Review of Mower Minions

. . . will appreciate the effort to which the creators of MOWER MINIONS have gone in creating a sense of verisimilitude between their animated short--which precedes THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS, a cartoon feature--and Real Life. Set mostly at an Old Fogey's out-to-pasture home (in which the inmates seem to be running the asylum), MINIONS is that rare comedy that produced at least as many chuckles among audience members as from the codgers depicted on-screen. (In fact, at our viewing, several Real Life geezers could be heard to say as the walked out that they actually enjoyed MINIONS more than PETS, but I suppose that PETS fans can argue that the geriatric crowd does not provide a valid sounding board, since their attention spans often are shorter than those of toddlers--and maybe not up to the title character of FINDING DORY's low bar). But just as a pop song cannot totally flop if there are cow bells on the track somewhere, you just know that a cartoon has a lot going for it if it includes a garden gnome or two (though a cow bell rock opera would be totally amiss; ditto GNOMEO & JULIET--they both prove that there can be too much of a good thing!).