Yellow fever
The Minions are back – and this time they’re wreaking havoc in Hollywood’s silent movie era
Courtesy of Universal/Getty
- Patrick Cremona
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Since 2010, few characters have been as ubiquitous in cinemas, toy shops and on T-shirts as the goggle-eyed animated Minions – so it’s hard to imagine that the comic creatures were originally planned to look completely different.
In fact, when Spanish animator Sergio Pablos first brought the concept to Illumination Studios, they were imagined as much more human. Specifically, they were miniature people representing various types of villain – one a mobster, another a crusader and so on. So, what changed?
These early Minion iterations were deemed to look too much like extraterrestrials. Courtesy of Universal/Getty
“It felt wrong – and, frankly, we didn’t have enough money to build all these designs,” says Despicable Me director (and long-time voice of the Minions) Pierre Coffin. So, after various redesigns, the more familiar yellow blobs were born. Since then, the Minions have featured in four Despicable Me films and two Minions spin-offs. For their latest, Minions & Monsters, they’re heading back to the 1920s for a movie that draws heavily from the silent era.
“All animators have at some point studied or been through the works of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton,” Coffin explains. “Just to see why it was funny and to try to mimic it. It’s part of the learning process of animation.”
This Minion prototype was considered too humanoid – although his dungarees got the green light. Courtesy of Universal/Getty
And the pratfalling Minions were a perfect fit for that time. “They’re basically mute, because you don’t understand their language,” says Coffin. “Anything that’s funny about them is linked to physical comedy, which stems from that period.”
Other film genres parodied include film noir and Japanese kaiju movies, while Coffin says the film that inspired them the most was Singin’ in the Rain. One present-day scene even includes a cameo from Star Wars maestro George Lucas, voicing himself as a caged museum exhibit.
The earliest version of the Minions saw them depicted as archetypal. Courtesy of Universal/Getty
“I’m old enough to have seen the first Star Wars when it came out,” Coffin recalls. “It sparked something in me to become a film-maker. So I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we had George Lucas?’ And then the producer said, ‘I know his wife!’” A few weeks later, the legendary film-maker was recording his lines in a sound studio in Paris – now forever a part of Minions history.
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Minions & Monsters is in cinemas now
Authors
Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
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