Minion Scouts (2019)

Directed by: Guy Bar’ely, Frank Baradat | 4 minutes | short film, animation | Original voice cast: Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Nev Scharrel, Pierre Coffin, John DiMaggio, Cory Walls, Tara Strong, Jessica DiCicco

After four cinema films and a whole series of short films, the tolerance limit for the Minions has now been reached for many people. Yet Illumination Entertainment still believes in these yellow figures. Originally introduced as Gru’s henchmen, they have since taken their place in the universe and no one is surprised anymore when there are Minions somewhere.

‘Minion Scouts’ is included on the DVD/Blu-ray of ‘Pet Secrets 2’ (‘The Secret Life of Pets 2’) and is directed by Guy Bar’ely and Frank Baradat. The former worked as a storyboard artist on ‘Despicable Me 3’ and his name also appears on the credits roll of ‘The Grinch’, ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ and ‘Penguins of Madagascar’. Frank Baradat has already cooperated with many Illumination shorts as a CG supervisor.

For Minion enthusiasts, ‘Minion Scouts’ is a nice reunion: Margo, Agnes and Edith can be seen and of course the color yellow dominates the film. The three girls proudly show off their badges after participating in the Badger Scout camp. The Minions immediately plan to get those nice badges as well and sign up with the scouting. You can guess how disastrous that ends…

Eating the wrong berries, making animal noises to attract a dangerous bear, and demolishing an important dam, the Minions don’t give a damn. ‘Minions Scout’ is hardly surprising, but still a nice short film in the steadily growing catalog of Illumation Entertainment.