Minions (Despicable Me)
| Minions | |
|---|---|
| Despicable Me race | |
| File:Minions image.jpg (Left to right) Stuart, Kevin, and Bob (also known as "King Bob" during his reign: more of 8 hours as the King of England) the Minions seen in the film Minions | |
| In-universe information | |
| Base of operations | Gru's base |
| Language | Minionese |
| Leader | Gru |
Minions are the numerous, fictional creatures that appear in the Despicable Me franchise, which began with the eponymous 2010 film. They are small, yellow, canerous henchmen who wear overalls and goggles and have one or two eyes. The Minions mostly speak their own creole-like language called "Minionese", which is partly derived from Bahasa Indonesia, French, English, Italian, Spanish, and Hindi.[1][2] Although seemingly nonsensical, the English-sounding words are dubbed for every country, in order to make them recognizable.[3] It is shown in Minions that they have existed since the beginning of life on Earth, and desire above all else to serve the most terrible of villains.[4] In the short film "Banana", the Minions are revealed to have an uncontrollable craving for fruits, especially bananas.
The principal minions are Kevin, Bob and Stuart, the heroes in Minions. Bob always carries his teddy bear with him and befriends small animals. Mentioned in the films and other media are Dave,[5] Stuart,[6] Kevin,[6] Jerry,[7] Carl,[6] Phil,[6] Paul, Jorge,[8] Tim,[6] Donny, Mark, Lance, Mike, Ken, Tom,[7] John, Steve, Norbert, Bob, Tony, Chris and Eric.
Purple Minions
In Despicable Me 2, some Minions are kidnapped by El Macho, a supervillain who injects at each Minion a small part of the PX-41 serum, turning them into monstrous purple beings, who resist the atomic bombs that they kept swallowing.
In popular culture
In 2015 the town of Minions, Cornwall built a road sign paid for by Universal Studios featuring Minions. In October they removed it due to safety concerns that resulted from people stopping their cars to take photos although townspeople have campaigned to get the sign put back in another location.[9][10][11]
On April Fool's Day 2016, Google created a button on its gmail service that sent a "mic drop" along with a GIF of a minion.[12][13] However, the feature immediately caused backlash. Many people complained about accidentally sending the GIF during job searches, which resulted in some people being dropped from job consideration or even being fired. Google removed the feature not long after, citing those reasons and a bug that caused the GIF to be sent after hitting the regular send button.[14][15]
References
- ^ "Despicable Me 2 : Production Notes" (PDF). Visualhollywood.com. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
- ^ "'Despicable Me 2' Minions: 5 Things to Know". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
- ^ Debruge, Peter (June 11, 2015). "Chris Meledandri on How the 'Minions' Came to Life". Variety. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
- ^ "Exclusive: The Synopsis for Minions". ComingSoon.net. June 18, 2013. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
- ^ "Despicable Me Minion Dave Plush". Universal Orlando. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e Standal, Jeanne (June 28, 2013). "Meet The Minions: DESPICABLE ME 2 Character Posters With Phil, Carl, Tim, Kevin & Stuart". FilmoFilia. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
- ^ a b "Desicable Me 2". Happy Meal Toys Collection. June 19, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
- ^ "Despicable Me Minion Jorge Plush". Universal Orlando. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
- ^ "Cornwall village Minions sign removed - BBC News". Bbc.com. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
- ^ "Road sign for Cornish village called Minions that was put up by Universal Studios to promote children's film is taken down in case it distracts drivers". Thesun.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
- ^ "Campaign to reinstate Minions road sign taken down over safety fears". Plymouth Herald. 2016-04-13. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
- ^ Steinbuch, Yaron (2016-04-01). "Google's April Fools' Minions prank was so not funny | New York Post". Nypost.com. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
- ^ Natt Garun. "Gmail's Mic Drop tool is the April Fools joke we wish was real". The Next Web.
- ^ Jon Russell. "Google reverses Gmail April 1 prank after users mistakently put GIFs into important emails". TechCrunch.
- ^ Victor-bogdan Anchidin. "Introducing Gmail Mic Drop". Gmail Blog.