The Minions, one of the more infamous creations from the minds of animators. Even though I have never seen a Despicable Me movie prior to this, I was fully aware of the Minions in everything from advertisements to parodies to out right rip offs. For whatever reason, the Minions were to Illumination what the Looney Tunes are to Warner Bros. Despite their annoyingness, their beyond minimalistic design, and the fact that whenever we get a cruddy knock off it always drags down any good things that the Minions may have had. So, to be blunt, I was not looking forward to Minions: The Rise of Gru, and with a lot of the "Anti-Woke" crowd heralding it, I was even less excited to see it. However, I do have a job to do, so I took my friend to see it with me, if I was gonna suffer, I'd rather have a friend to ease the pain.
After paying for the tickets, sitting through the Pre-Show and the trailers, getting popcorn stuck in my teeth, quite frankly this movie is absolutely and completely, okay. Yeah, it's okay. It wasn't an unpleasant experience, but I wouldn't say it's fantastic. I mean, I can see why people may like it, don't really see why it's being heralded as one of the best movies of the year, but then again I don't get the "Anti-Woke" crowd, so, whatever. This movie is okay.
It is so okay that I probably would have written this blog if something wasn't nagging at the back of my mind about it, and no, it's not the "Anti-Woke" crowd heralding it, well it is partially that, but it ties into a bigger picture. Minions: The Rise of Gru is an okay movie, and quite frankly, I'm done with okay.
Really think about it, what were some other animated kids movies released this year? The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, Turning Red, The Bad Guys, Lightyear, and this one, among others I'm missing, but this is a good enough sample size. Out of all of these movies, you know which one really wowed me with the story and characters? Not a single one, not that these were all bad movies, but none of these movies were at the level of quality as some of the other movies I've talked about here, movies that were sometimes made for a younger audience. I'm not talking about South Park or Felidae here, I mean movies like Blue's Big Musical Movie, like DuckTales The Movie, like Disney's Cinderella, those movies are for the same, if not a younger audience, and are still really good movies. Movies that are more emotionally complex, movies with some harsh and scary moments, movies that can be exciting and thrilling but also pause and breathe.
By contrast, most kids movies now follow a very recognizable formula. It's almost like a road map, and it is most notable in the emotional low point. These low points always end up being before the climax, usually have some characters breaking apart only to reunite in the actual climax, and are only really emotional to the young children watching it because they've never sat through What's Opera, Doc? or any other genuinely emotional moments in their favourite cartoons or movies. Isn't that strange, as television cartoons become a lot more for older kids, kids movies just seem to stay in this bit of stagnation where the quality of the movie rests more on the entertainment value rather than the quality value of the story and characters.
To put it bluntly, I do not see The Bad Guys in a plot akin to The Secret of NIMH, I can not see The Minions in a movie like The Lion King, Buck Wild would have absolutely destroyed the surprising depth of the original Ice Age movie. In fact, Ice Age is kind of the perfect example of this. The first movie was surprisingly good, much more emotional than I initially remembered, but then we got sequels that took away the emotional parts and replaced them with more characters and zanier plots. Illumination really reminds me of Blue Sky, and the Blue Sky studios that actually was and not the one people remember after being axed by Disney. Remember, Blue Sky did a lot of similar kinds of safe looking movies, nothing that would really challenge the audience, but then they did Spies in Disguise, a surprisingly good movie that seemed to be able to set them on the right path, but this blog isn't about Blue Sky.
My point is, we're getting a lot of safe movies for kids, and yes, we are getting movies like Isle of Dogs, The Lego Movie 2 and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. However we're also getting a lot of movies like UglyDolls, Playmobil, Wonder Park, Secret Life of Pets 2, Arctic Dogs, Scoob, even some of the good movies like Abominable and Klaus, great movies, but I wouldn't say their plot and characters were anything special. We aren't getting a lot of movies like The Land Before Time, Treasure Planet, Spirited Away, in fact I'd argue that The Care Bears Movie from 1985 was much riskier than most of the kids movies we're getting today, and that is a Care Bears movie.
Why are movies getting safer? Well, that's an easy answer, money. Safer movies make a lot of money. Say what you will about The Lion King 2019, it made a lot of money, and from what I am seeing, this movie is making a lot of money, more than Lightyear. Lightyear is a bit of a riskier movie than Minions, but Minions is making more money. Parents don't really want to spend the theatre money on a movie that their kids are probably going to be scared of, cry at or just not know how to feel about, they'd rather take them to something that looks like a good time. So of course we're going to get less Secret of NIMH or Raggedy Ann and Andy movies, because those kinds of movies are just riskier to make. However, something a lot of companies never seem to realize is that, movies can pay off in the long term. Look at Nightmare Before Christmas or Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure, those movies didn't so do hot at the box office, weren't critical darlings and seemed like they wouldn't make much of an impact on pop culture. Tell me Nightmare Before Christmas isn't a huge part of Pop Culture today, that it isn't one of Disney's biggest properties, and from all the videos about it on YouTube, I'd say that the Raggedy Ann and Andy is becoming more of a cult classic.
Minions: The Rise of Gru is an okay movie, it is absolutely safe, not a lot of risks taken here. That is why I can't say this movie is harmless for kids, it is, but if you're just keeping them in a bubble, they're going to miss out on so much. Sometimes risks don't pay off, but one risk that pays off in the long run is better than ten safe bets that pay off in the short term, and Illumination is the epitome of safe bets paying off in the short term. I wouldn't recommend this movie normally, but as a movie, it's okay. Just, maybe grab a copy of The Secret of NIMH or The Prince of Egypt next time you're movie shopping.
Also, I find it way too weird that the "Anti-woke" crowd is heralding a movie where a black person is the villain, that just does not seem like a coincidence to me.
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