The Rise of Gru brings a funky soundtrack, great new characters, lots of minion madness and ‘mini boss’ Gru to remind us why it’s good to be bad
The Minions are back and bringing a stack of wacky bananas with them. One of the most successful animated franchises returns with the 5th installment in the series (including the despicable Me movies). this prequel shows the development of the relationship between Gru and the lovable silly Minions. I’m a firm admirer of people who create entertainment for children so i thought it made perfect sense to view this with children-the intended audience.
The plot revolves around young Gru trying to join his favourite villain league – the Vicious 6, led by head honcho ‘Belle Bottom; (Taraji P Henson) They turn him down and he steals from them to prove his despicable nature. If you came looking for plausible sensible plot lines, character development and satisfying character arcs then grow up! This is a minion’s movies. The kids come to see the minions get themselves into more and more ridiculous and funny scenarios and they don’t disappoint, in fact, the only complaint from the kids was it felt too short.
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The Minions of course take centre stage with Gru being the thread that ties things together. The San Francisco 1970s setting, and soundtrack should appeal to the parents as well as some of the voice talent involved. I was delighted to find Jean Claude van Damme voicing ‘Jean Clawed’ and Dolph Lungren voicing ‘Svengeance’ as well as Wu Tang head honcho and hip-hop legend ‘The Rza’ voicing a drifter who helps one of the minions out.
With such well known celebrities, i thought it was a shame the villains were underused and didn’t get to do more, i was hoping Jean Clawed would do the splits at some point or Svengeance might say ‘I must break you’ but it didn’t happen.
Stand out award goes to another scene stealing turn from Michelle Yeoh as Master Chow, their Kung Fu sensai, . When Michelle said she would be In everything everywhere all at once’ she wasn’t joking. 2022 has certainly so far been a standout year for Michelle and in fact she even appears in another big, animated feature this month, which is Paws of Fury-The legend of Hank hitting Uk cinemas July 15th and a week later Sky Cinema
Minions the Rise of Gru is a solid addition to the franchise, possible one of the most fun entries. It serves its purpose which is to provide a platform for the Minions to extend their particular brand of gibberish talk and silly antics even further through a series of outrageous scenarios. It will delight kids and irritate adults looking for a high-quality cinematic experience. And if you really found it that offensive, then the Minions have one word for you – BANANA
