Minions & Monsters review: Ode to Old Hollywood is the franchises best movie

Running time: 89 minutes.Rated PG (violence, action, language and rude/macabre humor).

In theaters.One of the best odes to Old Hollywood in a long time comes courtesy of … the Minions?Yes, somehow the funny yellow Tic Tacs, who heretofore clumsily served supervillains, are leading a smart and detailed tribute to Georges Méliès, Orson Welles, Boris Karloff, “Casablanca” and countless other pieces of movie-making history called “Minions & Monsters.”Improbably this fantastic animated kids movie, sure to be a highlight of the summer, is an adult cinephile’s dream.It doesn’t make a lick of sense.It also makes a ton of sense.Because years ago, French director Pierre Coffin, who co-created the talking Tylenols in 2010’s “Despicable Me,” realized that the real scene stealer wasn’t Steve Carell’s baddie Gru at all, but rather his pellet-shaped henchmen who speak in European gibberish.I unabashedly love the Minions.

They are never less than hilarious, and they are much more colorful and creative than most of what Pixar and DreamWorks are churning out.You could put them in pretty much anything, like Stanley Tucci.

Come to think of it, they bear a striking resemblance to Stanley Tucci.And that’s what Coffin has done with “Monsters,” which is their finest hour… and 30 minutes.He’s plopped ‘em far away from “Despicable Me” in the 1920s Golden Age of Hollywood, with its bustling sound stages, eccentric personalities and the monolithic studio system.How do the yukking yolks get to Tinseltown of all places? While traversing the world in search of a new “big boss” — and cycling through a cyclops, a sorcerer and a mummy — the Minions (also voiced by Coffin) flock to who they think is a Wild West gunslinger and finally land in sunny Los Angeles.Actually, what the mischief makers did is botch a train robbery film shoot. In the process, they are discovered a la Marilyn Monroe by a director named Max (Chr...