The Minions find themselves in 1920s Hollywood, where they decide the best way to make a monster movie is to unleash some real ones. Can they save the world while making the greatest monster movie Hollywood has ever seen?

Minions and Monsters, the seventh film in the Despicable Me / Minions franchise, manages to breathe new life into the series by becoming an affectionate ode to the craft of filmmaking.

The opening sequence, which just happens to be the pinnacle of the film, gives us an extended montage of a travelling Minion tribe as they search for a new evil “big boss”. The sequence takes us through many film genres by way of various archetypal villains and eventually brings us to Hollywood and the filming of a Western that the Minions land in the middle of. It is both incredibly inventive and captures the manic, joyful spirit of these zany, gibberish-speaking yellow creatures.

The film continues to add little homages to classic movies throughout, with the likes of Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr. and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. There are even important supporting characters drawn from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and a science fiction robot that will remind you of some other classics.

All of this, of course, will likely sail way over the heads of the film’s target audience, but do not fear, there are plenty of crazy and manic Minion moments for the kids to enjoy. I just particularly appreciated that those are punctuated with some more adult moments. There is one particular joke about Lego that I think both audiences will enjoy significantly.

Unlike most children’s animations this one mostly eschews the idea of a moral lesson to be learned, other than perhaps that films are an art form to celebrate and that trusting giant monsters is rarely a sensible idea.

Minions and Monsters may lack the emotional depth of the best Pixar or Disney films, but it delivers exactly what a Minions adventure should: infectious energy and inventive visual comedy. What elevates it above many of its predecessors, however, is its genuine love of filmmaking. That affection for cinema gives it an identity of its own and makes it my favourite Minions film to date.