directors: Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson, Jonathan del Val
Rating: PG
Running time: 1 hour, 27 minutes
Playing theatrically
Minion brothers Kevin, Stuart and Bob (all voiced by Pierre Coffin) petition 12-year-old evildoer Gru (Steve Carell) to be their new master in “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”