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The Minions – They’re like four-year-olds with a Super Bowl spot

By Josh Lasser on January 28, 2015 • ( 2 )

You may have noticed that on more than one occasion I have used a Minion gif here on the blog. Let me tell you why that is – my son is obsessed with them, pure and simple.

Really. Obsessed.

Backstory: a few months before my son’s third birthday, he and his mother attended the Halloween parade at his older sister’s school. There, two of the staff members were dressed as Minions. He didn’t know what they were; he didn’t know that they were from a movie; and he had certainly never heard of “Despicable Me.”

A trip to DisneyWorld the next January necessitated a day at Universal so that he could meet the Minions. Upon finding out he was too small for the ride, he stood at the exit for it, where the Minions came out every 15 minutes or so (when a ride ended) so that he could meet each and every one possible. And he did. He spent 90 minutes there seeing them all and in their various combinations. He was named an honorary Minion by the folks working there.

Now, more than a year after that experience, he remains absolutely floored by these characters. He has Minion sheets. He has Minions on his walls. He has Minion clothes. He has Minion dolls. He has “Minion Monopoly.” He begs to borrow any iDevice so that he can play “Minion Rush” (kind of like a themed “Temple Run”). He has seen “Despicable Me” more times than I can count.

I tell you all of this because this weekend, during the Super Bowl, there will be a commercial for the movie, not that you have to wait that long to see the TV spot. As has become standard (although not always the norm) it has been made available in advance and I’m embedding it right below this paragraph. Naturally, my son has seen it. More than once.

I also tell you this because I have now seen Minions in their various forms more times than I can count and I have fallen in love with them too. They in fact remind me of my son and I think they’re brilliant.

Minions are, essentially, four-year-olds. They have a lack of impulse control, think the dumbest things are hilarious, and their laughter & mood is utterly infectious (they will make you think the dumbest things are hilarious). Did you watch the above embed and see the whole pants thing? Yeah, it’s like a four-year-old.

To this point, they have worked brilliantly as side characters in the “Despicable Me” series, and it will be interesting to see if they can succeed as the lead in their own movie. It reminds me of Jay & Silent Bob going from being ancillary characters in “Clerks,” “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy,” and “Dogma” to leads in “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back.”

But, that last bit is neither here nor there (although, now that I think of it, perhaps a piece comparing and contrasting the Minions and Jay & Silent Bob is a worthwhile notion). Watch the new Super Bowl spot above as well as the trailer for “Minions” below, and tell me if I’m wrong about how these weird yellow little creatures think and act.

“Minions” hits theaters this summer and you know that I’m going to be there… with my son.