Minions & Monsters (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album for the 2026 film of the same name, directed by Pierre Coffin and produced by Illumination. The score was composed by John Powell, marking his third collaboration with Illumination following The Lorax (2012) and Migration (2023), and is the first installment in the Despicable Me franchise to not be composed by recurring composer Heitor Pereira. The soundtrack was released on July 1, 2026, by Back Lot Music.
Contents
Background
John Powell was confirmed to score Minions & Monsters on April 17, 2026, marking his third collaboration with Illumination following The Lorax (2012) and Migration (2023), and the first installment in the Despicable Me franchise not to be scored by recurring composer Heitor Pereira.
In an interview with Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter, Powell stated that of the pivotal minute, it is "a very dangerous moment," and that "it can go so horribly wrong." Director Pierre Coffin had reached out to Powell, to which he stated during the interview: "I said to him, 'OK, it's probably time you come and listen to some things.' And that moment is the difference between talking about music and then listening to music." He recalled the scoring as "Overly emotional, overwrought, overplayed, overwritten. Just over. Everything was over. It helps elicits laughs [but] would be very dangerous if I was doing a serious film."
The recording of the film score consisted of 80 musicians, with around 30 violinists along with 25 brass players in extra, and a 60-member vocal choir performing the score during the three-week timeframe. As most of the music sessions in film scoring, moved out of America owing to tax credits and other economic factors, Powell noted that the score would be recorded in Los Angeles as he felt talented musicians can be found in one place, and eventually thanked all the musicians during the last day of recording as a mark of gratitude.
The score for Minions & Monsters was recorded at the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, and at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.
Release
Minions & Monsters (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was released through Back Lot Music on July 1, 2026, the same day as the film's release. The album would be also released in double LP through Music on Vinyl.
Reception
Zanobard Reviews rated 7.5 out of 10 and wrote "John Powell's Minions & Monsters is a loving and meticulously-crafted musical tribute to the Golden Age Of Hollywood, with apt thematic chaos for the Minions and a thousand seamless transitions between utterly gorgeous orchestral and vocal styles making it so worth a listen." Jason Pirodsky of The Prague Reporter wrote "John Powell's score gives the proceedings an added propulsion, while the animation repeatedly finds inventive ways to stage silent-era pastiche alongside modern blockbuster spectacle". Barry Levitt of Time described it "a great original score from John Powell".
Personnel
Credits adapted from Film Music Reporter:
Music composer and producer: John Powell
Music editor: Bill Bernstein
Additional music and arrangements: Batu Sener, Markus Siegel, Alec Lubin, and Paul Mounsey
Supervising orchestrators: Jonathan Beard, Edward Trybek, and Henri Wilkinson
Additional orchestrators: Benjamin Hoff, Sean Barrett, and Jamie Thierman
Orchestra conductor: Anthony Parnther
Additional orchestra conductor: Vincent Oppido
Choir conductor: John Powell
Concertmaster: Bruce Dukov
Recording engineer: Shawn Murphy
Mixing engineer: John Michael Caldwell
Mix assistant: Laura Agudelo Cuartas
Score editor: David Channing
Choir contractor: Holly Sedillos
Orchestra contractors: Gina Zimmitti and Whitney Martin
Score recordist: Erik Swanson
Additional score recordist: Chandler Harrod
Music preparation: Jordan Cox, James Regan, Brad Ritchie, David Neville, Aidan Davis, Kelly Picton, Owen Grey, Connor Low, and Megan Lewandowski
Score instrumentalists
Violins: Adam Millstein, Aiko Jimena Richter, Alyssa Park, Ana Landauer, Beau Henson, Ben Jacobson, Camille Miller, Carrie Kennedy, Charlie Bisharat, Cherly Norman-Brick, Dennis Kim, Gallia Kastner, Grace Oh, Heather Powell, Ina Veli, Irina Voloshina, Jennifer Choi Fischer, Jessica Guideri, Joel Pargman, Josefina Vergara, Kevin Kumar, Kyle Gilner, Luanne Homzy, Lucia Micarelli, Mala Jasper White, Marisa Kuney, Mark Robertson, Maya Magub, Michael Siess, Misha Vayman, Mona Tian, Natalie Leggett, Neel Hammond, Nina Evtuhov, Roger Wilkie, Sandy Cameron, Sarah Thornblade, Shalini Vijayan, Songa Lee, Tamara Hatwan, Tereza Stanislav
Violas: Alma Fernandez, Andrew Duckles, Carson Rick, Cassandra Lynne Richburg, Colleen Sugata, David Walther, Erik Rynearson, Evan Antes, Jonah Sirota, Jonathan Moerschel, Linnea Powell, Luke Maurer, Matthew Funes, Meredith Crawford, Robert Brophy, Shawn Mann, Stefan Smith
Cellos: Allan Hon, Benjamin Lash, Caleb Vaughn-Jones, Cameron Stone, Charles Tyler, Christopher Ahn, Dennis Karmazyn, Eric Byers, Giovanna Clayton, Hillary Smith, Ismael Guerrero Bombut, Jacob Braun, Leah Hansen, Mia Barcia Colombo, Niall Taro Ferguson, Ross Gasworth, Vanessa Freebairn-Smith
Basses: Christian Kollgaard, Ed Meares, Geoffrey Osika, Marlon Martinez, Michael Valerio, Nathan Farrington, Oscar Hidalgo, Stephen Dress
Flutes: Amy Tatum, Ben Smolen, Jenni Olson, Johanna Borenstein
Oboes: Jennifer Cullinan, Jessica Pearlman, Lara Wickes, Lelie Resnick
Clarinets: Jonathan Sacdalan, and Sierra Allen
Bassoons: Alex Rosales Garcia, Andrew Brady, Jonathan Stehney, Rose Corrigan, William May
Saxophones: Chad Smith, Jacob Scesney, Pat Posey, and Rusty Higgins
Harps: Koni Choi, Marcia Dickenstein
Score vocalists
Sopranos: Allie Feder, Alina Roitstein, Anna Crumley, Anna Schubert, Andrea Zomorodian, Beth Peregrine, Claire Seely Fedoruk, Courtney Taylor, Devon Davidson, Diane Freiman Reynolds, Elissa Johnston, Graycen Gardner, Holly Sedillos, Kathryn Shuman, Kelci Hahn, Malia Vaught, Natalie Babbit, Nayanna Holley, Suzanne Waters, Taylor Chloé
Solo soprano: Holly Sedillos
Altos: Ann Marie Sheridan, Anna Crumley, Ayo Awosika, Callista Hoffman-Campbell, Carrah Stamatakis, Danielle Withers-Clark, Edie Lehmann Boddicker, Elyse Willis, Emily Goglia, Jessica Rotter Murphy, Kimberly Switzer, Laura Flores Jackman, Lindsay Patterson Abdou, Natalie Gonzales Dubois, Sara Mann Baraka May, Sarah Lynch, Shabnam Kalbasi, Sharon Chohi Kim, Valerie Tambaoan
Basses: Abdiel Gonzalez, Adrien Redford, Alvin Chea, Anthony Panther, David A. Castillo, David Michael Loucks, Gregory Fletcher, James Hayden, Jamal Moore, Luc Kleiner, Reid Bruton, Scott T. Graff, William Kenneth Goldman
Tenors: Adam Faruqi, Charlie Kim, Charles Lane, Chris Mann, Dermont Kiernan, Edmond Rodriguez, Fletcher Sheridan, Greg Whipple, Jasper Randall, JJ Lopez, Michael Jones, Michael Lichtenauer, R. Matthew Brown, Todd Strange