'Minions: The origin of Gru', hilarious physical humor with the rhythm of seventies disco music

In the field of animation, with enormous contributions in the last two decades related fundamentally to the excellence of the script, the search for emotion through stories that strike a personal chord —whether that of children or adults— , from the portrait of characters and the fineness of the line and the backgrounds, the Minions have become almost an anomaly.

While other products sought quality through transcendence and art, the two films starring those strange yellow beings with one or two eyes, and the sequences recommended by them in the

the one that saw them born, do basically under the seal of effervescence, freshness and pure and simple nonsense, although without losing sight of the technical and artistic quality.

In this sense, with its absence of dialogues and its scattered rather than structured scripts, both

(2015) and the sequel that opens today,

appeal to a physical and hilarious humor almost banished today of cinemas and television: that of the silent film masters, and that of the American

, with characters without a voice or with very little dialogue, from Chuck Jones to

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'The Minions', best animated premiere in Spain in six years

That the Minions speak, but they are not understood beyond onomatopoeia or a single word, has as much to do with their spirit as big babies who play with each other to see who does the biggest bullshit, as with the essence of

the image, exaggeration and action as unique representatives of laughter.

The fifth film in the franchise, which without being one of the most popular in recent years, has, however, maintained a notable medium level,

is a healthy and noisy entertainment that acts as a seminal title for the character of the supervillain, here an 11-year-old boy whose greatest ambition in life is to become the most perfidious being on the planet, and in charge of fighting for a jewel against another string of supervillains, these yes, adults.

A jewel that is none other than the classic

that moves the characters, and a group in which Wild Knuckles stands out, who is voiced by Alan Arkin and who seems directly inspired in his physical typology by the Catalan singer Pau Riba.

As in the original

of

which also worked as a prequel to

the soundtrack is essential, made up of a wonderful collection of songs from the seventies, the time in which the birth of the relationship between the yellow beings and the evil debunker.

That yes, if in that one the lysergic dominated (The Doors, Jimmy Hendrix, The Kinks, The Who), in this one, somewhat later in the decade —around 1975, because the characters go to a

session—, the music stands out disco and

(Earth, Wind & Fire, Diana Ross...).

Created once again by the Illumination factory (owned by Universal),

is surely as superficial as it wants to be and, for once, it should be.

A revelry with no more ambition than the hook with laughter through the confluence of image and sound, in gags that hit the target of laughter most of the time.

More than enough.

Minions: The Origin of Gru

Direction:

Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson, Jonathan del Val.

Genre:

animated comedy.

USA, 2022.

Duration:

90 minutes.

Premiere: July 1.

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