Sidekicks take center stage
Scene-stealing minions return in delightful ‘Rise of Gru’
Banana, banana? It’s been 12 years since we first met Universal’s computeranimated super villain Gru (Steve Carell) and his banana- colored button-like, one-eyed and two-eyed, goggle-wearing minions named Bob, Stuart, Kevin, newbie Otto and more. Since then, we’ve had two sequels to “Despicable Me” (a third is coming in 2024) and two spinoffs with the 2015 effort “Minions” and now “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”
This latest entry from Chris Meledandri’s Illumination Studio is a droll and amusing origin story about the series lead character Gru (still Carell). Gru, who sounds like a cross between Carell and horror film icon Bela Lugosi (“Dracula”), has a chance as a youth back in disco-era 1976 to be interviewed by the criminal gang the Vicious 6. These include Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson), Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), Jean-clawed (JeanClaude Van Damme), Swengeance (Dolph Lundgren) and Stronghold (Dannny Trejo).
Twelve-year-old Gru keeps his minions in his closet when they aren’t making super villain equipment in his basement. Gru lives with his mother, Marlena (Julie Andrews), and goes to a nearby school where his super villain ambitions are ridiculed.
The Vicious 6 need a new member because they left their founder Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin) for dead while in Asia searching for the mystically powerful Zodiac Stone in scenes reminiscent of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” In addition to Steven Spielberg, “Minions: The Rise of Gru” evokes the work of silent film comic pioneer Buster Keaton, who is surely a candidate for an origin film of his own, considering how many comic filmmakers, including Meledandri and this new film’s directors Kyle Balda (“Minions”), Brad Ableson (TV’S “The Simp
sons”) and Jonathan del Val (“Despicable Me 2”) follow in Keaton’s footsteps.
The film makes references to Spielberg’s hugely influential 1975 mega-hit “Jaws.” Cher’s 1966 hit “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” and features tiny zombielike golden warriors protecting the gold and green-gem Zodiac Stone from pillagers.
The Vicious 6 themselves may remind some of Quentin Tarantino characters for good reason. Back in San Francisco, where Knuckles had his lair, Kevin, Stuart and Bob meet acupuncturist and Shaolin Kung Fu Master Chow (the everything, everywhere all at once Michelle
Yeoh) in Chinatown. She agrees to train them in the art of self-defense, however hopeless their fighting skills.
Gru for his part also finds a master mentor to guide him the ways of crime.
Although Frenchman
Pierre Coffin voices all the minions in a mix of French, Spanish, Minionese and more, I could swear the late
Andy Kaufman has been revived to play one of them.
Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan) of the Anti-villain League returns along with Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett) of the Bank of Evil from “Despicable Me 2,” although they do not have enough to do. That’s RZA as a biker Otto befriends.
Grandparents in the audience will have to explain references to “Midnight Cowboy,” “Easy Rider” and “Blitzkrieg Bop” to the children. You heard it (“Funkytown”) in “Shrek 2.” Here it is again. What is it with disco and animation? Someone tells Gru that he “sounds like a clown who has swallowed a kazoo.” A minion choir will sing the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
Gru will grow up to plot to steal the moon. The minions have stolen our hearts, again.