Minions & Monsters

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Minions & Monsters
A minion is sitting on a red gooey liquid, surrounded by multiple eyes looking at him.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPierre Coffin
Screenplay by
Produced by
Starring
Edited by
  • Claire Dodgson[1]
  • Gregory Perler[1]
Music byJohn Powell
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures[1]
Release dates
  • June 21, 2026 (2026-06-21) (Annecy)
  • July 1, 2026 (2026-07-01) (United States)
Running time
90 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$85 million[3]
Box office$10 million[4]

Minions & Monsters is a 2026 American animated comedy film directed by Pierre Coffin and written by Coffin and Brian Lynch. Produced by Illumination, it is the third installment in the Minions prequel series and the seventh installment overall in the Despicable Me franchise. The film stars Coffin as the Minions, alongside Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Bridges, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan, and Phil LaMarr. Taking place in 1920, 48 years before the events of Minions (2015), the film follows the Minions as they aim to make a monster movie of their own in Old Hollywood.

The film was announced in July 2024, after the release of Despicable Me 4, with Coffin and Lynch returning to direct and write the film, respectively, and Chris Meledandri producing alongside Bill Ryan.[5] John Powell composed the score, marking his third collaboration with Illumination following The Lorax (2012) and Migration (2023) and the first Despicable Me installment not to be scored by Heitor Pereira.

Minions & Monsters premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 21, 2026, and will be theatrically released in the United States on July 1 by Universal Pictures. The film has received positive reviews, with several critics deeming it to be the best film in the franchise since the first Despicable Me film,[6][7][8] and has grossed $10 million.

Plot

At a film history museum, as a group of people were being given tour of the building, a tour guide begins telling the story of Minions James and Henry.

A different tribe of Minions from the one that would go on to serve Gru are on a hunt to serve the world's greatest villains, but in many different ways wind up killing their masters by mistake. James, who is more artistic with a passion for painting and drawing, quickly develops a close friendship with two other minions, Henry and Ed. Among the many masters the Minions served was a wicked warlock, who was killed by a monster after Henry summoned it from his spellbook, which Ed then takes along with them.

While fighting each other in the desert, the Minions stumble across a train robbery, deciding to chase after the robber to become his henchmen. However, it was revealed that the robbery was all a staged performance meant for a Hollywood film production. Though the film's director Max was furious with the Minions, film executives Frank and Elwood become enamored by their antics, so Max hires the Minions to star in his films. The Minions soon become a global phenomenon, appearing in several silent films, allowing them to live a life of Hollywood stardom.

When sound film comes along, the Minions are unable to adapt to the new technology due to their language being incomprehensible. Having cost the studio millions in failed film material, the Minions were fired. Not wanting to give up on his passion, James comes up with an idea to make his own movie titled Minions and Monsters where the minions would fight against giant creatures. The leader of the tribe, Dick, rejects James' idea and leads the rest of the Minions back towards finding a new evil master, but Henry and Ed break away from them to help James make his film a reality. They pitch it to Max, who encourages James to work on the movie, providing him a film camera. Ed gets the idea to use the warlock's old spellbook to summon a squid monster to use for the film, but they are surprised that the monster is much smaller than expected. The monster, Goomi, sees James' idea and offers to help him find the perfect monsters for the movie.

Meanwhile, Dick and the other Minions decided to work for a futuristic alien robot named Dort who is determined to invade Earth. Even when Dort's cracks begin to show, Dick believes that he is the one to lead them. While trying to start his conquest for world domination, Dort ends up falling in love with a women's rights activist, Debbie, enlisting the Minions' help to romantically pursue her.

Goomi leads James, Henry, and Ed to a frozen fortress and frees the sea monsters Phillip and Howard under the false pretenses of using them as stars in James' movie. In reality, he aims to use them to summon Irene, a large orange blob monster, in order to destroy the world. Henry overhears this and tries to alert James, but Phillip and Howard kidnap him, using him as a sacrifice in the "scene" where Irene will be summoned. Just as shooting begins, Irene breaks out and begins wreaking havoc.

While on a date in the park with Debbie, Dort and the other Minions oversee Irene. Dort seemingly runs away, forcing some of the Minions to fight Irene themselves. Irene succeeds in swallowing Henry, with James entering her to rescue him, while the Minions take over from the military in holding her off. At first they succeed in tearing her apart, but Irene reconstructs herself. Just before she consumes them, Dort re-emerges with the other minions in spacecrafts, and successfully destroy Irene. Henry and James then cast a spell to trap Goomi, Phillip and Howard in the spell-book. The public hail the Minions as heroes.

As Ed had captured the entire battle on film, James' movie has its world premiere months later, receiving a standing ovation from the audience. The tour guide finishes telling the story, revealing that the entire story, including the tour, was actually a film within a film, directed by James and Henry.

Voice cast

Production

Development

Minions & Monsters was announced in July 2024, during the release of Despicable Me 4, with Pierre Coffin set to direct and Brian Lynch to write the script.[5] In addition, Patrick Delage served as a co-director.[14] The film shares the same title as the 2021 short that aired on NBC on June 11, 2021,[15] and on the DVD release of Minions: The Rise of Gru on September 6, 2022.[16] The movie has an estimated budget of $85 million.[17]

Casting

In March 2026, Trey Parker, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Bobby Moynihan, Phil LaMarr, and Allison Janney were announced to star in the film.[18][19] Parker had previously voiced Balthazar Bratt in Despicable Me 3 and Janney had voiced Madge Nelson in the first Minions film.[20] In June 2026, filmmaker George Lucas was revealed to have a role in the film after being approached by producer Chris Meledandri for a potential involvement due to Lucas being an admitted fan of the Despicable Me franchise.[13]

Music

In April 2026, John Powell was announced to be composing the film's music, marking his third collaboration with Illumination following The Lorax (2012) and Migration (2023) as well as marking the first Despicable Me installment not to be scored by recurring composer Heitor Pereira.[21]

Marketing

A Super Bowl promo was aired on February 8, 2026, during the Super Bowl LX. Footage of the film was showcased in April 2026 during CinemaCon.[11]

Release

Minions & Monsters premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 21, 2026,[22] and will be theatrically released in the United States on July 1 by Universal Pictures. It was originally planned for release on June 30, 2027, but was later moved up to the release date that had previously been planned for DreamWorks Animation's Shrek 5 when that film was postponed.[5][23] The film is set to debut on the same opening date as Universal Kids Resort, which includes the Minions-themed land "Minions vs. Minions: Bello Bay Club".[24]

As part of Universal's long-term deal with Netflix for its animated films, the film is contracted to stream in the US on Peacock for the first four months of its pay-TV window, then move to Netflix for the next ten months, and then return to Peacock for four months.[25][26]

Audio leak

In October 2025, during a test screening, an audience member sneaked in a recording device and recorded the entire audio of the film, which was then posted online.[27]

Reception

Critical response

Early reviews for Minions & Monsters have been positive. Drew Taylor of TheWrap called the film "a love letter to classic Hollywood" and "builds to an open-hearted tribute to the power of the communal moviegoing experience",[28] while Guy Lodge of Variety described it as "smarter, wilder and funnier before the monsters enter the equation", is "fully, madly moviosa", and that it was a "mostly delightful" entry.[1] John Nugent of Empire gave the film three stars out of five, concluding: "It is goofy and giggly and resolutely wedded to stupidity. There's little attempt to add much depth to the story, in the way that Pixar might try to — it is essentially, once again, just a series of contrived opportunities for the little guys to get up to chaotic mischief."[29]

Clint Worthington, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave Minions & Monsters three and a half out of four stars, stating that despite the less compelling second half of the film, it manages to be "the snappiest, most cohesive, and entertaining entry in this [Minions] series to date", and concluded that the film "feels like Coffin interrogating the Minions’ place in the annals of film history.... He argues, and here successfully, that the Minions aren’t a scourge of the universal loss of attention span and cultural sophistication. Rather, these little guys are simply the purest and latest distillation of the very impulses that have made cinema one of mankind’s most enduring art forms: characters in motion, working hard to entertain, distract, and provide a communal experience for those who enjoy them."[8]

References

  1. Lodge, Guy (June 21, 2026). "'Minions & Monsters' Review: The Canary-Colored Critters' Latest Starring Vehicle Goes Back to Early Hollywood, and Hits a Creative High". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved June 22, 2026.
  2. "Minions & Monsters (U)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved June 22, 2026.
  3. "Minions & Monsters". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved June 21, 2026.
  4. "Minions & Monsters". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved June 27, 2026.
  5. Jackson, Angelique (July 11, 2024). "Minions 3 Set for 2027 as Despicable Me Franchise Nears $5 Billion at Box Office". Variety. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
  6. Taylor, Drew (June 21, 2026). "'Minions & Monsters' Adds Dimension to the 'Despicable Me' Universe". TheWrap. Retrieved July 1, 2026. ... makes the film feel like it could be the best in the franchise, perhaps since the very first 'Despicable Me.'
  7. Goldman, Eric (June 30, 2026). "Minions 3 - Review". IGN. Retrieved July 1, 2026. It's easily the best movie in the franchise since the first Despicable Me in 2010, and after weighing out the battle between recency bias and nostalgia, I feel as though it ultimately surpasses it.
  8. Worthington, Clint (June 30, 2026). "Minions & Monsters review - Banana-bylon". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved July 1, 2026. And, in so doing, made the snappiest, most cohesive, and entertaining entry in this series to date.
  9. Bevil, Dewayne (April 30, 2026). "Universal Orlando: Summer fare includes 'Jaws,' minions, Spielberg exhibit". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
  10. Bennett, Tara (June 22, 2026). "Minions & Monsters Cast Breakdown: Jeff Bridges, Allison Janney & More!". NBC. NBCUniversal. Retrieved June 22, 2026.
  11. Grobar, Matt; Goldsmith, Jill (April 15, 2026). "'Minions & Monsters' First Look: Minions Fall In Love With The Movies, And It's Chaos – CinemaCon". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  12. "Jesse Eisenberg donated his kidney to a complete stranger. Here's why". NBC New York. June 17, 2026. Retrieved June 18, 2026.
  13. Stenzel, Wesley (June 19, 2026). "George Lucas comes out of retirement for voice role in upcoming Hollywood blockbuster — and it's not 'Star Wars'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on June 20, 2026. Retrieved June 20, 2026.
  14. "Annecy Festival Summons 'Minions & Monsters' as Opening Film". Animation Magazine. April 27, 2026. Retrieved April 28, 2026.
  15. Gallagher, Simon (February 9, 2026). "Minions & Monsters Trailer Reveals First Look at Universal's Latest Guaranteed Billion Dollar Movie". ComicBook.com. Retrieved April 18, 2026.
  16. "Bring Home the Year's No. 1 Animated Movie Minions: The Rise of Gru". Animation Magazine. August 24, 2022. Archived from the original on August 24, 2022. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  17. "Minions 4 cost $85M". Variety. May 27, 2026.
  18. D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 16, 2026). "Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch & Trey Parker Joins Illumination & Universal's 'Minions & Monsters'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
  19. Rubin, Rebecca (March 16, 2026). "'Minions & Monsters' Voice Cast; Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg and Allison Janney to Lead 'Despicable Me' Spinoff". Variety. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
  20. Klein, Brennan. "Jeff Bridges Officially Joins Universal's $5.6 Billion Franchise For New Movie Releasing This Summer". Screen Rant. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
  21. Kit, Borys (March 17, 2026). "John Powell Composing Score for Illumination's 'Minions & Monsters' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 18, 2026.
  22. Giraud, Kevin; Hopewell, John (April 27, 2026). "'Minions & Monsters' Set to Open the 2026 Annecy Animation Film Festival (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
  23. D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 10, 2025). "Universal Delays 'Shrek 5', Moves Up 'Minions 3' & More". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved December 12, 2025.
  24. Kennedy, Alice (May 28, 2026). "BREAKING: Universal Kids Resort Announces Opening Date - WDWNT". WDW News Today. Retrieved June 5, 2026.
  25. Hayes, Dade (December 9, 2021). "NBCUniversal's New Theatrical Window Scheme To Bring Films To Peacock After As Few As 45 Days Of Release". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  26. Moon, Mariella (July 14, 2021). "Netflix extends exclusive rights to Universal's animated films in the US". Engadget. Archived from the original on July 10, 2022. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  27. "MINIONS 3 Title Revealed As Recording Of Entire Movie Leaks Online Following Recent Test Screening". ComicBookMovie.com. October 29, 2025. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
  28. Taylor, Drew (June 21, 2026). "'Minions & Monsters' Adds Dimension to the 'Despicable Me' Universe". TheWrap. The Wrap News Inc. Retrieved June 23, 2026.
  29. Nugent, John (June 22, 2026). "'Minions & Monsters' Review — 'It will keep the Minion-sized people in your life happy'". Empire. Bauer Media Group. Retrieved June 23, 2026.