Minions roll out a barrel-load of family fun

ALSO SHOWING

YOU have to be on your mettle to keep up with the Despicable Me franchise. Minions: The Rise Of Gru (U, 87 mins, ★★★✩✩ ) is the sequel to the 2015 prequel, Minions, which might be all it takes to put you off.

But actually it’s a barrel-load of fun, and not to be outdone by the first film (which boasted Sandra Bullock and Michael Keaton in the supporting voice cast), this one gives us the great Alan Arkin and the even greater Dame Julie Andrews!

Gru (Steve Carell) is an 11-year-old schoolboy intent on becoming a super-villain (Dame Julie has a small speaking part as his mother). He auditions for a gang called the Vicious Six, whose front is a music store called Criminal Records. But in the end Gru, aided by his devoted Minion army, joins forces with the gang’s ousted leader Wild Knuckles (Arkin). The narrative hops around a bit, but it’s wildly colourful, genuinely funny in parts, and like all the best children’s animations there is also plenty to entertain adults, such as a gloriously retro soundtrack which includes the music of Diana Ross, Simon & Garfunkel, The Carpenters, Nancy Sinatra and Mott the Hoople.

Eric Ravilious: Drawn To War (PG, 87 mins, ★★★✩✩ ) is a very different kettle of fish, or perhaps plate of scones. Margy Kinmonth’s affectionate and enlightening documentary tells the life story of a watercolourist whose subjects encapsulated England and Englishness.

He deserves to be much better known for his pre-war work alone, but he also became an acclaimed war artist and died in a 1942 plane crash at the height of his powers, aged just 39.

Alan Bennett and the artist Grayson Perry are among those paying tribute in a film that draws heavily on Ravilious’s letters and diaries, and those of his wife and fellow artist Tirzah Garwood. ‘I find it hard to say what it is to be English, but Ravilious is part of it,’ says Bennett, which is praise indeed, since for some of us, Bennett is part of it, too.