‘Minions’ is a kick for kids

Sidekicks rarely shine when thrust into the spotlight, but what about a few hundred of them?

The Minions, having been the best part of the two previous “Despicable Me” movies, have swarmed the screen in “Minions.” As candidates for center stage, they are seemingly ill-suited. Slavishly - if rarely competently - devoted lackeys, they’re underlings by both definition and verticality.

They don’t speak intel-? ligibly, which, to be fair, isn’t a bar all of Hollywood’s leading men reach. Instead, they talk in a bright babble that belies their fondness for colorful phonetics. “Banana” and “piñata” are their kind of words.

Their unsuitability for the lead role, or just about anything else, is much of the fun of “Minions,” a happy henchmen overload that largely succeeds in its simple mission: More Minions!

Directed by Pierre Coffin (who co-directed “Despicable Me” one and two and voices the Minions) and Kyle Balda, “Minions” begins in fine form. The little yellow ones are already humming the Universal theme as the film begins.

With Geoffrey Rush narrating, we get the Minions’ history. which stretches back across eons and begins with them - a curios early mammal - literally walking out of the sea.

But the evolution stops there. For thousands of years, we see, they’ve been letting down their evil masters, from a Tyrannosaurus Rex accidentally tipped into a volcano, to Dracula, whom they excitedly wake with a birthday cake and wide-open blinds.

The Minions have their own Ice Age, however, ending up leaderless in Antarctica. After a few hundred years, three of them, Kevin, Bob and Stuart, set out to find a new supervillain to idolize.

Soon, they’re on their way to Villain-Con, a riff on Comic-Con only a convention celebrating the likes of the evil Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock). The trio wins a job in Overkill’s entourage and get enmeshed in her plan to take the British throne.

The irreverent slapstick that ensues unfortunately gives way to the kind of action set pieces that have now even corrupted children’s movies. The bombast, though never serious, is still loud enough to, for too long, drown out the best thing the movie has going for it: The chuckles and squeaks of the Minions.

What are the Minions but stand-ins for kids? Mumbling half-understood words by the mouthful, they plunge headlong into any task, usually wielding a dangerous object they shouldn’t.

Coming on the heels of Pixar’s “Inside Out,” an emotional wallop that most knocks out misty-eyed adults, “Minions” is a different beast. This one’s for the kids.