MINIONS & MONSTERS

The film opens during a tour of a movie studio. The tour guide, Olivia (Allison Janney), shows off props from movies like “E.T.”, “The Matrix”, and even George Lucas (voicing himself) in a glass cage. Olivia then says that two Minions – James and Henry – were pivotal in changing Hollywood forever.

The story begins with the Minions in search of their evil master in the early 20th century. James is a Minion who likes to come up with stories, but he is an outcast among the other Minions. The tribe stops on an island, where they serve a giant cyclops. This comes to an end when James makes a Lego-like stone painting that the cyclops steps on, causing a chain reaction that injures him and makes him kick the Minions out. While the rest of the tribe is mad at James, he becomes best friends with Henry, who thinks James is hilarious, as well as Ed, a hearing-impaired Minion. They are led by Dick, a Minion that the others are not too fond of.

The Minions then work for a wicked sorcerer. Despite his warnings, James and Henry tamper with his spell book to summon a giant fluffy pink bunny creature. It turns out to be a vicious monster with laser eyes that destroys almost the entire castle and turns the sorcerer into dust. James and Henry send the creature back, but now they are once again without a master.

The tribe continues traveling until they see what appears to be an outlaw bandit riding a horse with stolen loot. The Minions chase the bandit as he makes his escape with a helicopter. James and Henry hijack the train and derail it, which causes it to go out of control in the streets of Los Angeles. They bring the train to a halt, before it is revealed the entire thing was part of a movie set. The director, Max (Christoph Waltz), is furious with the Minions and orders them off his set.

Max has to present his footage to his bosses and heads of the movie studio, Elwood and Frank Bright (both voiced by Jeff Bridges). Although nervous to show them the footage with the Minions, the Brights think adding them is a genius move. They order Max to include the Minions in the rest of the film. Max gathers them for a battle scene, and the Minions beat up the other actors during the shoot.

The Minions soon take Hollywood by storm, starring in a string of blockbuster hits. However, things take a turn when films begin to incorporate sound. The Minions’ language makes it hard for them to act with dialogue, so the Brights fire the Minions from the studio.

Hoping to turn things around, James comes up with his idea for a monster movie with the Minions. He comes up with a pitch that he presents to Max, who likes the idea, but says he cannot help, though he does express hope and encouragement towards James. Dick is not onboard with the movie idea and takes the rest of the tribe with him to find their new leader, leaving James with only Henry and Ed as his help.

The trio grab the spell book and summon a tiny Chtulhu-like monster named Goomi (Trey Parker). He is thankful to the Minions for freeing him and learns about James’s movie project. Goomi says that he can get authentic monsters for the project, and he instructs James, Henry, and Ed to take him to an island where these monsters are located.

The other Minions come across an alien robot named Dort (Jesse Eisenberg), who claims to be on a mission to enslave the earth. Dick and the others join Dort as his apartment that he claims is a spaceship disguised as an apartment. While out with the Minions, Dort meets a suffragette named Debbie (Zoey Deutch) and begins a relationship with her, with help from the Minions.

Goomi and the Minions arrive at the island, where he finds his old monster buddies Phillips (Bobby Moynihan) and Howard (Phil LaMarr), two enormous kaiju. They accompany the three Minions back to the movie studio as James gets his project ready to go. Henry overhears Goomi telling Phillips and Howard that they are going to summon a monster named Irene to eat everything in her path as revenge to the humans for imprisoning them. They catch Henry after a brief chase and take him prisoner.

Goomi tells James they can summon Irene on camera as part of the opening scene, with Henry “acting” as a sacrifice. Irene, a gigantic orange blob with hundreds of eyes, is released, and she begins to destroy the movie studio. Henry manages to escape, with James and Ed pursuing them.

As Irene makes her way into town, the other Minions, plus Debbie and Dort, witness her rampage. Dort brings everyone back to his apartment, which really is a spaceship. Another group of Minions get the abandoned tanks and weaponry left by the military, but it doesn’t do much help. Dort and the other Minions show up in spacecrafts, firing lasers that cause Irene to harden until she explodes into pieces. James and Henry then grab the spell book and use it to send Goomi, Phillips, and Howard back to their imprisonment.

The Minions are hailed as heroes. Ed was rolling the whole time, so James is able to complete his film with help from his brothers. The film premieres to a big crowd and is a huge hit, with James getting a golden banana award as like an honorary Oscar.

Olivia finishes telling the story. Then it turns out the entire film was one made by James and Henry, as we see every character, including Goomi, was an actor.

During the credits, the Minions use the spell book to mess around after Gru has adopted them. They use it on his dog Kyle as a kid, which explains why Kyle looks so freaky. They also use it to prank Dr. Nefario, and they also summon the pink bunny monster again for Agnes, which she thinks is cute and it plays with her.