Featuring Score by Emmy® Award-winning Composer JOHN POWELL
Illumination's MINIONS & MONSTERS arrives in theaters nationwide today
LOS ANGELES, CA – June 25, 2026 – Back Lot Music announces the release of Illumination’s MINIONS & MONSTERS Original Motion Picture Soundtrack with music by Academy Award® nominated, Grammy® nominated, and Emmy® Award-winning composer John Powell. The soundtrack is available to pre-order on Vinyl & CD from Music on Vinyl and to stream everywhere on all digital streaming platforms now!
For Minions & Monsters, music gives the film much of its scale and emotional force. Set against the backdrop of 1920s Hollywood and the industry’s transition from silent films to sound, the score needed to capture the sweep of classic moviemaking while remaining closely rooted in the Minions’ point of view. To create that sound, the filmmakers turned to two-time Oscar® nominated composer John Powell, whose long collaboration with Illumination made him a natural choice for a score shaped by big emotion, bold comedy and a love of classic cinema.
Because the Minions express themselves in a language all their own, Powell scored the film from their point of view, using the music to guide the audience through their feelings from moment to moment. “Whatever they were feeling was the most important point of view,” Powell says. “If they were joyful, even if we knew the story was not going well for them, it was better to pursue their feelings rather than what the audience already knew.”
To capture the sound of classic Hollywood at full scale, Powell assembled a large, mostly acoustic musical ensemble. The score features 150 instrumentalists, including an 83-piece string section, a 28-piece brass section, 19 woodwind and saxophone players, percussion, harp, piano, celeste, harpsichord, banjos, balalaikas, bouzoukis and harmonica, as well as a 65-voice choir. Recorded on the former MGM scoring stage, the music brings the sweep of classic cinema into the Minions’ world with warmth, scale and immediacy. “Normally music has to be a bit more subservient,” Powell says. “But in this one, I really wanted it to speak its own language.”
ABOUT JOHN POWELL
A native of East Sussex, John Powell began his career writing music for commercials and assisting composer Patrick Doyle before moving to the U.S., where he was mentored by Hans Zimmer and worked alongside Stephen Schwartz on the songs for The Prince of Egypt. His first film was John Woo’s Face/Off, followed by Endurance, Antz, Chicken Run, and Shrek with Harry Gregson-Williams.
Powell was catapulted into the realm of A-list composers by displaying an entirely original voice with his oft-referenced scores to the first installment of Bourne trilogy, The Bourne Identity, and went on to score a host of acclaimed animated films. He has written more music for animation than any other modern composer including Robots, Rio 1 & 2, Happy Feet 1 & 2, Bolt, The Lorax, Ferdinand, Thelma the Unicorn, That Christmas, and three of the Ice Age films. He scored the animated How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, which earned him his first Academy Award nomination.
Powell’s other credits include Hancock, Green Zone, Stop Loss, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Italian Job, Two Weeks Notice, P.S. I Love You, Drumline, Rat Race, X-Men: The Last Stand, United 93, Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Call of the Wild, Don’t Worry Darling, and the live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon.
In 2023, he won his first Emmy for STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie, and in 2024, received an Oscar nomination for co-scoring Wicked. His most recent Hollywood release is the highly popular Wicked: For Good.
ABOUT ILLUMINATION’S MINIONS & MONSTERS
Fresh off the worldwide blockbuster success of summer 2024’s funniest comedy, Despicable Me 4, Illumination expands its joyful animated universe with a riotous new chapter, featuring all-new characters, in the biggest global animated franchise in history: Minions & Monsters.
This is the rambunctious, ridiculous and totally true story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, unleashed monsters onto the world and then banded together to try to save the planet from the mayhem they had just created.
Minions & Monsters is directed by Academy Award® nominee Pierre Coffin, a director of the first three Despicable Me films and the first Minions film. Coffin has also provided the voice for the Minions since their film debut in 2010. The film is written by Brian Lynch (Minions, The Secret Life of Pets films) and Pierre Coffin and is produced by Illumination’s Academy Award® nominated founder and CEO Chris Meledandri, p.g.a. and by Bill Ryan, p.g.a. (executive producer, The Super Mario Bros. Movie). The executive producers are Brian Lynch and two-time Academy Award® nominee Chris Renaud (Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets).
The film features an all-star voice cast including five-time Emmy winner and Oscar® nominee Trey Parker (co-creator, South Park; South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut), Academy Award® winner Allison Janney (I, Tonya, The Help), two-time Academy Award® winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained), two-time Academy Award® nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, A Real Pain), Academy Award® winner Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart, The Big Lebowski), Zoey Deutch (Set It Up, Juror #2), Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live, The Secret Life of Pets) and Phil LaMarr (Samurai Jack, Pulp Fiction).
The film is edited by Gregory Perler, ace (Despicable Me 2, Sing) and co-directed by Patrick DeLage (Despicable Me 4; lead animator on Despicable Me). The co-producer is Jean-Luc Florinda (production manager on Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2) and the music is by two-time Academy Award® nominee John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon, Wicked).
More than ten years after their creation, the Minions have become the most iconic animated characters of their generation. Globally recognized and beloved by fans of all ages, they have propelled Illumination’s Despicable Me and Minions to a global box office of more than $5.6 billion.
Listen to and Pre-order the Soundtrack Here: https://backlotmusic.ffm.to/minionsandmonsters
SOUNDTRACK ALBUM TRACKLISTING:
- 1. The Beginnings of the Mooovies
2. To the Land of the Cyclop
3. James & Henry
4. A Wizard and The Bunny
5. Big Boss Montage
6. Cowboys, Cops and Cahuenga
7. A Train Through Hollywood
8. Silent Movies
9. As Minions Go By
10. Limos, Soundstages and Vikings
11. Radio Newsreel
12. James In Action
13. Shooting with Sound
14. You’ll Never Get an Oscar!
15. Creative Differences
16. Cameras and Robot Suits
17. Goomie and Dort’s Apartment
18. Filet Minions
19. Dort Meets Debbie
20. The Island of Howard & Phillips
21. Everyone Goes On A Date
22. Sneaking onto the Lot
23. Building James’ Movie Set
24. The Ecstasy of Eyereen
25. A Big Orange Blob Eats Hollywood
26. Keep A Eye Out for the Counterattack
27. We Have Minions!
28. Undos and Premières
29. Hooray for Hollywood
30. This Probably Won’t Make Much Sense Without the Picture?
31. Bananaria: What to Eat?
For more information on Back Lot Music:
Nikki Walsh, Back Lot Music
(818) 777-9151 | Nikki.Walsh@nbcuni.com