When Minions opened in 2015, the pop culture world exploded in sea of yellow, denim and goggle eyes. From merchandise and funnies on social media to an obsession with banana, Gru’s henchmen from the Despicable Me movies were everywhere. Kyle Balda, who directed the film with Pierre Coffin, promises more minions in Despicable Me 3 .
The Arizona-born animator, who has worked in movies such as Jumanji, Toy Story 2 , and Despicable Me and co-directed The Lorax , talks about the minions over the phone from Paris.
Excerpts.
Who is your favourite minion and why?
My favourite minion is Bob because he is the cutest and most appealing and also because he is sort of the child of the group.
He does not have any fear, he is very curious and runs into places and starts to cause problems without knowing it.
Usually when that happens, it gets things moving, it makes the story go in directions, discover new things. He is constantly driving the story forward.
What drove the choice of music in the movie?
The movie is a period film. It is about the minions before they met Gru.
So we had to roll back to the late 60s. We also wanted to make a movie set in London in the 60s. That drove a lot of our music choices.
How did the idea of a spin off minion movie come about?
I believe the original idea was pitched by the writer, Brian Lynch. He had this idea of what if the minions were to go to Villain Con, like Comic-Con, which happens in San Diego with all the comic book heroes and stuff. This would be for villains and the minions were going to look for their new boss, as they are always looking for a villain boss to serve. Chris Meledandri (producer) came to Pierre Coffin and me and asked if we could do a movie with the minions — a feature length movie with these characters that have only been kind of like sidekicks, comic relief up until now. We very quickly said yes because we loved the characters so much. And then we got into the challenge of how would you tell a story with these characters as the principle characters.
So in the Despicable Me movies, the minions didn’t have a back story?
Yes. That is why we decided we would tell the origins of these characters. In the beginning of the movie we do this thing where they evolve from single cell organisms, the first villain they follow is the T-Rex… sort of documentary style.
Is there going to be sequel to Minions?
Well, you’ll definitely see more minions in Despicable Me 3 which is in production right now.
Megamind also had a sidekick called Minion…
Right (laughs)
Are they related?
Well, minion is just a word for henchman original concept for the minions in Despicable Me was to have muscly henchmen with axes, a very Lord of the Rings kind of look. In production it was very complicated to do that. Then we thought of making them cuter with a softer edge.
Why do minions love bananas?
There was a short film on DVD, which was Pierre Coffin’s idea. It explores the minions’ love for bananas. One of the reasons we chose banana is it is a funny word and a funny thing to be obsessed about.
Catch the television premiere of Minions on August 28 at 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Sony PIX
