Minions Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Minions Blu-ray Movie Review

Evil is fun! And yellow.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 26, 2015

Minions is a movie made of many simplicities. The journey-based plot is as basic as they come, the characters are essentially a yellow pill with four limbs and an eye or two, the action and humor feel modern animation-stock, and the animation is great but nothing particularly novel or exciting for the 2015 digital age. But the movie wants to thrive on the approachability that comes with that simplicity. It's tailored to the youngest of audiences, viewers who will adore the colors and the gibberish and dismiss the fact these are in fact bad guys because, well, cute>bad. Indeed, it's cute. Really cute. But many in the audience with a vocabulary that's even only a notch more advanced than the movie's main characters may very well find it too much of too little, meaning that the movie is so prone to simply jump from colorful scene to colorful scene and silly audible cue to silly audible cue that the barrage of fluff only exposes, rather than hides, the vacuous center. The youngest kids won't mind. They'll be happy to curl up with their Minions plush and enjoy the silly ride. Older kids and adults may very well find the movie funny, too (and pick up on some of its fun little easter eggs, like when the Minions find themselves literally popping up into the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road album), but otherwise lacking in pretty much every other area of concern.

Road trip!

Minions have existed since, well, existence, it seems. They live not to better themselves or improve the world around them but instead only to serve the most diabolically evil master they can find. And they've worked for some doozies: the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Dracula, and the Egyptian Pharaohs. But somehow, despite their singular goal of only furthering their master's career in evil, they mess up and wind up killing their boss. The same thing nearly happens when they get behind Napoleon, but the diminutive French conquerer runs them off, forcing them into hiding. Decades pass. They do their best to entertain themselves, but they lack fulfillment. They're not in a rut, they're on the verge of losing everything, including their identity. In a desperate move to save their race, a Minion by the name of Kevin (voiced by Pierre Coffin), along with Stuart and Bob (both also voiced by Coffin), set out to find a new master to serve. Their long, arduous trek around the globe leads them to 1968 New York, which in turn leads them to a villain convention in Orlando where they meet, and eventually win the favor of, the world's first female super villain, Scarlet Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock). They return to her home country of England where an epic power struggle, with the Minions in the middle, will decide the future of the nation, Overkill's fate as a super villain, and the Minions' very existence and future path.

Minions embarks on a fairly risky cinema journey, elevating secondary characters from the Despicable Me films -- essentially gibberish-speaking comic relief sidekicks -- to feature film heroes. The result is a steadily generic film, one with big, manufactured adventure and plenty of laughs but a fairly linear and, for a huge animated film, unimaginative story. The film plays on the origins story angle, looking at how the Minions came to be, where they've been, and how they will get to where they're headed, but there's a distinct lack of engaging drama at work. Here is a film that banks entirely on its colors and sounds and leaves behind any sort of meaningful companion subtext that defines the best movies that the digitally animated landscape has to offer, like Inside Out, and makes them a success beyond the external attributes. But that doesn't mean Minions lacks focus. It just chooses to focus on the superficial, and it's so superficially dazzling it's sure to mesmerize the target demographic -- very young children -- with every scene. Even as it's fairly hollow below the surface, the film proves charming and accessible and the characters memorably absurd, a testament to the creators who have made a successful, if not superficial, movie out of a trio of heroes whose actions speak louder than whatever bits of words they mutter.

Minions Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Minions looks quite nice in high definition. Universal's 1080p transfer is colorful and highly detailed. The yellow minions and their blue overalls are, of course, the unquestioned highlight, both taking on a very simple and consistent hue that defines the characters in a very tangible, adorable way. A multicolored 60's-themed van, various items in store shops around towns, Scarlet Overkill's red attire and vehicles, and other colors are also showy and precise. Details are excellent. Image clarity, beyond a very slight look of razor-thin film hanging over the image, is excellent. Basic character and location shapes are sharp and precise, but the image really dazzles down at the finer detail levels where viewers will enjoy little clothing textures, fine wear on Minion goggles, intimate textures on Scarlet's ship's controls, and natural and manmade environmental surface textures, some of which nearly pass for photorealistic. There's some truly amazing stuff here. Best, of course, are the minions themselves, who are fairly flat and smooth but who reveal a very precise rubbery, sort of nearly tangibly lifelike, texture that the Blu-ray showcases with appealing ease. Essentially, the Blu-ray captures the very broadest elements and finest little nuances that the digital filmmakers have included with every bit the exactness one would expect of a movie of this style. The transfer suffers from no discernible bouts of banding, aliasing, or other artifacts that can distract from a digitally animated film. Universal's Blu-ray is excellent in every way imaginable.

Minions Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Minions features a Dolby Atmos (core Dolby TrueHD 7.1 lossless) soundtrack. This review pertains to the TrueHD track. It's playful and healthy, nicely spaced throughout and robust and weighty when necessary. The Minions' rendition of the Universal theme music not only sets a playful tone for the movie but a standard of expectations for the track. The humming is well defined, spacing is superb, and a deep supportive low end fills out the experience. There are plenty of classic tunes heard throughout the movie, some playing as everyone knows them and others instead performed by the Minions and their gobbledygook. In either case, musical definition is exacting, and as with the opening studio theme, well spaced and supportively weighty. Surrounds are engaged throughout, with various bits of mischievous action and chaos spilling through the entire listening area. Little details that seem trivial spring to life to help better create the movie's fluid sound stage and dynamics. Bass is a highlight, particularly near the end when a large character lumbers through London and vocalizes with a prodigious bit of deep, rattly booms. General dialogue -- whether intelligible words from human characters or the Minion gibberish (with some recognizable words in a myriad of languages thrown into the fray) -- is clear and precise. This is a fantastic all-around track from Universal.

Minions Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Minions contains a few extras, highlighted by a trio of mini-movies. A DVD copy of the film and a voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy are included with purchase.

• Mini-Movies (1080p, Dolby Digital 5.1): Three shorts inspired by the Minions universe.
  
  
  • CroMinion (4:25): Minions are left in charge of a prehistoric baby.
  • Competition (3:47): A couple of minions compete against one another, building to an explosive crescendo.
  • Binky Nelson Unpacified (4:34): Binky retrieves his missing pacifier, Mission: Impossible style.
• Deleted Scene (1080p, 0:29): Me, Myself and Stuart.
• Around the World Interactive Map (1080p): Selecting available points on a map reveals various video and still photo features.
• Behind the Goggles -- The Illumination Story of The Minions (1080p): An interactive "headquarters" building reveals various featurettes. Look for a couple of easter eggs in this section. Also note that there's a section titled Reception that doesn't appear to be active.
  
  
  • Writers (3:38): Writer Brian Lynch discusses the history of the minions and answering questions about them in this movie.
  • The Boss' Office (4:48): Illumination Founder and Producer Chris Meledandri looks back on the franchise.
  • Art Dept. (3:32): Character Designer Eric Guillon, Art Director Oliver Adam, and Writer Brian Lynch discuss Minion evolution and design. Guillon's contributions are in French with English subtitles.
  • Recording Studio (2:46): Composer Heitor Pereira, Producer Janet Healy, Illumination Founder and Producer Chris Meledandri, and Directors Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin discuss some of the unique music that supports the movie.
  • The Break Room: A fun collection of Minion bulletin board materials.
• Jingle Bells Minions Style (1080p, 1:52): The Minions perform the Christmas favorite in their own unique way.
• The Secret Life of Pets -- Summer 2016 (1080p, 2:33): A preview for the upcoming movie.

Minions Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Minions works just fine as a colorful diversion that will satisfy the kids. In fact, it'll probably delight them. But in a marketplace filled with terrific animated movies that both kids and adults can love for their own reasons, Minions leaves the older crowd in the cold, catering exclusively to those more enticed by sight and sound than story depth and purpose. That's not a bad thing, and there's a reason why the movie cleaned up at the box office: it knows its audience and delivers what its audience wants. It's just a bit more focused on its younger audience's immediate wants and needs rather than trying to expand into a multigenerational classic. Universal's Blu-ray release of Minions delivers high end video and audio. An fair amount of brief extras are included. Recommended.