The box office hit dedicated to old Hollywood

The animated film Minions & Monsters, which opened in Spanish cinemas on July 1, has become a tribute to the golden age of Hollywood, blending the franchise's signature humor with references to classic silent cinema and early film history. The movie follows the yellow, chatty creatures as they navigate the dawn of Hollywood, engaging in slapstick antics reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, while also paying homage to iconic films such as King Kong, Casablanca, and Citizen Kane. Director Pierre Coffin, who also voices the minions, includes cameos from figures like George Lucas, who plays himself, and nods to Matrix and E.T.. The film opens with the minions inserted into some of the earliest examples of cinematic history. It begins with the work of photographer Eadweard Muybridge, whose motion studies in 1878 captured images of a horse galloping and a dog running. In Minions & Monsters, a minion is imagined chasing a sausage-savvy dog, adding a humorous twist to these early experiments. The film also features the minions in the Lumière brothers' Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896) and Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902), with the latter’s moon depicted as having a minion’s face. Coffin has long admired the physical comedy of silent film stars like Chaplin and Keaton, whom he credits with conveying emotion through movement rather than dialogue. This admiration is reflected in the film, where a character styled after Chaplin gets caught in the gears of a massive machine, a nod to Modern Times (1936). Another scene sees the minions forcing Harold Lloyd to hang off a clock, echoing his famous moment in Safety Last! (1923), while a house collapses over Keaton, referencing The General (1928). The transition from silent film to sound was challenging for many stars, and the film shows the minions struggling with this change too. While not historically accurate, the film uses this premise to include more tributes. One scene features a minion playing a detective named Humphrey, a reference to Humphrey Bogart, but instead of romantic dialogue, the minion says “lasaña.” Another scene has a minion ruining the opening of Citizen Kane (1941), holding a snowball and dropping it, saying “Oh, crap!” instead of the famous “Rosebud.” Coffin acknowledges that some might question whether children will understand these references, but he believes they will enjoy seeing a character in a deathbed scene dropping something and exclaiming “Oh, crap!” The film culminates with a hardworking minion named James deciding to make his own monster movie, setting up potential future adventures for the franchise. The blend of historical references and comedic twists makes Minions & Monsters a unique celebration of early cinema, offering both entertainment and a nostalgic nod to the past.