Minions

"Directors" Featurette

 

Our Minions featurette, “Directors,” helps to illuminate some of the directorial decisions and show you why your favorite movie has many of the elements that make it special. The directorial team behind Minions talks about quite a few aspects that they had control over. From story to characters to dialogue, the directors had the ultimate say about what made it into the movie and what did not.  

 

Minions - Pierre Coffin

 

The first topic of conversation between the directors in our Minions extra is that of plot. Minions is a prequel to Despicable Me. The movie follows the minions around the world throughout history long before they met Gru. Pierre Coffin, one of the film’s directors, says “The idea was to show them going through time longing to serve an evil master.”  This unique plot allowed for a lot of creativity when it came to references to historical events, famous figures throughout history, and different cultures. The directors explain that they wanted to give a history and a background that would explain the minions’ personalities, and how they ended up working for Gru during Despicable Me. 

 

These Minions behind-the-scenes director interviews help to explain the minions’ language as well. To most of us, the language sounds incoherent, with the occasional surfacing of a Spanish or Italian word. In reality, however, the language is a mixture of several languages from around the world. Before the minions got their own movie, there was no real explanation for why they spoke like this. However, in Minions they travel across the globe and throughout different times in history, which helps to show that they have simply picked up bits of different languages throughout their journey. Though this is certainly not the main point of the movie, it is an interesting tidbit that the directors discuss in our Minions features.  

 

A concern that the directors mention is the possibility of alienation from the minions due to their made-up language. However, they discuss the fact that the minions are incredibly personable and expressive in other ways that can help audiences relate to them. At no point during the movie should the audience feel like they don’t understand what is going on simply because of the minion language. Though it is foreign, the minions make up for misunderstanding in other ways.

 

Minions - Kyle Balda

 

The directors also discuss the fact that most audiences see the minions as a monolith. A goal of Minions was to focus on the three main minions: Kevin, Stuart, and Bob. Each of these three has a distinct personality and it helps to create more distinct personalities between those in the group. Because these three have been separated from the crowd, the audience is better able to suspend their reality and assume that the other individual minions have unique personalities as well, rather than simply seeing them as one big group of yellow blobs. 

 

For access to more exclusive Minions content, including more videos featuring the directors, producers, and team leaders, purchase the movie on 4k Ultra HD, Blu-rayTM, DVD, or Digital.* 

 

*Bonus features are only available at select digital retailers. Check the retailer for details. 

 

 

Like this article? Read more about the making of Minions here: