Minions: The Rise of Gru

There comes a point when watching Minions: The Rise of Gru that you forget it’s a children’s film. Sure, you quickly adopted two rug rats to go with you, a grown-up — or should I say, a Gru-n-up? After all, you want to get past ticket-sellers, all too prone to yuk it up at the sight of an adult eager to see the third chapter in the Minion saga.

In this installment of the madcap cartoon franchise, Gru’s story begins in 1976 as the Vicious 6, a group of super-villains (voiced by Lucy Lawless, Taraji P. Henson, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo and Jean-Claude Van Damme…a.k.a. “Jean-Clawed”), oust their legendary leader, Wild Knuckles (voiced by Alan Arkin), after acquiring a mystical medallion known as the Zodiac jewel.

Minions: The Rise of Gru is cheerfully bananas, boasting plenty of expected mayhem—and surprising heart. Opening roughly after Minions ended, it presents the future supervillain-turned-secret agent of the Despicable Me franchise as an impish 11-year-old. Gru with grand ambitions and adorable wide brown eyes that offset his mini gray suit and scarf. He’s not happy just clearing out a movie theater with fart spray or cutting in line for ice cream. He wants to be recognized as the world’s greatest villain.

This Minions is more GRUvy than GRUsome. It’s full of our favorite tunes and take offs of fondly remembered TV shows and movies of the psychedelic times. Fast paced and funny like an old Looney Tunes cartoon for the kids, and full of nostalgia and plays on words for the bigger humans.