“Minions and Monsters” works on several levels, as entertainment for older kids ready for slapstick violence and rude, sometimes macabre humor and as a homage to the Hollywood filmmaking industry for older fans familiar with silents films and the first talkies. It also helps if you know more than English, especially Spanish.

The banana-yellow Minions were first introduced to filmgoers in the 2010 “Despicable Me,” created by Spanish animator, director and screenwriter Sergio Pablos. His original idea didn’t include the Minions, but “Despicable Me” was then written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio and directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin. That film which followed the supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) and his Minions as he plots villainy, but finds a family after adopting three orphan girls. In the 2013 “Despicable Me 2,” the retired supervillain Gru is recruited by secret agent Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig)  to investigate the theft of a mutagen by a villain, El Macho (Benjamin Bratt), who had been presumed dead. Gru and Lucy marry. In the 2017 “Despicable Me 3,” Gru reunited with his twin brother Dru to stop and angry former child actor Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker) from destroying Hollywood and world domination.  In the 2024 “Despicable Me 4,” Gru and Lucy must move their family into a safe house when Gru’s old rival Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferell) seeks revenge and the Minions get superpowers to become Mega Minions.

In 2015, the first prequel, “Minions” takes place in 1968 with the Minions attending Villain-Con in Orlando in search of a despicable master to serve. At the end, the Minions meet a young Gru. “Minions: The Rise of Gru” looks at how a young Gru became a master villain with the help and hindrance of his Minions. “Minions and Monsters” is Gru-less.

“Minions and Monsters” begins in the present day at a film history museum where the tour guide, Olivia (Allison Janney), begins telling the story of a different tribe of Minions than the one that would serve Gru, showing their montage journey over the centuries where they find and fail their evil masters under the leadership of the one-eyed Minion Dick. The group includes the artistic James, James’ best friend Henry, and a deaf Minion Ed. When these Minions conjure up a monster that kills their Warlock master, Ed takes the black magic book.

Masterless, these Minions (Pierre Coffin) find themselves in a Southwestern desert and attempt to attach themselves to an outlaw who riding on horseback who tries to escape on a train.  We soon learn that the Minions have found themselves in Hollywood on a Western set. A frustrated and stereotypically dressed director, Max (Christoph Waltz), is worried when he goes to show the big bosses of the Bright Brothers, Frank and Elwood (Jeff Bridges),  the dailies, but they love it. The Minions become stars, but that’s only in the silent films. The talkies, which come in 1927 with Al Jolson’s “The Jazz Singer” by Warner Bros.,  destroy the Minions stardom. Destitute, the Minions James, Henry and Ed decide to make their own film based on storyboards made by James. Max lends them his first movie projector and the Minions decide to conjure up a monster. The monster is cute and small: Gary Orcam Oliver Magma Ichabod the Deceiver or Good (Trey Parker). GOOMI introduces them to two frozen monsters, Phillip (Bobby Moynihan) and Howard (Phil LaMarr), who, wink-wink, will help their film. What they really want to do is summon up Irene , a golden-yellow blob (“The Blob” was a 1958 science fiction horror film distributed by Paramount) with many eyes that devours everything it sees.

You might wonder where is Dick and the other Minions are. They latch on to an alien robot named Dort (sounded like Dork to me). Dort (Jessie Eisenberg)  falls in love with a women’s rights activist named Debbie (Zoey Deutch), who is dressed like a suffragette, but women got the vote in 1920.

This is a fun fast-paced film that you can enjoy without knowing the film references, but cinephiles will want to watch again to catch all of them. I list a few below. The credits are worth watching.

Four People You Should Know

• Eadweard Muybridge (9 April 1830 to 8 May 1904): Muybridge is an English photographer who took iconic photos of a horse in motion and continued to do many studies of animals and people in motion.
• The Lumière Brothers  (Auguste (19 October 1862 – 10 April 1954) and Louis (5 October 1864 – 6 June 1948)): These French brothers were manufacturers of photography equipment and the makers of short films. In French “lumière” mean “light,” “lighting” or “spotlight.” This is likely where the “Bright” brothers got their name.
• Buster Keaton: (4 October 1895 to 1 February 1966): Keaton was a US actor, comedian and filmmaker. He was most famous during the silent film era.

Films You Should Know

• “L’arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat“ (The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station or in United Kingdom as Train Pulling into a Station) is an 1896 French short silent documentary film directed and produced by Auguste and Louis Lumière. (1896)
• “Le Voyage dans la Lune” (1902), directed by Georges Méliès, is a French film that imagines a trip to the moon. The landing scene is iconic.
• “Wings” (1927) was a US World War I film that starred Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen. They are romantic rivals for Bow’s character. Arlen’s character David has stolen a German biplane and is shot-down by Roger’s Jack Powell. Realizing his error, Jack is distraught as he holds his dying friend.
• Buster Keaton’s 1928 film  “Steamboat Bill, Jr.” Keaton is not the titular character and this film is best known for the facade of a house falling down, barely missing Keaton’s character.
• Rosebud scene from “Citizen Kane” (1941). This film begins with a mystery. A wealthy man dies and utters the word “Rosebud.” The film then flashes back to the man’s rise to power in the newspaper industry.
• “The Big Sleep” (1946) is the film that Humphrey Bogart made with Lauren Bacall during which they married. Bacall had been Bogart’s leading lady in the 1944 “To Have and Have Not.” “The Big Sleep” is an adaptation of a Raymond Chandler 1939 novel about a private detective, blackmail and multiple murders.
• Gort from “The Day the Earth Stood Still”  (1951) is a robot that helps a humanoid alien deliver a message to the entire human race after landing at the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Things to know about Universal Studios

• The studio and its theme parks have Vikings with “How to Train Your Dragon” and the “Isle of Berk” world at Universal Epic Universe. The amusement park attractions include the Viking Training Camp and The Mead Hall.
• Universal Pictures produced classic Horror and Sci-Fi films between the 1920s and the 1950s including “Dracula” (1931), “Frankenstein” (1931), “The Mummy” (1932), “The Invisible Man” (1933), “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935), “The Wolf Man” (1941) and “Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

The 1951 “The Day the Earth Stood Still” was out of 20th Century Fox.

A Few Foreign Words…and Minions

Montras isn’t the Spanish word for Monsters exactly. It is the name of a podcast that explains:

What are Monstras? The Spanish word for monsters is the masculine monstruos, but we all know that women can be monsters too! More than just an invented word for “female monsters,” Monstras represents feminine power and anger.

People who know Spanish and other foreign languages definitely are rewarded when the Minions talk. Here are a few non-Spanish words I thought I heard.

• Daifuku: Daifuku (大福) is a traditional Japanese sweet made of soft mochi stuffed with a sweet filling. It means “great luck.”
• Kaiju: Kaiju (怪獣) literally means “strange beast.”
• Miso soup is a mix of English and Japanese. In Japanese, it would be “miso shiru”.
• Xièxie (謝謝 / 谢谢): Xièxie means “Thank you” in Mandarin Chinese.