Minions 2, a little too Gru to be honest [critique]

This sequel opened the 2022 Annecy Animated Film Festival, before raising $940 million worldwide! It arrives unencrypted this Sunday, on TF1.

Seven years after the release of the first film dedicated to the little yellow creatures with big eyes, Minions 2: Once upon a time Gru opened the Annecy festival in June 2022, in preview. This time, head to the 70s, a period during which a very young Gru tries to find his place within the largest group of super villains, the Vicious 6. A series of adventures (and a story about an amulet that gives powers ) later, Gru and the Minions will become the target of the bad guys, and they will have no other choice than to turn to Wild Knuckles, former leader of the Vicious 6 who was betrayed by his own…

On the occasion of its first unencrypted broadcast, we are sharing our review of this sequel.

The new phenomenon: going to see Minions 2 in a suit and tie

Kind of “ Gru origins », Minions 2 takes the form of a delirious semi-road trip, where the character voiced by Steve Carell takes up as much space as the Minions themselves. The little servants will struggle between their natural stupidity and their compelling need to please their boss, and we will see Kevin, Stuart, Bob and Otto learn roughly kung fu in an attempt to free their “mini boss”stuck in San Francisco during the flower power era. A bit light to make a film, especially since all the 70's decorum disappears as quickly as it arrived. What remains is a series of gags that are more or less successful and more or less already seen across the four previous feature films in the franchise (wouldn't we have definitely done the trick?).

The whole thing is, however, rather well packaged visually, and co-director Kyle Balda (here accompanied by Brad Ableson and Jonathan Del Val) is the opposite of mercantile cynicism, still sincerely amused by this wacky universe despite the passing years. Except that by wanting to satisfy all types of spectators, Minions 2 ends up no longer telling anything other than its inability to renew itself and think outside the box. A golden prison from which we would like Gru and his people to one day be able to escape.

Trailer:

But how were the Minions born, exactly? The truth interview with its creators