Minions (3D) [Blu-Ray] 
Director(s): Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton (VOICES)
Release Date: Available on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray & DVD December 8, 2015
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 8/10
Synopsis:
Since the dawn of time, Minions have served (and accidentally eliminated) history’s most despicable villains. After their latest explosive mistake leaves them without an evil leader, the Minions fall into a deep depression. With the tribe on the brink of collapse, three unlikely heroes–Kevin, Stuart, and Bob—embark on a journey to find a new big boss. When their quest leads them to their next potential master, Scarlet Overkill (Academy Award® winner Sandra Bullock), our three heroes must face their biggest challenge yet: saving all of Minionkind…from annihilation!
Everyone’s favorite little yellow troublemakers are back and this time in their very own film. ‘Minions’ follows the goofy yellow evildoers as far back as the beginning of time and explores their constant calamities along the way as they continue to seek out the most powerful villain imaginable to serve. Lacking motivation and back in population after years in icy recluse, three minions venture out into the city in search of a new boss and a purpose. When accidently stumbling upon a pirated TV broadcast for a supervillian convention featuring an enthralling new villainess they believe they may have at long last found the perfect boss to serve and a reason to be.
‘Minions’ is nonstop goofy fun filled with hilarious mishaps and gags from start to finish. This is the film many fans of the ‘Despicable Me’ franchise have surely been anticipating, with the focus on the little yellow servants of evil this time around as they make their way throughout time and history in search of the perfect boss, a general plot anyone familiar with the minions is sure to know can lead to nothing but a plethora of hilarious comic mishaps that the entire family will almost certainly enjoy. ‘Minions’ also features a number of talented individuals making up the voice cast including Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Geoffrey Rush, Steve Carell and many more, all of which are perfectly placed in this consistently fun animated ride.
Fans of the ‘Despicable Me’ franchise, in addition to the characters of the Minions in general will almost certainly want to make sure to pick up a copy of ‘Minions’ to add to their collections on Blu-ray, and for the households with younger children, it likely won’t even be an option. The Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack release delivers outstanding 3D and 2D high definition video presentations (a standard Blu-ray Combo Pack is of course additionally available for those without 3D capability), in addition to a wonderfully chaotic Dolby Atmos (TrueHD compatible) soundtrack and a number of enjoyable extras including 3 new ‘Minions Mini-Movies’ and more (more detailed information regarding the bonus content can be found in the special features section of the technical specification coverage below) which should easily make this one a must own.
VIDEO:
The 3D Blu-ray release of ‘Minions’ features a full 1080p High Definition MVC encoded 3D presentation utilizing the film’s original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. The 3D video presentation looks magnificent, delivering a warm and bright animated presentation that looks so sharp and distinctive it’s surprisingly realistic in a few moments. The 3D presentation also delivers some exceptional 3D with impressive depth and no shortage of content popping out of the screen at you, the villainess’ needle-ended ship appears as if it could pop you and her giant gun almost feels to be pressed right into your face when she kicks in the door. This is an exceptional 3D video presentation with little to no notable faults or issues present within.
The 2D Blu-ray release which is also included with the 3D Blu-ray combo pack features an AVC encoded full high definition video presentation also utilizing the film’s original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. The few moments I viewed on the 2D disc for comparative purposes looked as impressive as its 3D counterpart, delivering a sharp, detailed and overall fantastic video presentation that should not disappoint.
Overall, while both presentations look notably fantastic, the 3D version easily takes the cake with the depth and various elements being thrown in the viewers face; it contributes a great deal more fun to the film and will without question be the version I select for any and all subsequent viewings.
AUDIO:
The Blu-ray release (Both the 3D & 2D disc) features a Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel compatible) soundtrack. Please note that this review pertains solely to the lossless Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio presentation. This lossless multichannel soundtrack sounds phenomenal, providing a crisp, clean and discrete audio presentation frequently utilizing all seven available channels in order to surround the viewer in the constant mayhem and goofy fun occurring in the film, with everything from crowd noise, action oriented auditory effects, accentuated echoes, along with minions flying throughout the channels and plenty more, while never causing any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible. Overall, this is an impressive Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1 channel compatible) soundtrack that contributes a great deal of fun to the overall viewing experience.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-ray release of ‘Minions’ includes a number of enjoyable extras which are included on both discs although presented only in 2D. Included on the release are 3 all new ‘Minions Mini-Movies’; ‘Cro-Minion’, ‘Competition’ and ‘Binky Nelson Unpacified’ (running approximately 4-5 minutes each), along with a ‘Deleted Scene’ from the film titled ‘Me, Myself and Stuart’ (running under 1 minute). We are additionally treated to ‘Behind the Goggles: The Illumination Story of The Minions’ which is broken down into a number of Featurettes that are cleverly selectable by working your way though the office building, each including Behind the Scenes footage and interviews/comments with numerous people at the company discussing the process of bringing the minions to life in relation to their department. The segments include: ‘Writers’ (approximately 4 minutes), ‘Art Department’ (4 minutes), ‘Recording Studio’ (3 minutes), ‘Actors Studio’ (3 minutes), ‘Animation’ (3 minutes), ‘Lighting and Layout’ (3 minutes), ‘Editorial’ (3 minutes), ‘Story’ (1 minute), ‘Producers’ (3 minutes) and ‘Directors’ (3 minutes). Make sure to also click on the available screens and other selectable elements within each section for a number of additional extras including concept storyboards, goofy posters and a great deal more. The release also includes ‘Jingle Bells Minion Style’ (2 minutes) and ‘Around the World Interactive Map’.
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. It should additionally be noted that for the purpose of convenience, the images present for this specific release represent the 2D version of the film, even though the review itself covers the 3D version. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.
Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 8/10
‘Minions’ Is Now Available to own on Digital HD & Arrives On Blu-ray 3D & Blu-ray Combo Pack And DVD December 8, 2015 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
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