Now that my son is 7, he believes he should get to go to press screenings with me. I usually disagree, based on the fact that I am the one who has to pry him out of bed the next morning. It's summer, though, and he wanted to see “Minions" so badly that I OK'd it.
While we waited for the lights to dim, I asked what he expected from the movie. “Funny jokes, destroying stuff, butts," he said. Then he began beatboxing, or what passes for it when you're a 7-year-old white boy.
I can attest that “Minions" does, in fact, have funny jokes, destroying stuff and butts. That's … about it. And the “funny jokes" is a matter of taste, in that I'm not so into bodily humor, but I recognize that I am not the target audience. The problem with a film having a “target audience," though, is that too often — especially when the target is children — it's an excuse to be lazy.
“Minions" tries to appease parents by throwing in pandering moments that all say “Hello, Mom and Dad! Thank you for your money!" There are allusions to “Abbey Road," the musical “Hair" and the fact that English people drink a lot of tea.
It used to be considered high praise to say a kids movie had something in it for parents. The thing is, those things were rarely anything great — they were just jokes you had to be over 20 to get, moments that snapped us out of counting down the seconds to when we could escape from whatever animated beast had us in its clutches. And it's not enough anymore.
Kids movies, TV and music have gotten so much better that parents no longer have to tolerate middling entertainment — and what's even more exciting is that means KIDS no longer have to tolerate middling entertainment. You don't need Raffi when you have They Might Be Giants. You don't need “Caillou" (DIE CAILLOU DIE) when you have “Phineas and Ferb." And you don't need “Minions" when you have Pixar and, to a lesser extent, Disney.
Everyone responds to quality. Well-developed characters. A story arc that doesn't just string jokes together but changes characters in a fundamental, believable way. Comedy that comes from a place of intelligence rather than bodily functions. (Well, maybe some bodily function jokes are OK.)
I'm not saying every animated film has to be “Inside Out," but the reason that film works — just like the “Toy Story" movies and “Tangled" and even “Despicable Me," where the Minions first appeared — is that the story resonates with the entire audience, whether or not they think farts are the funniest things ever.
Look, kids like what they like, and sometimes parents have to bend so our sanity doesn't break. Sometimes that means fine, yes, have a hot dog for dinner or just the bun, I don't care, Mommy needs some iPad time. Sometimes that means fine, yes, we will go see “Minions." It's not awful. It's just that the obvious attempts to please parents feel cheap. And we're a little tall to be talked down to.
Any thoughts?