Why Minions & Monsters’ Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Near-Perfect

There’s no question that the Minions have quite the reputation in the movie industry—and not necessarily in a good way. Known for their unusual and frankly rather annoying way of talking, as well as their bright yellow appearance and obsession with bananas, the Minions have become beloved characters for kids and a bit of a nightmare for parents. In fact, that only became all the truer when the Minions broke free from just appearing in Despicable Me movies and had their very own film, Minions, hit theaters in 2015.

Unfortunately for these villainous sidekicks, Minions did not perform well at all, especially compared to its predecessors. Whereas the Despicable Me movies that came out before Minions—Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2—had fairly solid reviews (with Despicable Me having an 80% critic score and 83% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and Despicable Me 2 having a 75% critic score and 85% audience score), Minions was met with a bleak 55% with critics and 49% with audiences. Thankfully, the Minions sequel movie, Minions: The Rise of Gru, did considerably better.

Indeed, The Rise of Gru has an impressive 70% with critics and 89% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. That is a major leap from Minions, although it wasn’t clear to what extent the involvement of Gru, the protagonist of Despicable Me, had boosted those numbers. Now, though, it seems the Minions franchise is actually on the rise, as Minions & Monsters has been released, and not only have the reviews largely been positive, but also, the movie has a shocking 91% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. That might seem far-fetched, but Minions & Monsters has actually earned that rating for a reason.

Minions & Monsters’ Humor Is Elevated Compared To Previous Installments

Although it might seem hard to believe, Minions & Monsters really does feel like a change of pace in terms of the movie’s sense of humor. Sure, there are still some banana references, and the Minions’ nonsensical babble (at times weirdly disrupted by fully-formed Spanish phrases and words in English, Spanish, Italian, and other languages) persists. Yet, much of the previous slapstick humor and schoolyard playground jokes have been swapped out in Minions & Monsters, replaced with bits that are actually entertaining to both child and adult audiences.

Among the most surprising is the gag early in the movie that sees one of the Minions, James, creating bricks similar to LEGO. The “big boss” they are serving at the time, a Cyclops, steps on one of the bricks, and it gets painfully lodged in his foot. That alone was getting some laughs in the theater, but what happened next took absolutely everybody by surprise (and was so much funnier).

Feeling relieved with the brick removed from his foot, the Cyclops goes to sit down only to land on a tall stack of bricks that clearly goes somewhere the Cyclops did not intend. What’s more, if viewers look closely, they will see that the stack of bricks the Cyclops sits on has an incredibly suggestive image on it that, presumably, the movie is playing off as a tree—but it certainly doesn’t look like a tree. This, in particular, received some gasps but then several hearty laughs in the theater, as did the fact that one Minion was named ‘Dick.’

Even outside of the more adult/suggestive humor, though, there are many aspects of the movie that are entertaining for broader audiences, including older viewers. One of the best choices Minions & Monsters made, in fact, was to have the story set in 1920s Hollywood, as that allowed for a host of film industry references that immediately set a different tone for this Minions movie.

Minions & Monsters’ Film Industry References Are Surprisingly Sharp

Minions & Monsters quickly establishes that this story is going to be packed full of unexpected movie references. This actually becomes clear just a few scenes in, when there is a cameo from George Lucas himself. Not only does the character fully look like an accurate animated George Lucas, but also, this character is indeed voiced by the real Star Wars creator himself. The same scene has a number of other movie references, including a shot of Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix.

This alone made Minions & Monsters feel quite different from previous Minions movies, and similar references continued throughout the movie, only strengthening how unique (and more serious) this movie felt within the larger franchise. The idea that the Minions’ stories take place throughout many different eras of human history also wasn’t new in Minions & Monsters, but this movie in particular felt like it took full advantage of this aspect of the characters, offering a truly new story.

Choosing 1920s Hollywood as the specific setting was also a stroke of genius, as there is so much iconography and a built-in adoration for this era that the movie could draw upon—and draw upon it Minions & Monsters did. In addition to that, though, the second half of the movie’s title, monsters, also played a key role in making the latest Minions installment so much better than audiences were expecting.

Minions & Monsters Found A Genuinely Fresh Angle

Part of the issue with the Minions up to this point, in both the Despicable Me movies and the Minions movies, has been how repetitive they had begun to feel. They seemed to be telling the same joke, filling the same roles, and repeating very similar storylines. Expectations for Minions & Monsters were perhaps low for that reason, yet this new movie did something that very few, if any, expected by actually offering a unique story angle. That specifically came in the form of some brand-new characters, the monsters.

In an effort to remain relevant in Hollywood, some of the Minions use magic to bring monsters to life and have them star in their movies. Unsurprisingly, this goes horribly wrong, but it does mean a genuinely inventive storyline in this larger franchise that breathed a frankly quite necessary new life into these characters. Whether that will mean additional Minions movies moving forward is currently unknown, but at the very least, this change earned Minions & Monsters an unexpected but also legitimately deserved solid rating, especially from critics.

Release Date

June 24, 2026

Runtime

90 minutes

Producers

Chris Meledandri, Bill Ryan

Cast

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  Trey Parker

  Goomi (voice)

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  Henry / James / Ed / Dick / The Minions (voice)