3.5/5 stars

The yellow, gobbledygook-spouting Minions may have lost the battle with Star Wars’ youngling Grogu as the most oversaturated cute film mascot around, but that has not deterred regular director Pierre Coffin from marching on with the series.

After four Despicable Me movies, in which they were introduced as the sidekicks to super-villain Gru, and two scattershot stand-alone adventures, the dungaree-wearing mischief-makers are back for Minions & Monsters, one of the more pleasurable outings in this animated franchise.

A nod to old-school Hollywood, the new film follows James and Henry, two Minions who “changed the world” back in the 1920s. Their global search for a new evil master leads them to Los Angeles.

After the Minions stumble onto the set of the latest opus by diminutive director Max (voiced by Christoph Waltz), it does not take long before they are roped into the film business.

In the silent era, the Minions’ weird dialogue – Coffin once again provides their guttural sounds – hardly matters. But as anyone who has seen Singin’ in the Rain knows, many stars fell by the wayside when the talkies arrived.