Like any franchise, the Despicable Me / Minions movies have had their shares of highs and lows. That said, they have largely avoided reaching for anything greater than broad slapstick with varying degrees of sentimentality, usually aimed at selling more merchandise. That is all still present in the latest entry, Minions & Monsters, with the latter aim even being referenced in a meta gag, but it is far more successful at executing the former two than any other entry in the series while also including genuinely joyful odes to classic Hollywood and BFFs.

As with the first Minions, this movie begins by showing a few sequences of the little yellow beings roaming the Earth in search of villains they can serve before inevitably leading to their demise. It’s pretty standard for the series but it’s funnier than usual this time around, more directly recalling classic comedy routines. Those comparisons grow even more acute when their quest leads them to 1920s Hollywood, where they confuse a Western film set for an actual crime taking place, try to assist the bad guy, and inadvertently find themselves made into silent movie stars.

Mirroring and directly referencing Damien Chazelle’s 2022 film Babylon, the minions find themselves unable to adapt to the advent of the “talkie” and are cast out of the studio that had been bankrolling them, leading most of the group to head out with the aptly named Dick (Pierre Coffin, voicing all the Minions) to try and return to serving supervillains. But best friends James and Henry are still convinced they can make a movie that will win them an Oscar and pitch an idea to their old director Max (Christoph Waltz) in which they fight giant monsters. When he points out they will first need to find something to use for said monsters, they decide to try and raise a real one using an ancient book they took from a wizard they’d once served, resulting in large scale chaos and the possible end of the world.

I was as surprised as anyone to find myself unable to stop smiling for the entire 90-minute runtime of this completely delightful movie. The myriad references to legendary films are surprisingly well done and manage to integrate the titular creatures into these moments in a way that feels completely natural. Some, or even most, of the callbacks will absolutely go over the heads of the kids in the theater (as well as any adults who aren’t cinephiles), but they are so seamlessly blended into Looney Tunes-style chaos that a film history degree isn’t in any way required to have a good time with this.

The central story revolving around the friendship between James and Henry only makes the movie feel more special as it perfectly encapsulates the way one feels to find a friend who truly understands and supports you through thick and thin. There’s a growing, and welcome, trend of these kinds of stories lately, but this may actually be one of the sweetest representations of the burgeoning “platonic romance” yet made.

Gently touching, genuinely funny, and even thrilling at times, and featuring wonderful, almost tactile animation and a playful score by John Powell, this is leaps and bounds better than the 7th entry in a franchise would ever be expected to be. Writer / director Pierre Coffin and his cowriter Brian Lynch have taken a risk using this world to pay homage to the creators whose work allowed this series to even exist in the first place and it’s paid off to a spectacular degree. This isn’t just the best entry in the entire series, it’s one of the best movies of the year so far. ★★★★★

Rated PG for violence / action, language, and rude / macabre humor.