There are so many exciting movies that will be released in 2020, and one of them will definitely be familiar to everyone, and that is – "Minions: Despicable Me Prequel". This movie will be released globally in July this year.
Starting from "Despicable Me" in 2010, "Minions: Despicable Me Prequel" is already the fifth film in the series. The first four films in the series have accumulated a box office of over 3.7 billion U.S. dollars. It can be said that "Minions" ” is one of the most successful animated series in the past 10 years.
Take a quick look at the top 10 box office rankings of global animation movies, and the status is clear at a glance:
Disney itself occupies 3 seats with the "Frozen" series and "Zootopia". Its Pixar has 4 "Cars" animations, and then there are the 3 "Minions" movies from Illumination Studio.
It is precisely because of the success of the "Minions" series that the 10-year-old Illumination Studio has become the hottest animation production company in Hollywood, able to compete with giants in the animation industry such as Disney and Pixar.
How popular is the Minion? He has already made his mark in the film industry!
As a popular culture, the image of "Minions" is no longer limited to its own animated world. You can see them in various other types of movies.
For example, in the 2019 action movie "Gun on the Waist", starring Daniel "Harry Potter", the Minions were mentioned in the movie, and they were complained about that they looked like "**bolts".
In the 2018 science fiction film "City of Prey", in a setting where humans are on the verge of extinction, the minions reappear and are even preserved as "American idols", which is also a kind of ridicule.
Not to mention that Minions often appear as easter eggs in Illumination Studio's other animated films. For example, in 2016's "The Secret Life of Pets", when the guinea pig returns to its owner's arms, Minions flash across the bedside table. Ornaments for people.
The Minions are so popular. In this issue, the God of Money will take you to review a series of previous works to see the interesting details in them. By the way, we are also looking forward to the fifth Minions movie.
2010: "Despicable Me"
Back in the summer of 2010, the first movie in the "Minions" series, "Despicable Me", was released. As Illumination Studio's first animation, it did not attract much attention from movie fans before.
However, "Despicable Me" immediately surprised the audience after it was released in North America. There was also "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" in the same period, but "Despicable Me" won the North American box office championship. The global box office reached US$543 million, which can be said to be a great success.
At that time, the Minions were just a group of little villains working for the protagonist Gru, but their cute appearance and funny personality immediately won the crazy love of fans and became a highlight of the movie.
Although you can't understand their words, the minions are cute enough with their rich expressions and movements. For example, in the movie, the minions asked Gru for a salary increase, but when he was rejected, his aggrieved expression was so cute!
Early image design of Minions
Judging from the animated image, we can get the setting of the Minion. He is less than 1 meter tall, has yellow skin, has no neck, no collarbones, and no shoulders, but can wear overalls. The characteristic is that they all wear glasses, and they are weird and cute. .
In fact, the original image of the Minions was not like this. The appearance in the movie has been changed several times. In the original image design, they had grinning fangs and various antennas on their bodies. They were really ugly!
Interestingly, in "Despicable Me", Gru once used a shrinking gun to shrink the minions, which were about the size of a piece of eraser. They should be the smallest minions in the movie.
In the movie, the minions are absolutely loyal to their master. When Gru had no money, they donated their private money to build rockets. Before going to bed at night, they lined up to find Gru to kiss him.
Who wouldn't like such a group of little monsters?
2013: "Despicable Me 2"
After the Minions became a hit, "Despicable Me" took advantage of the situation and released the second part in 2013. In this movie, the role of the Minions increased significantly. Everyone learned more about the habits of this species and had many questions in their minds. .
For example, where did the minions come from? The official setting given by the Lighting Studio at the time was: Minions are robots made of genetically mutated DNA, fatty acids, and two and a half cups of banana puree. This setting also explains why Minions are so towards bananas. of fanaticism.
What language are the minions speaking? In fact, their language is a mixture of English, Japanese, Spanish and other languages. The official has also published a minion pronunciation table, you can learn from it.
Minion language comparison table
In this movie, there is also a transformation of the minions. They went crazy because they were injected with a drug and turned into "little purple people", which can be called an exclusive limited edition.
In "Despicable Me 2", the minions once again acted cute together and were deeply loved by the audience. In the end, the global box office of the movie reached 970.8 million US dollars, which can be said to be a great success.
2015: "Minions with Big Eyes"
Because the popularity of the Minions continues to rise, in 2015, Illumination Studio created an independent animation specifically for them – "Minions with Big Eyes". Compared with the "Despicable Me" series, this movie should be regarded as a spin-off .
In "Minions with Big Eyes", the Minions naturally become the absolute protagonists. The timeline of the movie is greatly advanced, and the Minions' true life experience is also revealed.
Creatures like Minions originated from the bottom of the sea. They have been living on the earth before the birth of humans. The Minion's lifelong wish is to find the most despicable master in the world and then follow him to do bad things.
For tens of millions of years, they followed dinosaurs, Egyptian pharaohs, vampires, and murderer Scarlett until they met their current master Gru. This setting gives the Minions series unlimited space. Everyone is also curious, what kind of evil did the Minions do before meeting Gru?
There have been too many minions in several movies. Although each minion has its own name, they look so similar that it is difficult to tell them apart.
So how many minions are there in total? The official number is 899. The minions are all male and naturally have no reproductive ability. If the number of minions has always been fixed, then they seem to have a long lifespan and will not suffer from illness or death.
"Batman: The Dark Knight" title sequence
In "Minions with Big Eyes", the audience may have had a deep impression of the individual minions for the first time, because the protagonists of the movie are the "threesome": Kevin, Stewart and Bob.
Kevin is a tall man with two eyes. He is brave by nature. When the minions were lost, he was the first to stand up and was willing to find a new master for everyone.
Stewart has one eye and always carries a guitar on his back. He likes liveliness and music; Bob is the shortest and fattest of the three. Simply put, he is a fool.
With the combination of three minions with completely different personalities, the adventure story is naturally exciting.
Interestingly, in the movie, Kevin is knighted by the queen. According to custom, the queen's sword must touch the knight's shoulder, but the minion has no shoulders, so he can only make two gestures in the air.
At the end of the movie, the minions finally meet their current master Gru, which echoes the plot of "Despicable Me".
The final global box office of "Minions with Big Eyes" reached US$1.159 billion, which is the highest box office of the series so far. It is indeed the right decision for Minions to play the leading role solo.
2017: "Despicable Me 3"
2017's "Despicable Me 3" was Illumination Studio's fourth "Minions" film. The final film's global box office once again exceeded the $1 billion mark, proving how powerful the Minions IP is in attracting money. powerful.
In fact, the "Minion" series of movies has always been Universal Pictures' most profitable project. This is not only because of the high box office of the movies, but also because the production costs are relatively low.
Compared with the works of peers in recent years, the cost of Disney's "Moana" is US$150 million, the cost of Pixar's "Inside Out" is US$175 million, and the cost of the "Minions" series has been kept at 7,000 -$80 million.
Here is a simple comparison. In 2016, the global box office of Disney's "Zootopia" was US$1.0238 billion, and its cost was US$200 million.
2017's "Despicable Me 3" was the most expensive in the "Minions" series, costing US$80 million, and ultimately had a global box office of US$1.0348 billion.
Although the box office results are similar, the cost of "Despicable Me 3" is less than 1/2 of "Zootopia", so the final profit figure naturally has a great advantage.
Interestingly, at the beginning of "Despicable Me 3", there was a scene of the minions driving a submarine to scare away the clown fish. On the one hand, it was a tribute to "Finding Nemo", and on the other hand, the lighting was shouting out to Pixar.
The most classic scene in this movie is when the minions are in jail. When they put on their black and white prison uniforms and start acting cute, it makes people sigh, the minions are really great!
At the end of the movie, Gru's twin brother "abducted" the minions, leaving an open ending. From this point of view, there should be a follow-up to the main series of "Despicable Me". After all, Universal is reluctant to give up such a profitable series easily.
2020: "Minions with Big Eyes and Despicable Me Prequel"
The newly released "Minions: Despicable Me Prequel" released in 2020 is the first work of the Minions after their solo career, and the story line is still before "Despicable Me".
From the trailer of the movie that has been released, we can roughly guess the plot: the minions team up with Gru in his childhood to steal a constellation stone, hoping to use it to become the worst villain in history.
The plot of "do bad things to prove yourself" is actually not new. The "Despicable Me" series has always been played like this, but it is still very exciting to see the minions continue to act cute.
This movie will also create a new minion character – Odou. He has a big head, wears braces, is unreliable, and is silly and lovable. I look forward to more exciting performances from him after the movie is released!
Are you looking forward to this latest Minion movie?