Development
The initial concept for Despicable Me was conceived by Sergio Pablos. He had worked as a supervising animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios but returned to Spain to start his own company. Pablos pitched the idea for Evil Me to American film producer Chris Meledandri, who was launching Illumination Entertainment.[2] The Minions were not initially in the script of Despicable Me, but during the development, the directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, character designer Eric Guillon and Meledandri conceived the Minions to provide comic relief and to help audiences sympathise with Gru, the film's protagonist.[3] Coffin and Renaud were influenced by similar characters, such as the Oompa-Loompas from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Jawas in Star Wars, realising that the Minions' short stature made them appealing.[4] Coffin explained that their design morphed from unlikeable, muscular thugs working for Gru to "subterranean mole men-type creatures" wearing goggles and overalls.[5] They were initially designed as human factory workers with a short stature to contrast with Gru's height. This idea evolved into robots to make them more innocent, before the team decided to settle on a robot-human synthesis. Their final design was simplified to create a more child-like form.[6] The studio's limited budget and technology helped to give character to the Minions. Coffin explained: "Just with a ball, you can animate it so that it feels sad or angry, and the Minions had that simplicity graphically".[7] He likened the Minions' animation to a silent film, having been influenced by Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, as the characters need to convey story, emotion and humor largely without words.
For Despicable Me 2, co-writers Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul purposefully added more Minions and gave them more screen time due to the positive reaction of audiences.[8] The creative team discussed the idea of giving the Minions superpowers, but instead chose to create mutated, evil purple Minions. Renaud said that Looney Tunes was an inspiration for the evil Minions, citing a cartoon where Tweety Bird drinks a formula that transforms him into a hairy monster. Producer Janet Healy considered the purple Minions to be the ideal antithesis for their cute yellow counterparts, being on the opposite side of the color spectrum and being hairy rather than bald.[9]
Coffin knew that the Minions were valuable characters, but admitted that the team were concerned about whether they could carry their own spin-off film. They were convinced to proceed when screenwriter Brian Lynch pitched the plot for a prequel.[10] The plot of Minions was driven by audience demand for the characters. Meledandri said that the creative team started with the commonly asked question of the Minions' origin: "Where did the Minions come from, and what was their life like before Gru?". They realised from the outset that creating a film around characters that do not speak a comprehensible language would be challenging.[11] During the development of Minions the creative team focused on creating moments of emotional slapstick, drawing from films by Chaplin, particularly The Great Dictator (1940). They also took inspiration from the films of David Lean, such as Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962), with the intention of creating epic scenes that emphasise the small size of the characters.[12] The team realised that they needed to shape the Minions as individual characters, thus Kevin was designed as a "big brotherly character", Stuart as an "impertinent, lazy teenager", and Bob as an "innocent kid", but all were defined by their idiocy.[13] Balda said that the main challenge was to retain the Minions' collective characteristics but also draw out their individual personalities.
In Despicable Me 3, the design of the Minion named Mel, who leads a revolt against Gru, was based on Meledandri. Co-director Eric Guillon said that, having previously drawn him on a birthday card as a Minion, he took the same design and used it for Mel.[16] Many ideas for the Minions' storylines originate from Coffin. Director Kyle Balda explained how Coffin's love of musical theatre helped to introduce some concepts for the third film involving the Minions getting into trouble and appearing on a talent show.[17]
The creative team approached Despicable Me 4 with the Minions being agents of the Anti-Villain League, but they decided that it was not enough.[18] The superhero idea had persisted from the previous films, so the fourth film introduced the Mega Minions, a group of five Minions named Jerry, Dave, Tim, Mel and Gus, with abilities similar to the Fantastic Four. Renaud said that they wanted to give the Minions some distinction from other superheroes but this was realised in the Minions' comedic nature by their incompetency in using their powers.[19] Due to the limited screen time, the team of Minions were given simple powers: Dave has super strength, Jerry transforms into a rock, Tim has super stretch abilities, Mel creates a heat ray and Gus has the ability to fly. Renaud said that their powers were drawn from their appearances.[18] The role of the Mega Minions was ultimately reduced to avoid the film being too similar to a Marvel film.[20]
Animation
Art director Pierre Leduc said that animating the Minions was challenging because they have no eyebrows, which typically help to show a character's emotions. The animators solved this by using body language to express the Minions' feelings. Due to their limited body shape, such as their short arms, the animation team had to find ways to help them move. The animators were encouraged to think of ideas to make the Minions more comical. During development, they mimed or filmed themselves but their movements had to be made less realistic to fit the movement of the characters. Leduc cited Chuck Jones cartoons as one of the animation team's influences. He said that the animation was done by hand, with the animation team using tools in Maya software, including a pose library and a library of crowd movements, such as walking, running and cheering.[21] For Minions, Leduc said they needed to make the three main Minions understandable without words, so they illustrated their emotions in their movements, thus Bob moves with the body language of a child. This ensured that the audience could differentiate between the Minion characters.[22]
Voice actors
During the development of the first film, Coffin provided the characters' dialogue temporarily until a voice actor could be cast, but after test audiences responded positively to his vocals, he continued to voice the Minions through to Despicable Me 4.[3] The Minions were voiced by Coffin, Renaud, and Jemaine Clement. Coffin voiced Tim, Bob, Mark, Phil, and Stuart,[23] Renaud voiced Dave,[24] and Clement voiced Jerry.[25] Coffin and Renaud later reprised their roles in Despicable Me 2,[26][27] while Coffin assumed sole duties in Minions (2015),[28]
