Singin’ in the Rain. Barton Fink. 8 ½. Boogie Nights. Minions & Monsters. All of these celebrated titles share a love for films, filmmaking, film history, the colorful weirdos responsible for putting it all together, and the never-ending struggle to see your dreams realized on the big screen. Unfortunately, only one of those films includes a minion dressed in clown makeup and a thong wielding a chainsaw. Yes, perhaps it’s the only logical endgame for Hollywood to see the third film in a Despicable Me spin-off as a love letter to cinema but, surprisingly enough, writer-director-voice artist Pierre Coffin mostly makes it work.

The downfall of the Minions films has been in the lack of a cohesive plot. More often than not, it feels like Coffin (who’s directed or co-directed each film in both franchises save for Despicable Me 4 and Minions: The Rise of Gru) is just stringing together Looney Tunes-esque shorts in the hopes that a story will find itself, or that kids will be too overwhelmed with laughter to care. Minions & Monsters somehow technically exists as a prequel to the first Minions film from 2015, but Coffin (and co-writer Brian Lynch) knows that this franchise hasn’t raked in over a billion dollars because of its airtight timeline. Rather, the film takes place in the 1920s as the band of minions is in search of a master evil enough to lead them. Soon enough, and mostly by accident, they arrive in Hollywood and have made a name for themselves as the stars of a series of silent films directed by Max (Christopher Waltz). (Sorry, kids- it appears that Max is not Fritz Lang, just your run-of-the-mill early-Hollywood director with a German accent).

Much like Don Lockwood and Cosmo Brown, the minions struggle to adapt once the talkies sweep Hollywood, and they’re kicked out of the business. It’s up to artistically-minded Henry and James – and, to a lesser extent, Ed, a deaf minion – to keep their dreams alive and make the monster movie they’ve always wanted to make. They’ve got to start somewhere, so they turn to a book of monsters which they’ve pilfered from a previous master, and summon Goomi (Trey Parker, somehow returning to the franchise after voicing an entirely different character), a kind of Cthulhu-lite squid monster that’s more cute than terrifying. 

As if this storyline wasn’t sustainable enough, Minions & Monsters splits its attention to follow fellow minion Dick to find a new evil master. Coffin at least has the good sense to know that the funniest scenarios that the minions can find themselves in concerns regular, unsuspecting people. Enter Dort (Jesse Eisenberg), who might be a robotic alien bent on enslaving humanity, or he might just be a guy in a cheap suit with a roommate named Lloyd. It’s hard to complain too much about missed opportunities when a Minions film is only 90 minutes with credits, but the Hollywood satire is solid enough to wish that Coffin had solely focused the film’s attention on this. At least the animation throughout is bright and colorful, as all Illumination films are, especially once the final monster is revealed.

If nothing else, Minions & Monsters shows that the franchise doesn’t need to feel beholden to any specific timeline or continuity in order to provide entertainment. Indeed, since their introduction, their wacky antics have been compared to vaudevillian legends or silent film stars, given their lack of cohesive language. Kids will laugh at the minions being fed through a series of oversized gears, or a house nearly falling down on an unsuspecting, stone-faced man, and adults (should) chuckle at the references. Sure, it’s little more than “remember this?” references, but at least they feel in service to Minions & Monsters’ mission statement. Which is a lot more than I can say about Illumination’s other billion-dollar grosser from this year, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Kudos to Coffin and the creative team for showing that children’s entertainment can so easily be more than shiny, familiar objects bouncing around and spouting nonsense.

Universal/Illumination will release Minions & Monsters in theaters nationwide on July 1.

OSCAR POTENTIAL:

• The Oscars have, unsurprisingly, eluded both the Despicable Me and Minions franchises (save for Despicable Me 2). So don’t get your hopes up for this one to change, especially in a reportedly strong year for animation.