Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
July 17, 2016
Spiritual Ponderings
Faith & Film: Minion Movie
 
One of the great Catholic writers of our time was G.K. Chesterton.  He was a contemporary and friends with C.S. Lewis who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia.  I am particularly fond of this quote from G.K. Chesterton regarding the power that stories (and thus movies) have on our lives.  “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” 
 
For the third of our five movies, I want to reflect on the Minion Movie.   Most of my family and some of my friends know that I am a fan of the little yellow minions.  There is something about them that makes me laugh.  (I have a minion piggy bank, fleece blanket, tooth brush holder, and much more).   
 
In an effort to be completely honest, I did not find the Minion Movie to be all that great.   There was too much cheap/crude humor in the movie that really missed its mark.  There were times when I wondered if I would have been able to understand any of the movie if I was a kid in the second grade.  With that being said I of course was able to walk away with some spiritual insights from the movie.
 
The narrator in the beginning of the movie explains that the Minions evolved into being with one purpose in mind.  They wanted to serve the most evil being around and so they first serve a T-Rex, and then Dracula, and then Napoleon.  All the people that they serve meet disastrous ends because of the minions ineptitude.  After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo the minions hide in a deserted cave where they build a civilization that provides them with everything they could ever want but in the end they are not happy because they have no boss to serve.  The first spiritual insight from the movie is simply is that life would not be worth living without a purpose and meeting are physical needs is not that purpose.  We are called to become greater than we are through service to master.   In our case our master is God and this is Good News because our creator wants what is best for us unlike any of the masters the minions served before Gru.
 
One minion named Kevin decides that he is going to leave the cave and search for a new master for the minions to serve.  He is joined by Stuart (who was accidently volunteered because he was not paying attention) and Bob (who was at first rejected because he was too small and only accepted because no one else volunteered.  Watching the three minions traveled, I kept hearing our multi-parish youth minister saying over and over again “The Catholic life was never meant to be lived alone.”  I am grateful each time she reminds me and the teens of this fact. 
 
The next spiritual insight comes from the fact that they discover that there is literally a bad guy convention taking place in Orlando, Florida while they are in New York City.  The three minions begin to ask for directions to Orlando, FL.  The problem is that they ask all the wrong people.  They ask a baby who cannot talk, a dog that can only bark and a few other inanimate objects.  Sadly there are people in life who keep looking for a direction to travel but they always seem to ask the wrong person.  Without good directions, finding our way can be very hard.  This is why the Church is so important.  She can point us always in the right directions in regards to faith and morals.
 
The three brave minions eventually hook up with Scarlet Overkill and she tests their loyalty by having them steal the Royal Crown off of Queen Elizabeth’s head – pretty big test.  Through a strange series of events though Kevin, Bob, and Stuart do not only get the crown but also Bob becomes King of England.  Pretty much all of this happens by accident but Scarlet sees it as a betrayal despite the fact that the minions try to give her the crown when they see her again.  Sadly, most of the time people hurt us they do so accidently or out of neglect and not out of malice.  Scarlet cannot see this and therefore she holds a grudge which ultimately leads to her demise.  Scarlet learns the hard way that holding a grudge is like drinking a poison yourself and hoping the other person dies. 
 
In the end, I am not sure what to make out of the Minion movie.  I definitely liked Despicable Me and Despicable ME II better.