I went to see a cute movie.
In the end I sighed in relief that I had not been stabbed
Threatening children with stabs, abusing ushers, throwing popcorn and humiliating "Hatikva": We experienced firsthand the shameful riots in "The Minions 2", a phenomenon unique to Israel, so that you will not have to, and despite everything we managed to enjoy the film
Avner Shavit
04/07/2022
Monday, 04 July 2022, 00:00
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Trailer for the movie "The Minions: Gru's Rise" (Tulip Media)
If you are already bored reading and seeing reports of the mess at Ben Gurion Airport, there is a new attraction: testimonies and videos from the riots at the "Minions 2: Gru's Rise" screenings in local cinemas. That even a child can be a hooligan and a vandal.
For those who all find this strange, let's go back and understand what it's about: "The Minions 2: Gru's Rise" is another episode in the animated film series, which has become a cultural phenomenon.
Her story began in "2010" with "Stolen on the Moon", an animated film that no one would expect to become a historic landmark.
Unlike previous blockbusters, which dealt with classic heroes, at its center stood a physically distorted and malicious man named Gru, who posed a danger to public order.
In that hit we also learned to get to know the villain's aides - carefully dressed yellow creatures, who speak an invented language and since the dawn of history, are always looking for the biggest rioter in the area to serve him faithfully, and help him destroy the old order with lots of style.
In time came two direct sequels, "Stolen from the Minions" and "Stolen from the World", which also focused mainly on the character of Gru, but early on the producers of the series realized that the Yellow Servants are the real stars, and in 2015 they dedicated a separate episode called Simple In their name, "the Minions."
The result was, without a drop of cynicism God forbid, sheer genius.
At the time we chose her here for 38th place in the list of films of the previous decade, on this grounds - "it is a witty and anarchist masterpiece that even the great French surrealist artists of the beginning of the last century would appreciate - and as befits a pearl whose protagonists speak gibberish, every other word will be superfluous."
More on Walla!
Decade of Films of the Decade: Places 34-11
To the full article
The film proves that a child can also be a villain, life proves that children can also be hooligans.
From "The Minions: The Rise of Gru" (Photo: Courtesy of Tulip Entertainment)
The "Minions" was a huge success commercially as well, and work on his pledge began as early as five years ago.
The film was supposed to be released as early as 2020, but was delayed for various reasons, most notably the Corona, and the release date has been postponed to this summer.
Meanwhile, the cult surrounding the previous film intensified, patience for the sequel dwindled, the negative energies accumulated among children and teens during the Corona era exploded, and so did the power of apps like Tic-Tac.
In preparation for the rise of the film, social networks have started a trend that requires young viewers to come to screenings with a proper dress code for such an important film - in suits.
And so, this weekend we saw whole classes flocking to the complexes dressed as to the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.
These trends are not necessarily unique to Israel, but here, as usual, the excitement has taken a few steps forward.
In the country, a large number of screenings also included the following behaviors, in ascending order of severity: throwing large amounts of popcorn at the audience and spectators;
Countless interludes during the screening, including the song "Hatikva" before and during it;
Vandalism in the cinema complex;
Violent threats against anyone who seeks to disable the celebration, and of course documentation and distribution of all this in real time, because if you did not take a photo and upload it, it would not have happened.
As far as I know, all of these things only happen here, and not in the dozens of other territories where this hit is projected.
The box office figures, according to distributors, are impressive - at least 100,000 Israelis have already watched the film.
But how many of them really "saw" him?
After all, as you can see in the tic-tac-toe videos from the crime scene, and as I have experienced for myself, many of the young viewers stand during the screening for the sake of their rituals, hide the screen from the audience and probably do not see for themselves what is happening in it.
And we went out cheap.
From a routine screening of "The Minions: The Rise of Gru" (Photo: Walla !, Avner Shavit)
The screening I was at, on Friday in one of the cinemas in Gush Dan, was a loud, frenetic and dirty experience - but I came out cheap.
"Yesterday was worse," one of the ushers told me at the end with a sad face, as he had to deal with the mountains of popcorn left on the floor.
"Children rioted, and when other children asked them to stop, the rioting children threatened to stab them. We all wanted to resign. The film is shown in several halls at the same time, dozens of times a day. We cannot control it alone."
This is how it is: In the world of aviation, those who are currently absorbing the fire directly are the employees of the counters at the airports, and in these cinema complexes they are the ushers.
"The Minions" are playful and cheeky films that encourage anarchism.
The children seemingly act in their spirit, but forget that the yellow heroes never abuse the weaker of them.
If our youth are so rebellious, rehabilitating against their parents or teachers instead of abusing film workers, mostly people their age or a little older than them who just want to make some money on summer vacation.
The sheet is short.
Anyone who wants to be further impressed by the depth of the sociological-pedagogical crisis in the country is invited to search for Titok videos by the search word "minions".
The results are outrageous and disturbing, but at least in the narrow context of the cinematic experience, let me also add a calming siren.
It can be estimated that the plays will not be repeated in the coming days.
The low concentration threshold of the youth is a positive factor for change: it is likely that the rituals around the film have exhausted themselves, and their attractiveness has waned.
The disturbances will also not be repeated in other films.
Those who want to go to "Turn: Love and Thunder" which comes up this coming Wednesday, can go in peace.
Do you think that followers of comics will give a child a snout to spoil such a sacred work?
Fulfilled "Hope," but despise a Marvel movie?
@omererezzz a bit #foryou #fyp #minions #aliyatushlagro #cinemacity ♬ yeat x minions - kt
And back to "The Minions: Gru's Rise."
Despite all the external distractions, I was able to enjoy the film.
There is a reason why the Minions have become a natural phenomenon.
They cooperate with the forces of darkness, and yet bring light into our lives.
They do not try to beg or please, and yet manage to conquer everyone's heart.
They suck from a deep legacy of Homer nonsense, but have also managed to build a rich and special world of their own.
They have their own style, and their language, and it's no coincidence that every tic-tac-toe generation is imitating it now.
All credit to Illumination Mack Gaff, the French studios responsible for this brilliant and magical invention.
All these years there has been talk of Pixar and Disney, and here at the end comes a Parisian company that creates the greatest icons of the animation world.
Vive La France
Beyond the entire French nation, specific credit is given to Kyle Ballad, who directed the previous episode of "The Minions" and also this film, and to Chris Renault, who directed the previous film with him and here was on a producer standard.
The directing chair was joined in this case by Brad Abelson and Jonathan Del Wall.
The plot this time, as implied by the subtitle "Gru's Rise," describes how evil has become such a dominant arch-villain.
It follows him in his childhood, and therefore occurs in the 1970s.
As a result, the characters watch "jaws", use a dial phone, dance disco and so on.
It's a nice nostalgic touch, but could have been utilized in a richer way.
Grew believes it's never too early to shock the world, and also that you're never too young to hang out with energetic servants, so he attaches the minions to it, and makes his first steps with them in the arch-villain community.
Together, they find themselves at the heart of an internal and historical confrontation between the villains.
On one side of the battle stands an organization of legendary villains, and on the other side of the barricade stands Wilde Knuckles, the legendary founder of the organization, who was thrown out of it in old age but refuses to give up and insists on restoring his lost honor.
There's a nice message here against old age, and it's a shame it went over the head of the young audience who were busy with other things.
Marvel will not do that.
From "The Minions: The Rise of Gru" (Photo: Courtesy of Tulip Entertainment)
As usual, the plot is intentionally silly, the animation is spectacular and full of imagination and inventions, the pace is dizzying and most of the action scenes are as exciting as if it were an action hit for everything.
Tom Cruise, behind you!
The problem is, the level of the film is not uniform.
Whenever the minions are around, they feel like getting up and cheering for them - for example in a section where they boldly dare to take over the cockpit of a plane, and of course manage to land it safely.
But unlike the previous episode, this time the plot focuses not only on them but also on the triangle formed between Gru, the villain organization and its founder, and these are more generic and less interesting passages, because many of the characters and situations are similar to other films, and the colorless yellow heroes.
If you're already throwing popcorn at us, at least enjoy a little more screen time of our icons.
All in all, "The Minions: Gru's Rise" is not as ingenious as the previous episode, but definitely delightful, and I would love to watch it again under different conditions.
Obviously, his success will schedule us another episode in the series in a few years, and it's better not to think about what will happen in his screenings.
At the rate at which things are evolving, we will not fight them by throwing popcorn, but with sticks and stones.
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