once upon a time Gru”, prequel without burlesque energy

THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – WHY NOT

Originally, remember, there are the Minions, little yellow pills decked out in overalls, work gloves and large pairs of protective goggles that they never leave. They travel as a tribe, in the service of a super-villain named Gru and speak a strange globalized dialect which happily crushes several existing languages ​​(Spanish, Japanese, English, French, Italian). Planetary Phenomenon, the last opus, Minions (Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, 2015), has collected more than 1 billion in revenue. We owe this success story to the inventiveness of French director and animator Pierre Coffin, who cut his teeth at Marvel and Disney.

learning story

Released two years late due to the pandemic, Minions 2: Once Upon a Time Gru is intended as much a prequel to the opus released in 2015 as to the three-volume franchise Me, ugly and mean started in 2010. The scenario is engulfed in the fashion of the learning story of an iconic villain (Cruella, Joker…). In the 1970s, in the midst of a disco phenomenon, young Gru dreams of joining a group of famous supervillains known as the Vicious 6 who have just got rid of their legendary leader, Wild Knuckles. Gru sees the opportunity to replace him: supported by his band of Minions, the novice sets up what will become his lair, experiences his first misdeeds and, during an apotheosis, will face the Vicious 6.

By wisely following the line of his ready-to-use scenario, Minions 2 loses sight of what made it superb: the burlesque and unpredictable energy that its yellow creatures discharged at regular intervals in each scene. Though still on screen, the Minions are largely overshadowed by an origin story that’s on autopilot and succumbs to all the clichés of the animated children’s film. That Pierre Coffin, who still brilliantly doubles his creatures, is no longer in the game probably explains this disinvested copy which, although uninspired, is already guaranteed to triumph in theaters.