It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Hollywood has an
originality problem. As the industry becomes increasingly risk averse the
notion of taking a punt on an unproven property becomes even more remote.
Producer Lynda Obst wrestles with this issue in her entertaining book Sleepless in Hollywood. Obst is a
veteran – her first screen credit was Flashdance
which almost makes her a dinosaur – with a distinguished career but she
confesses to being a little nonplussed by what she calls ‘the new abnormal’
which now exists in Hollywood.
This new abnormal is obsessed with IP rather than ideas. It
wants intellectual property, a pre-tested, pre-digested, pre-sold product from
another medium that it can retool for the movies. It doesn’t do originality;
the website Den of Geek is keeping
track and according to their latest estimate there are 140 sequels in various
stages of production
and that doesn’t included remakes, re-imaginings or whatever other synonym
applies to the creatively bereft.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a perfect example; we reach
the end of Phase Two with Ant-Man next
month, then Phase Three is rolled out with another ten films scheduled between
May 2016 and November 2019. The new abnormal has taken something which was fun
and glorious – a four-colour, nine panel, comic book – and turned it into a
corporate balance sheet. The quality isn’t important, and I will concede the
MCU has been lucky so far in producing some cracking films. But this isn’t
about quality, it’s all about recognition factor and continuity of product.
Which brings me to Minions.
A bunch of characters who look like ambulatory temazepam, they were
introduced in Despicable Me as
anarchic and unruly underlings to supervillain Gru in an animated film which
was obviously going to be a franchise. Despicable
Me 2 duly followed in 2013 and Despicable
Me 3 is on that Den of Geek list
for 2017. However the world is apparently crying out for more little yellow
henchmen and four years is just too long between fixes, hence the new movie.
Let’s be clear from the outset, Minions is fun. It’s agreeably daft, and in the best traditions of
modern commercial movie making it is effectively an origin story. These
banana-yellow single-celled creatures evolved from the primordial soup with
only one aim; to find a villain and support them without question.
Unfortunately their zeal in serving their masters and the quality of their
strategic advice seem to be at odds which does tend to make their supervillain
bosses somewhat expendable.
A collective ennui falls over the tribe until the redoubtable
Kevin, decides he will go out into the world and find a new evil master worthy
of their undying servitude. Accompanied by fellow minions Bob and Stuart he
sets off an epic journey which leads them to Scarlett Overkill, the world’s
wickedest woman, and a plot to steal the crown of the young Queen Elizabeth II
– the story is set in 1968.
It all moves along very efficiently. There are some very
funny gags, some gentle satire on geekdom, and a skilful voice cast that
includes Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, and Alison Janney. Not to
mention director Pierre Coffin who apparently voices all 899 minions. Chapeau
M. Coffin!
But for all the fun that it provides, and there are several
laugh out loud moments, there is also something slightly dispiriting about this
film. The minions seem to have lost their spark. In Despicable Me there was a wildness to the characters, they were a
manifestation of chaos theory, a little like modern-day Gremlins. In the intervening five years they have been softened
somewhat, made kiddie-friendly, and in the process lost their edge. The result
is hundreds of millions of dollars in box office, gaming, and merchandising
revenue but at the cost of their spark.
Minions will be an
enormous international hit; possibly the most successful film of the year. Then
there is Despicable Me 3 of course
and I get the feeling that they are ideal for an animated TV series. All of
this means that, considered as part of the new abnormal, we are a long way away
from peak Minion.
