Minions are fictional characters that appear in the Despicable Me franchise, which started with Despicable Me. They are characterized by their childlike behavior and unique language, which is almost intelligible at times. They are also the official mascots of Illumination, a division of Universal Pictures, which produces the films. Following Comcast's purchase of NBCUniversal, they have been described as being a corporate icon for Universal and Comcast, on par with Disney's Mickey Mouse and WarnerMedia's Bugs Bunny, although Woody Woodpecker is still considered a mascot for Universal Studios. Kevin, Stuart, and Bob are three of the most familiar minions, who appear as stars in the film Minions. Many other Minions are mentioned by name in the films and other media in the franchise. They also made a cameo appearance in the series finale of Series 15 of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.
Characteristics
The Minions are small, yellow henchmen shaped like pill capsules. They are depicted as being roughly one-third to one-half the height of humans but they were later revealed to be tall. They have one or two eyes, and their irises are almost always brown. They have no discernable noses but seem capable of smelling, as they are shown smelling fruit and are affected by the Fart Gun. They are also shown without ears but can hear and respond to sounds. Most minions appear either bald or with a few wispy strands of black hair on their heads. Since their coming to America in the late 1960s, their clothing consists of blue overalls emblazoned with Gru's logo, black rubber gloves, shoes, and goggles. They mostly speak incomprehensible gibberish, which is partly derived from other languages, including French, English, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Spanish, and German. Although seemingly nonsensical, the English-sounding dialogue is dubbed differently for every country, in order to make the sounds somewhat recognizable. They have common English-language names, such as Dave, Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Mel. While showed as somewhat absent-minded and have very mischievous streaks, they are shown to have exceptional engineering abilities, being able to design and construct spaceships and playthings for Gru's adopted daughters, particularly the youngest Agnes. Minions, the 2015 animated feature film, shows that they have existed since the beginning of life on Earth. Minions are biologically wired to seek out and serve the most terrible of villains; when they have no "boss" to serve they become depressed and listless. They are also shown to have a degree of invulnerability, as Kevin, Stuart and Bob are shown to survive a European torture chamber without any injuries, even playing with the torture devices. In the 2010 short film "Banana", the Minions are revealed to have an almost uncontrollable craving for fruit, especially bananas.
Derivatives
Since the release of the Despicable Me films, the Minions' popularity has been rising. The Minions have been regularly featured in cross-promotions for other Comcast/NBCUniversal properties, including Universal theme parks, NBC primetime TV series and an Xfinityremote control. "Minion versions" of the Simpson family appear at the end of The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XXV", which aired on October 19, 2014. In 2015, the village of Minions, Cornwall in the United Kingdom built a road sign paid for by Universal Studios featuring Minions. In October of that year, they removed it due to safety concerns that resulted from people stopping their cars to take photos although villagers have campaigned to get the sign put back up in another location. On April Fool's Day 2016, Google created a button on its Gmail service that sent a "mic drop" along with a GIFimage of a Minion. However, the feature received backlash in which many people complained about accidentally sending the image during job searches which resulted in some people being dropped from job consideration or being fired. Google removed the feature not long after, citing those reasons as well as a bug that caused the image to be sent after hitting the regular send button. The Minions appeared in an advertisement for the Cinemarktheater chain, in which several Minions try to change a lamp while another Minion mocks them. The mocking Minion drops the replacement lamp during one of his laughing fits so the others stick him in the socket so that his eye can serve as the lamp. The ad promoted the chain's claim that they had the brightest 3D projection system of any theater chain. At first, the clip played before showings of Despicable Me 2, but Cinemark uses the ad freely before any 3D movie. Three statues of Minions appear in the 2018 film Mortal Engines, in which they are assumed to be ancient idols of Old Gods. In Brazil, Minions were used as a reference to nickname the followers of politician Jair Bolsonaro, called by supporters of the left, in an ironic and offensive tone, "bolsominions". In an April 2016 "Extra" website article, journalist Felipe Pena compared Bolsonaro fans to Minions, saying that "they follow the leader, whom they call myth, and vent narcissistic repression by attacking the differences of groups they elect as rivals." Since then, the term has been widely used by the population in Brazilian and international media, appearing in BBC, The Guardian, and Open Democracy articles.
