He thought old-school Hollywood silent films were missing one thing Minions

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Set us as preferred Movies about the moviemaking of yesteryear — where do we go for those? Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” or the Coen brothers’ “Hail, Caesar!” come to mind.Maybe even Damien Chazelle’s divisive “Babylon.”But a new “Minions” film?The banana-loving, villain-worshipping yellow blobs that have become animation’s most enduring creations now take on classic Hollywood for “Minions & Monsters” (in theaters Wednesday), their latest prequel adventure — and their most sophisticated, though still satisfyingly ridiculous outing yet.The plot isn’t what you’d expect: Passionate about storytelling, James, a Minion from a different tribe than the one audiences are familiar with, becomes determined to direct a monster movie after he and his pack accidentally arrive in 1920s Los Angeles.

They decide to try their luck at the studio system.Pierre Coffin, the French inventor of the Minions, who also voices them and co-directed the first three “Despicable Me” movies, had his doubts.“I needed some convincing, otherwise I was happy not doing anything except for the voices,” Coffin, 59, says in English (and not Minionese) during a video call from France, where “Minions & Monsters” had its world premiere at last week’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival.That convincing would come down to a question of creative control.In 2022, producer Chris Meledandri called Coffin with an idea for a movie: a Minion wants to make a monster movie, so he needs to build a monster or summon one.As he listened to the proposed plot, Coffin thought about the time period it would take place in and whether it would involve Kevin, Stuart and Bob, the trio of Minions fans have come to adore.“I pitched him the idea of: Could it happen in Hollywood in the ’20s?” Coff...