《小黄人》：坏蛋老板的捣乱专家

Review: Positions Wanted by Minions Experienced at Serving Evildoers
《小黄人》：坏蛋老板的捣乱专家

It’s fitting that the little yellow critters scampering through “Minions” look as identical as genetically modified corn kernels, save for a googly eyeball or two. Franchises operate on an axis of sameness and difference, so it’s amusing that one incorporates that truism into its actual character design. And while “Minions” explores nominally new narrative ground, it folds neatly into a series that now includes two features (“Despicable Me” and “Despicable Me 2”), various shorts, books, video games, sheet music and a theme park attraction. So, you know, different but also the same.

《小黄人》(Minions)里的小黄人们乍看上去长得和转基因的玉米粒一模一样，只是多了一对（或一只）谷歌式的眼睛，这种设定还挺合适的。商业大片的核心无不大同小异，所以看到一部影片把这个不证自明的真理融入自己的角色设计，还是挺有意思。《小黄人》在名义上探索了新的叙事领域，巧妙地嵌入了《神偷奶爸》(Despicable Me) 系列，这个系列包括两部《神偷奶爸》影片，以及各种短片、书籍、电脑游戏、主题配乐和一个主题公园。所以你看，一切的确是大同小异。

The armed Scarlet Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock), who encounters, from left, Stuart, Kevin and Bob in “Minions.”
《小黄人》里，全副武装的斯嘉丽・杀人狂（由桑德拉・布洛克配音）遇到斯图尔特、凯文和鲍勃（左起）。

That similarity extends to the story, which finds the minions ― who, as their names and coloring suggest, usually play second banana ― now getting their own origin story and a shot at being the stars of the show, like their franchise brethren Batman and Spider-Man. The good news is that the minions are more (unconsciously, if perhaps also strategically) in touch with their anarchic side than the typical onesie-wearing crusader, which suits the directors Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda’s well-tuned sense of the absurd. That’s never more delightfully expressed than in the opener, in which the minions swarm and bumble across the ages from one poorly served villainous boss to the next.

就连故事情节也有相同之处，小黄人们通常充当助手的角色，在这部影片中，有了它们自己的故事，成了主角和明星，就像它们的商业大片兄弟蝙蝠侠与蜘蛛侠。好消息是，这些小黄人有无法无天的一面（可能是无意的，也可能是战略性的），不是那种身穿连体服的典型圣战者，这无疑更适合导演皮埃尔・柯芬(Pierre Coffin)和凯尔・巴尔达(Kyle Balda)那种良好的荒诞感。尤其影片开头更是欢乐地呈现出这种荒诞，小黄人们簇拥着，蹒跚地穿越不同时代，从一个倒霉的坏蛋老板身边来到另一个坏蛋老板身边。

Soon enough, though, the minions end up unhappy together in a cave because, as the narrator (Geoffrey Rush) explains, “without a master they had no purpose.” Marxists and parents may raise some bushy eyebrows in protest, but the movie’s ideological underpinning and its master-slave dynamic are so self-consciously incoherent that outrage feels beside the point (or just pointless). The minions may live to slave for a master, but they often, as their initial efforts at servitude illustrate, do so badly. Like Charlie Chaplin’s assembly line worker in “Modern Times,” who’s swept up in the well-oiled gears of capitalism, the minions keep mucking up the machinery with their labor.

不过，很快，小黄人们就闷闷不乐地聚集在一个洞穴里面，画外音（杰弗里・拉什[Geoffrey Rush]）解释说，这是因为，“没有主人，他们也没有了目的性。”马克思主义者和父母们可能会扬起眉毛表示抗议，但这部影片故意把它的意识形态基础与主仆关系弄得乱七八糟，义愤填膺显得完全不得要领，而且也根本就没有意义。小黄人们天生就是要给主人当奴隶的，但他们经常干得很糟糕，和最初受奴役的时候没什么两样。查理・卓别林(Charlie Chaplin)在《摩登时代》(Modern TImes)里饰演的流水线工人被淹没在上着机油的资本主义零件里，而小黄人们则是随时努力把面前的机器弄脏。

Well, actually, three stooging minions ― Kevin, Stuart and Bob ― bravely go searching for new employment, a pursuit that resembles an all-too-familiar story about the instability of the contemporary labor market. Yes, yes, but what about the jokes? They’re plentiful and often ticklish, visual as well as verbal, though the comedy winds down once a story and other characters begin to intrude. The usual guest stars voice villains who come and go, including a heavily armed family that gives the minions a ride to a Comic-Con-like convention for baddies that, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, again proves that it’s never too early to flatter your audience.

好了，实际上，三个滑稽的小黄人――凯文(Kevin)、斯图尔特(Stuart)和鲍勃――勇敢地去找新工作，于是引出了一个人们耳熟能详的、关乎当代劳动市场不稳定性的故事。是的，是的，但是那些笑话又怎么样呢？片中有很多笑话，通常辛辣、生动而又口语化。不过喜剧还是繁衍成了故事，其他角色陆续登场了。片中照例有很多明星客座配音，他们配的各种恶棍来了又去，其中有一个全副武装的家庭，带着小黄人们来到一个类似漫画展的“坏人大会”上，接着就是各种挑逗观众的花样，再次证明讨好观众永远不嫌太早。