Vector: Mooned

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source: Vector: Mooned

"Vector" clad simply in a spacesuit and with a polythene goldfish bowl for an helmet finds himself stranded on the moon. Luckily, he has loads of gadgets at his disposal but he's so inept that most of the time he just flails about as if he were in a Laurel & Hardy movie. It's then that he encounters a bespectacled and friendly "Minion" but in typical human fashion becomes immediately hostile refusing to co-operate with his potential yellow ally. What now ensues is a rather characterless animation that reminded me a little of those over-narrated 1950s Disney cartoons with a scientific aspect to them. Let's learn about gravity, or aerodynamics, or rocketry - or, maybe just: let's learn about collaboration and not making snap judgements. There's quite a fun guest appearance at the end from a visitor from even further away, and it's an easy enough nine minutes of Illumination artistry to watch - just nothing to write home about.

'Mooned (2023)' is the latest 'Despicable Me'/'Minions' short from Illumination. It plays in front of 'Migration (2023)', one of the studio's few non-Minion-starring features, and its inclusion forces you to endure those increasingly inescapable, annoying little yellow grubs even though you quite literally did not sign up for any of their nonsense. I saw the piece in 4DX, a so-called 'special format' that 'enhances' the cinematic experience by shaking the seats and jabbing you in the back and spraying you with water and blasting you with wind and pumping strange smells into the auditorium, which definitely made it far more uncomfortable than it otherwise would have been. After all, the bulk of the narrative involves Vector getting violently injured by his own ineptitude; let's just say that the 4DX programing ensures we can empathise with him a little bit too much. There's very little to comment on if you divorce the film from the format in which I viewed it, as it's a generic and mostly humorless effort that doesn't have any real charm to it. It's not terrible, but it's just entirely uninspiring. It doesn't help that every character we see is annoying in one form or another. It's fine, I guess, but certainly nothing more.

After what happened in the first installment of the Despicable Me franchise, no one was wondering what happened to Vector in the end. This short film answers that question by bringing Vector back, but stranded on the moon. The short film focuses on Vector's efforts to return to planet Earth, but he is not alone. The short film is quite entertaining with funny moments. It maintains the humor of the other installments of the franchise and its 9 minutes are guaranteed fun. Mooned is another installment of the Despicable Me franchise that doesn't fail to offer a fun time. My final rating for this short film is an 8/10.

"Mooned" is an animated short film from 2023 that run for slightly under 10 minutes and if you have seen it in 2023 or early 2024, then it was probably on the occasion of an introduction to the duck-themed "Migration". I think there is no other (legal) way to see it this early. If you read the name Pierre Coffin for voice-acting and writing here, then you maybe know directly that this is another Minions-themed short from the Despicable Me universe, even if Gru is not included this time. But before I get to the plot, let me say that the director here is Jonathan del Val, who has worked as an animator an many really popular films over the years and as a co-director also on the Minions sequel and the Secret Life of Pets sequel. As an animator he has been part of the Despicable me franchise from the very start, so he brings more experience you can say than the directors of these short films usually do where those films are supposed to be a potential stepping stone on the road to directing a full feature film if the outcome is liked by many. Del Val has done so already, even if was co-directing both times. But here he is in charge himself. Unfortunately, I was more underwhelmed this time. Despite del Val's experience. Maybe it has to do with the character of Vector (voiced by Jason Segel), who does not do too much for me. At least not in this film here. I wonder, however, if his name is intentionally a bit close to Hannibal Lecter as Vector is an antagonist as well. The latter ends up on the moon this time ad his big quest is of course how he can return to Earth. It was alright to watch how he explores gravity and the moment he collides with the Minion was pretty funny. All about slow-motion there or actually the speed they showed us is just what it is like on the moon. The collision was maybe the funniest moment of the film. Not too many to choose from. Of course, you should not question realism here how there is actually a Minion at the same time on the moon and later on there's even more. The idea that Vector just had too much power and energy on one occasion and ends up on Mars was a bit predictable. At least I saw it coming before we see the red rock. More mediocre comedy follows before the film ends and the only somewhat memorable thing there was the inclusion of a Martian Minion. That was pretty cool there, not gonna lie. I hope it can be included in some for in the next movies from the franchise, maybe even already the upcoming Despicable Me sequel. I would not bet on it though. This film here ends on a high note thanks to a good song selection and Perry Como's "Papa Loves Mambo" is without a doubt a song as cool as it gets. So is the singer. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about this short film we have here and the Minions short films are really past peak now. Plus, Vector is simply not 20% as interesting as Gru. So overall I think the best idea is maybe to skip the watch here and I would say the rating on imdb is still too high, even if it is not super high. Better watch one of the older full feature films maybe instead of "Mooned" if you wanna get in the moon err.. I mean mood for "Despicable Me 4". Animation is good as always with Illumination, but it is a thumbs-down from me.