Minions & Monsters

Thousands of years ago, a different tribe of Minions, from the one that would go on to serve Gru, are on a hunt to serve the world's greatest villains, but in many different ways inadvertently kill their masters. James, more artistic with a passion for painting and drawing, quickly develops a close friendship with two others, Henry, a minion who became best friends with James, and Ed, a deaf minion who became close to them. Among the many masters the Minions serve is a Russian warlock, killed by a monster after Henry summoned it from his spellbook, which Ed then takes along with them.

While fighting amongst each other in the desert, the Minions stumble across a bank robbery, deciding to chase after the robber to become his henchmen. However, it is revealed that the robbery is all staged for a Hollywood film production when breaking the train through the streets out of the set. Though filmmaker Max is furious with the Minions, studio executives Frank and Elwood Bright, heads of Bright Brothers Pictures, are enamored by their antics, so Max hires the Minions to star in his films and soon become a global phenomenon, appearing in several silent films and allowing them to live a life of Hollywood stardom.

When sound film is introduced, the Minions are unable to adapt to the new technology due to their incomprehensible language. Costing the studio millions in failed material, the Minions are fired as their stardom crashed to force the tribe into resting in an abandoned factory. Not wanting to give up on his passion, James comes up with an idea by his sketchbook to make his own movie titled Minions and Monsters where the Minions would fight against giant creatures. The leader of the tribe, Dick, rejects James' idea and leads the rest of the Minions back towards finding a new evil master, but Henry and Ed break away from them to help James make his film a reality. They pitch it to Max, who encourages James to work on the movie, providing him a film camera before Ed, who overheard Max's advice to them about making their movie, gets the idea to use the warlock's old spellbook to summon a squid monster to use. They succeeded, but they are surprised that the monster is much smaller than expected. The monster, Goomi, agrees with James' idea and offers to help him find the perfect monsters for the film.

Meanwhile, Dick and the other Minions decided to work for a futuristic alien robot named Dort, who is determined to invade Earth. Even when Dort's cracks begin to show, Dick believes that he is the one to lead them. While trying to start his conquest for world domination, Dort ends up falling in love with women's rights activist Debbie, enlisting the Minions' help to romantically pursue her. Goomi leads James, Henry, and Ed to a frozen fortress and frees sea monsters Howard and Phillips under the false pretense of using them as stars in James' movie. In reality, he aims to use them to summon Irene (Eyereen), a large orange multi-eyed blob monster, in order to destroy the world. Henry overhears this and tries to alert James, but Howard and Phillips kidnap him, using him as a sacrifice in the 'scene' where Irene will be summoned. Just as shooting begins, Irene breaks out by Goomi and begins wreaking havoc.

While on a date in the park with Debbie, Dort and the other Minions witness Irene chasing Henry through the streets. Dort seemingly flees in panic, forcing some of the Minions to fight Irene themselves. Irene succeeds in swallowing Henry, with James entering her with a milk car to rescue him, while the Minions take over from the military in holding her off and free the boys out of her. At first, they succeed in tearing her apart, but Irene simply reconstructs herself. Just before she consumes them, Dort re-emerges with the other Minions in spacecraft, and they successfully destroy Irene. Henry and James then cast a undo spell to send Goomi, Howard, and Phillips back into where they came from with the spellbook, now freed upon Irene's destruction. The public hails the Minions and Dort as heroes as Ed had captured the entire battle on film, allowing the Minions to complete James' movie that debuted in theaters months later, receiving a standing ovation from the audience.

In a film museum, during this, tour guide Olivia, who told her group the story of James and Henry and how they made a significant impact, finishes her story before revealing that the entire plot, including the tour, a film within a film, directed by James and Henry. In the mid-credits, the spellbook falls in the hands of Gru's Minions and is tested by James, Henry, Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and one of Gru's adoptive daughters, Agnes.