The VERDICT: The claims of the movie being the funniest of the year is at least partially true. Minions: Rise of Gru is by far the same spectacle you have come to expect with bright animation, lots of music, references that are great for guys like me and great voice acting that makes them come to life.

1976 MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU is an origin story set in 1976, when supervillain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) is just shy of 12 years old and a fanboy of the Vicious 6, a supervillain collective he dreams of joining.

The story follows a young Gru growing up in the 1970s as he idolizes his favorite supervillain group, The Vicious 6. Gru wants to prove that he is evil enough to join the group and enlists the help of his lovable yellow assistants, the Minions.

Illumination Minions: The Rise of Gru (also known as Minions 2) is a 2022 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Illumination and Universal Pictures.

The main messages from Minions: The Rise of Gru are to follow your dreams and to remember that even the smallest of us are capable of great things. Values in Minions: The Rise of Gru that you could reinforce with your children include helpfulness, teamwork, creativity, persistence and love.

Like the other Despicable Me movies, the story can be seen as a celebration of villainy (though much of it is intended to be silly/funny) -- but the long-term take away is hopefully more about how loyal the Minions are to one another and to their masters.

Evolving from single-celled yellow organisms at the dawn of time, Minions live to serve, but find themselves working for a continual series of unsuccessful masters, from T. Rex to Napoleon. Without a master to grovel for, the Minions fall into a deep depression. But one minion, Kevin, has a plan; accompanied by his pals Stuart and Bob, Kevin sets forth to find a new evil boss for his brethren to follow. Their search leads them to Scarlet Overkill, the world's first-ever super-villainess.Minions / Film synopsis

The plot follows a young Gru trying to become a supervillain. With his newfound disciples, he devises a scheme, so he can beat the most powerful group of baddies - The Vicious 6, and become the new supervillain himself. And the minions? They are just themselves; only weirder and wilder than you have ever seen them.

Illumination Entertainment Produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures, it is the spin-off/prequel which takes place before the events of Despicable Me and the third installment overall in the film series of the same name.

Minionese The Minions speak Minionese, sometimes called “the Banana language”. Minionese is what's known as a constructed language – or “conlang”. Conlangs are often a feature of works of fantasy and science fiction.

The company says the color came about after Pharrell Williams, who sings the song “Happy” from the Despicable Me 2 film, first came up with the idea and the Pantone team worked with animators at Illumination Entertainment to nail down the specific shade of Minion yellow.