Minions (/ˈmɪnjənz/) are an all-male species of fictional yellow creatures that appear in Illumination's Despicable Me franchise. They are characterized by their childlike behavior and their language, which is largely unintelligible.[a]
The Minions serve as the official mascots for Illumination, and have also been described by The New York Times as "corporate icons" for Comcast in the years since their 2013 purchase of Illumination's parent company NBCUniversal; similar to Mickey Mouse for The Walt Disney Company, Bugs Bunny for Warner Bros., Woody Woodpecker for Universal Pictures, SpongeBob SquarePants for Paramount Global or Mario for Nintendo.
Kevin, Stuart, and Bob are three of the most familiar minions, who appear as stars in the film Minions (2015) and its sequel Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022). Many other Minions are mentioned by name in the films and other media in the franchise. They were created by Eric Guillon, Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud.[2]
The Minions are small, yellow capsule-shaped creatures with round gray goggles. They are depicted as being roughly one-third to one-half the height of humans but they were later revealed to be 3 feet 7 inches (1.1 m) tall. They have one or two eyes, and their irises are almost always brown (except for Bob, who has one green and one brown eye). They have three fingers and toes per hand and foot, respectively. There appears to be no other difference between the two types beyond the number and color of eyes, and their height. They have no discernible noses but seem capable of smelling, as they are shown smelling fruit and are affected by the Fart Gun. They are also shown without ears but can hear and respond to sounds. Most Minions appear either bald or with a few wispy strands of black hair on their heads. After leaving their home country of Switzerland in favor of a new life in America during the late 1960s, their clothing consists of blue overalls emblazoned with Gru's logo, black rubber gloves, shoes, and goggles.
While shown as somewhat absent-minded and having very mischievous streaks, they also possess exceptional engineering abilities, being able to design and construct spaceships and playthings for Gru's adopted daughters, particularly the youngest, Agnes. Minions, the 2015 animated feature film, shows that they have existed since the beginning of life on Earth. Minions are biologically wired to seek out and serve villains - including notable fictional ones such as Count Dracula, and real-life historical figures like Napoleon - and when they have no "boss" to serve, the Minions become depressed and listless.[3] They are also shown to have a degree of invulnerability, as Kevin, Stuart and Bob are able to survive a European torture chamber without any injuries, even playing with the torture devices, and to survive being hit by dropped heavy objects. In the 2010 short film "Banana", the Minions are revealed to have an almost uncontrollable craving for fruit, especially bananas.
The Minions speak in a fictional polyglot language, called Minionese, which is partly derived from other languages, including French, English, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Spanish, and German.[4][5][6] Although seemingly nonsensical, the English-sounding dialogue is dubbed differently for every country, in order to make the sounds somewhat recognizable.[7] They have common English-language names, such as Dave (one of the first known minions in the franchise), Kevin, Stuart, Bob (the lead trio in Minions and Minions: The Rise of Gru), Mel (the leader of the Minions in Despicable Me 3 after Gru refuses their request of him returning to being a supervillain), and Otto (the fourth lead Minion in Minions: The Rise of Gru).[8][9]
Since the release of the Despicable Me films, the Minions' popularity has been rising. The Minions have been regularly featured in cross-promotions for other Comcast/NBCUniversal properties, including Universal theme parks, NBC primetime TV series and an Xfinity remote control.[10]
The Minions appeared in three episodes of Family Guy. In "Inside Family Guy", which aired on October 23, 2016, Peter Griffin gets to take part in his true passion of weaving sexually explicit tapestries featuring the Minions. In "Peter's Lost Youth", which aired on March 26, 2017, to look like a big spender while on a baseball fantasy camp weekend with Lois Griffin, Peter offers to loan her his Minions Discover card. In "Bri, Robot" which aired on February 10, 2019, Peter gives Brian Griffin a DVD copy of Minions 3 for his birthday, in which Gru has been replaced by Harvey Weinstein. This cuts to Harvey facing a Minion. Peter also asks for a Minions cake for his birthday but insists that it come from the store.
In 2015, the village of Minions, Cornwall in the United Kingdom built a road sign paid for by Universal Studios featuring Minions. In October of that year, they removed it due to safety concerns that resulted from people stopping their cars to take photos although villagers have campaigned to get the sign put back up in another location.[12][13]
On April Fool's Day 2016, Google created a button on its Gmail service that sent a "mic drop" along with a GIF image of a Minion.[14][15] However, the feature received backlash in which many people complained about accidentally sending the image during job searches which resulted in some people being dropped from job consideration or being fired. Google removed the feature not long after, citing those reasons as well as a bug that caused the image to be sent after hitting the regular send button.[16][17]
The Minions appeared in an advertisement for the Cinemark theater chain, in which several Minions try to change a lamp while another Minion mocks them. The mocking Minion drops the replacement lamp during one of his laughing fits so the others stick him in the socket so that his eye can serve as the lamp. The ad promoted the chain's claim that they had the brightest 3D projection system of any theater chain. At first, the clip played before showings of Despicable Me 2 (2013), but Cinemark uses the ad freely before any 3D film.
In Brazil, Minions were used as a reference to nickname the most devoted followers of politician Jair Bolsonaro, called by supporters of the left, in an ironic and offensive tone, "bolsominions". In an April 2016 "Extra" website article,[19] journalist Felipe Pena compared Bolsonaro fans to Minions, saying that "they follow the leader, whom they call myth, and vent narcissistic repression by attacking the differences of groups they elect as rivals." Since then, the term has been widely used by the population in Brazilian and international media, across multiple languages, appearing in BBC,[20] The Guardian,[21] and Open Democracy[22] articles.
Minions is a 2015 American animated comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is a prequel to Despicable Me (2010) and the third installment overall in the film series of the same name. Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy, and written by Brian Lynch, Minions stars the voices of Coffin as the Minions (including Kevin, Stuart, and Bob), Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan, Jennifer Saunders, and Geoffrey Rush as the narrator. In the film, the Minions search for their replaceable evil master after accidentally killing all of those in history.
Minions debuted in London on June 11, 2015, and was released in the United States on July 10. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the animation, voice acting, and score, but criticized the character development and humor, which some called unfunny and inappropriate. The film grossed $1.159 billion worldwide, and became the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2015, the tenth-highest-grossing film of all time and the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time at its peak. It also became the highest-grossing film produced by Illumination until it was surpassed by The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023. A sequel, Minions: The Rise of Gru, was released in 2022 to similar success.
Minions are small, yellow pill-shaped creatures which have existed since the beginning of time, evolving from single-celled organisms into beings which exist only to serve history's most evil masters, but they accidentally end up killing all their masters: rolling a Tyrannosaurus into a volcano, letting a caveman get mauled by a bear, crushing a Pharaoh and his subjects with a pyramid, and exposing Count Dracula to sunlight. They are driven into isolation after firing a cannon at Napoleon while in Russia and start a new life inside a cave, but after many years, the Minions become sad and unmotivated without a master to serve. This prompts three Minions; named Kevin, Stuart and Bob, to go out on a quest to find a new master for their brethren to follow.
The three journey in 1968 to New York City and stay at a department store for the night, where they come across a hidden commercial broadcast advertising Villain-Con, an Orlando convention for all villains. The next day, they hitchhike a ride with the Nelsons, a family of thieves. At the convention, they meet Scarlet Overkill, the world's first female supervillain, who unexpectedly hires them and takes them to her home in London. They phone the rest of the Minions to get them to join. Scarlet plans to steal the Imperial State Crown from Queen Elizabeth II, promising to reward the Minions if they succeed, but also threatening to kill them if they fail.
Scarlet's husband Herb supplies them with inventions to aid in the heist, but they are nearly caught while breaking into the Tower of London. During the subsequent chase, Bob runs into the Sword in the Stone and pulls the sword free to defend himself and his friends, removing the Queen from the throne and making Bob the new King. Enraged that someone else accomplished her dream of stealing the throne, Scarlet confronts Bob, who voluntarily abdicates the throne in her favor. Undeterred, Scarlet imprisons Kevin, Stuart and Bob in a dungeon, where Herb attempts to torture the trio, but they escape with the intention to apologize to Scarlet at her coronation.
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