---
title: "Minions"
year: 2015
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/minions"
fi1m_id: "minions"
imdb_id: "tt2293640"
tmdb_id: 211672
wikidata_id: "Q13619743"
fi1m_score: 61
critics_score: 63
critics_reviews: 24
published: "2026-10-02T23:00:51.885263+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-02T23:00:52.398139+00:00"
region: "MY"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Minions (2015)

Directed by Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin · 1h 31m · Family, Animation, Adventure, Comedy

## Identity

Minions

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/minions
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** minions
- **IMDb ID:** tt2293640
- **TMDB ID:** 211672
- **Wikidata ID:** Q13619743
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2293640/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/211672, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13619743

**Fi1m score: 61** · Critics 63 from 24 reviews

*In a sentence:* Twenty minutes of glorious wordless slapstick, then Sandra Bullock turns up with a plot

> The prologue, in which the Minions serve every tyrant from Tyrannosaurus rex to Napoleon and lose each one, is close to perfect, and then the plot arrives with seventy minutes to fill. Children will not mind; parents will.

## Synopsis

Since the dawn of time the Minions, small yellow creatures who speak a gabble of borrowed words, have served the most despicable master they could find and lost every one of them: a Tyrannosaurus rex, a pharaoh, Dracula, Napoleon. Masterless, they retreat to an ice cave and sink into gloom. In 1968 three of them, Kevin, Stuart and Bob, set out to find a new boss. They reach New York, hitch a lift to Orlando with a cheerful family of bank robbers, Walter (Michael Keaton) and Madge Nelson (Allison Janney), and arrive at Villain-Con, where Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock), the world’s first female supervillain, is hiring henchmen. She picks the three, flies them to London, has her inventor husband Herb (Jon Hamm) kit them out, and gives them a job: steal the crown from the Queen (Jennifer Saunders).

## Review

Five years after [*Despicable Me*](https://film.one/film/despicable-me) (2010), the small yellow henchmen who stole that film’s best scenes get a film of their own. Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin direct, and Coffin supplies the voice of every Minion on screen, which may be the hardest-working credit in animation. The question the film has to answer is whether a creature designed for twelve-second gags can carry 91 minutes. The answer is that it can carry about twenty, and those twenty are a delight.

Geoffrey Rush narrates the prologue in the hushed voice of a wildlife documentary as the Minions crawl out of the sea and attach themselves to the largest thing in sight. They follow a Tyrannosaurus into a volcano, build a pharaoh’s pyramid upside down, open the curtains for Dracula and point Napoleon’s cannon the wrong way. Claire Dodgson cuts each disaster down to the exact second it needs and moves on before the laugh has finished. We laughed, loudly and more than once, and the pyramid did it. The gabble Coffin gives them, scraps of Spanish, Italian and English run together, is funnier than any proper line in the film, because you hear the meaning without the words.

Then it is 1968, and Brian Lynch’s script sends Kevin, Stuart and Bob out of the ice cave to find a new boss. Michael Keaton and Allison Janney, as the Nelsons, a family of bank robbers as wholesome as a cereal advert, are the best of the humans and get two scenes before they are gone. Sandra Bullock’s Scarlet Overkill is where the film puts its money. Eric Guillon dresses her in a red gown with a rocket hidden in the skirt, and she is good to look at, but Bullock has been given one note, wanting the crown, and spends the film shouting it. Jon Hamm, as her husband Herb, gets more laughs by doing less, a relaxed man quietly pleased with his own gadgets.

The London stretch is handsome. Guillon builds a 1968 of red buses, bowler hats and a Tower of London the colour of a biscuit, and there is a chase in which the police pour tea at the wheel that is the one set piece after the prologue to match it. Jennifer Saunders plays the Queen as a woman who would rather be in a pub, and Steve Coogan turns up in two roles, a professor and a tower guard, and is barely recognisable in either. But the heist is also where the film sags. The Minions were built to stand at the edge of someone else’s scene; placed at the centre with a plot to carry, they have nothing to want except a master, and sixty minutes cannot be built on that.

Somewhere around the hour mark we were bored, and then faintly cross at being bored by something so bright and so loud. Heitor Pereira’s score hurries along under everything, but the music the film relies on is a run of Sixties hits dropped in so often that it starts to feel like a radio left on in the next room. Each one arrives to tell us a scene is fun, and by the fifth or sixth we had stopped believing it.

*Despicable Me* worked because Gru had a want and the Minions decorated it. Here the decoration is asked to hold up the house, and Lynch’s answer is to keep adding rooms: a new villain, a new chase, a new costume. Steve Carell appears briefly and late, and we will say no more about that.

It carries a U certificate and runs 91 minutes, and children will laugh from start to finish and ask for it again before the credits have ended. Adults get the prologue, the tea chase and Hamm, which is roughly a third of the film. Sit down for the first twenty minutes and feel free to make the tea during the rest.

*Fi1m score 61, published 2 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is Minions worth watching?**

*Minions* is worth watching for children, who will laugh from start to finish, and for adults only in parts; we scored it 61. The opening twenty minutes, in which the Minions serve and lose a Tyrannosaurus, a pharaoh, Dracula and Napoleon, are close to perfect wordless slapstick. Once Sandra Bullock's Scarlet Overkill arrives with a plot, the film sags and the Sixties hits start to wear.

**How long is Minions, and what is it rated?**

*Minions* runs 1h 31m. It is a family and animation film.

**Where can I watch Minions in Malaysia?**

*Minions* is streaming on HBO Max in Malaysia, and it is also available to rent from Apple TV from RM 9.90. It leaves HBO Max on 31 October. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How does Minions compare to Despicable Me?**

*Minions* is the weaker of the two films, and [*Despicable Me*](https://film.one/film/despicable-me) is the one we recommend first. In the earlier film Gru has something to want and the Minions decorate it; here the decoration has to hold up the whole house, and seventy minutes of heist cannot be built on creatures who want nothing but a master. Small children will not notice the difference; parents will.

**What should I watch after Minions?**

After *Minions*, try [*Despicable Me*](https://film.one/film/despicable-me) (2010, Fi1m 74): The Minions in their proper place, decorating a story that belongs to someone else. Then [*Shaun the Sheep Movie*](https://film.one/film/shaun-the-sheep-movie) (2015, Fi1m 80): Wordless slapstick that sustains a whole feature, and knows exactly when to stop; and [*The Triplets of Belleville*](https://film.one/film/the-triplets-of-belleville) (2003, Fi1m 84): French animation with almost no dialogue and far stranger ideas about what is funny.

### Reviews we read (24)

- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (80/100, inferred): Turan finds the film an energetic, funny success despite its weak and faltering plot. He especially praises the Minions’ visual slapstick and amusing nonsense language. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-minions-review-20150710-column.html)
- **Time Out**, Tom Huddleston (4/5): The critic recommends this noisy, imaginative, seriously silly animated comedy. The review singles out its berserk semi-silent slapstick style. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/minions)
- **Total Film**, Neil Smith (4/5): The critic finds the spin-off busy, witty, and entertaining, and says it gives the Minions an enjoyable turn in the spotlight. He singles out the vintage-hit soundtrack as a musical lifeline for parents watching repeatedly with young fans. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/minions-review/)
- **Film Comment**, Michael Sragow (75/100, inferred): Sragow presents the film as an entertaining comedy. He singles out the Minions’ backstory and their comic appeal as a group. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/deep-focus-minions/)
- **Sight and Sound**, Andrew Osmond (75/100, inferred): Osmond finds the film a lively, funny spin-off, though its London section sags. He praises its quickfire gags and the anarchic energy of the minions’ squabbles. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/toon-week-minions)
- **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (70/100, inferred): O’Sullivan finds the film’s cuteness irresistible despite criticizing its underdeveloped villains and familiar London-set elements. She praises the thrilling chase sequences and their fit with the old-school soundtrack. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/minions-film-review-kevin-stuart-and-bob-are-this-summer-s-unholy-trinity-10348303.html)
- **The Guardian**, Andrew Pulver (70/100, inferred): Pulver finds the spin-off boisterous, cheery fun, though aimed at a younger audience than earlier Pixar films. He praises its hyperkinetic mix of knowing humour and silliness. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/25/minions-review-boisterous-and-cheery-despicable-me-spin-off)
- **Empire**, Olly Richards (65/100, inferred): Richards finds the Minions funny but says the film loses its way once speaking characters arrive. He praises the early visual humour, while faulting the confused, time-filling plot. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/minions-review/)
- **Variety**, Peter Debruge (65/100, inferred): Debruge finds the film hilarious but weaker in story than in concept, and more effective with the Minions as supporting characters. He especially praises the tightly packed, laugh-a-minute prologue tracing their history. [Read](https://variety.com/2015/film/festivals/film-review-minions-1201522715/)
- **Vulture**, Bilge Ebiri (65/100, inferred): Ebiri finds the film harmless, amusing fun, though its loose story and jokes leave little lasting impression. He praises its playful freedom and the Minions’ cuteness and incompetence as sources of laughs. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2015/07/movie-review-minions.html)
- **Screen Daily**, Fionnuala Halligan (64/100, inferred): The accessible page does not reveal the critic’s verdict. It provides no details about what the review praises or criticizes. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/minions-review/5089528.article)
- **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The accessible page does not reveal the critic’s verdict. Its specific praise or complaint cannot be determined from the blocked article text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/movies/review-positions-wanted-by-minions-experienced-at-serving-evildoers.html)
- **Slant Magazine**, Eric Henderson (2/4): Henderson finds the film disappointingly domesticated despite its promise of comic anarchy. He praises the Minions’ early historical misadventures, but faults the clumsy heist plot for steering them back toward ordinary human affairs. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/minions/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Boyd van Hoeij (35/100, inferred): The critic finds the film uneven and narratively shapeless, despite its amusing slapstick. The standalone gags have charm, but the minions’ lack of character development leaves the story without a compelling arc. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/minions-film-review-803142/)
- **IndieWire**, Charles Solomon (20/100, inferred): Solomon finds the film a weak, overextended spin-off unlikely to merit a second viewing. He criticizes its repetitive slapstick and grating performances, while noting that the few laughs come from Minions-style pratfalls and comic business. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/review-minions-123231/)
- **Eye for Film**, Jane Fae (78/100, inferred): Fae finds the film very funny and good-natured, with energetic action and dialogue that stays on target. She particularly praises its Sixties jokes and visual gags, though notes the opening relies heavily on silent comedy. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/minions-2015-film-review-by-jane-fae)
- **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (75/100, inferred): Hammond finds the film frenetic, wacky fun that families will enjoy. He singles out its period gags and soundtrack as highlights, while noting that some action goes over the top. [Read](https://deadline.com/2015/07/minions-review-despicable-me-steve-carell-michael-keaton-1201470948/)
- **HeyUGuys**, Stefan Pape (75/100, inferred): The critic calls the film good fun, praising its silly, broadly accessible comedy. They particularly single out Bob and the distinct personalities given to the three central Minions. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/minions-review/)
- **Digital Spy**, David Moynihan (65/100, inferred): Moynihan finds the film sugary and hollow for adults but a frequently hysterical romp for children. He praises its slapstick, colourful chaos and fast-paced fun, while noting that adults seeking smarter animation may prefer Inside Out. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a654329/minions-review-candy-coated-family-fun-that-children-will-adore/)
- **The Playlist** (64/100, inferred): The page could not be accessed, so the critic’s verdict is unavailable. No specific praise or complaint can be confirmed. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/review-minions-featuring-the-voices-of-sandra-bullock-michael-keaton-jon-hamm-geoffrey-rush-and-more-20150708/)
- **Den of Geek**, Simon Brew (3/5): Brew finds the film passable but underwhelming, with scattered laughs and little story or character to hold it together. He praises its occasional historical liberties and a daringly absurd ending, but says the Minions lack the charm of the supporting role they came from. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/minions-review/)
- **The Wrap** (60/100, inferred): The critic finds the film slow to start but ultimately amusing, while noting that the minions may have exhausted their comic potential as leads. The absurd visual gags, especially the tea-pouring police chase, are singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/minions-review-sandra-bullock-jon-hamm-michael-keaton-despicable-me/)
- **Paste**, Nick Schager (5.6): Schager finds the film energetic but ultimately tiresome and shallow. He particularly criticizes the Minions’ one-joke characterization and the stream of gags that rarely land. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/minions)
- **Consequence**, Blake Goble (10/100, inferred): Goble pans the film as frenetic, frustrating franchise filler. He especially criticizes its relentless pacing, saying the rapid-fire gags leave no room for humor to land. [Read](https://consequence.net/2015/07/film-review-minions/)

## Details

- **Director:** Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin
- **Director:** Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin
- **Writer:** Brian Lynch
- **Editor:** Claire Dodgson
- **Music:** Heitor Pereira
- **Production design:** Eric Guillon
- **Producer:** Janet Healy, Chris Meledandri
- **Cast:** Sandra Bullock as Scarlet Overkill (voice); Jon Hamm as Herb Overkill (voice); Michael Keaton as Walter Nelson (voice); Allison Janney as Madge Nelson (voice); Steve Coogan as Professor Flux / Tower Guard (voice); Jennifer Saunders as The Queen (voice); Geoffrey Rush as Narrator (voice); Steve Carell as Young Gru (voice)
- **Runtime:** 1h 31m
- **Release (Malaysia):** 18 June 2015
- **Genres:** Family, Animation, Adventure, Comedy
- **Budget:** $74 million
- **Box office:** $1.16 billion
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfql_DoHRKc

## Where to watch in Malaysia

- HBO Max: streaming, leaving 2026-10-31
- Apple TV: rent RM 9.90, hd
- Apple TV: buy RM 34.90, sd

*Checked 2026-10-02.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Despicable Me* (2010), Fi1m 74: The Minions in their proper place, decorating a story that belongs to someone else — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/despicable-me.md)
- *Shaun the Sheep Movie* (2015), Fi1m 80: Wordless slapstick that sustains a whole feature, and knows exactly when to stop — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/shaun-the-sheep-movie.md)
- *The Triplets of Belleville* (2003), Fi1m 84: French animation with almost no dialogue and far stranger ideas about what is funny — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-triplets-of-belleville.md)
- *Monsieur Hulot's Holiday* (1953), Fi1m 86: Tati’s gentle, nearly silent comedy is where this kind of gag was invented — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/monsieur-hulots-holiday.md)
- *Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery* (1997): For the parents: the Sixties spy spoof that gets the jokes this one only gestures at

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/minions