So just how important IS Gru to the Despicable Me franchise?
You’re watching Beyond The Trailer’s review of MINIONS...
When it comes to Illumination Entertainment, they really only have one trump card - The
Despicable Me franchise. Hop was a flop - and while The Lorax was successful enough both
creatively and financially to persuade Dr Seuss’s widow to allow the studio to move
forward with animated adaptations of The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas
and even a Dr Seuss bio, that additional source of revenue is still in the development stage.
And so Illumination Entertainment has put the Despicable Me franchise to WORK, having
already released two films with a third film is set for summer 2017 - and in the meantime,
this minions spin-off. On paper, a minions movie seems like a brilliant and obvious idea.
Whenever the Despicable Me films have been released on Blu-Ray, they’ve always included
three new short films featuring...the minions! There has also been a successful mobile game,
Minion Rush, plus the popular Universal Studios theme park attraction is called Minion Mayhem.
Not to mention tons of minion merchandise. But while there’s no denying that everyone
loves minions, is Gru really so replaceable? Just how important can Margo, Edith and Agnes
be to the franchise if they don’t sell merchandise? I haven’t seen any Dr Nefario toys, have
you? Or Lucy t-shirts? And you don’t see anyone complaining about the lack of representation
ala Black Widow, right? Plus hey, Gru’s replacement is voiced by America’s Sweetheart,
Sandra Bullock, hot off Gravity, The Heat, The Blind Side and The Proposal! She’s an
Oscar winner, who hasn’t done an animated film since The Prince of Egypt way back in
1998! It’s also interesting that as the Despicable Me franchise gets more and more
successful - Despicable Me 2 was the most profitable film that Universal Studios has
ever released - Illumination Entertainment gets more and more confident in representing
their european origins. See while Illumination Entertainment’s headquarters might be in
Los Angeles, the films are animated in France. Plus Pierre Coffin, who has directed all the
Despicable Me movies to date including this one, plus voices the minions, is French himself!
In fact, one might argue that this franchise’s euro sensibilities have helped make it a global
brand - a refreshing change of pace in an animation industry that’s largely Americanized.
So at the end of the day, Minions isn’t just going to prove whether or not these little
guys need Gru and company, but whether or not Illumination Entertainment is right to
trust their instincts...