Moviepedia Wiki
Advertisement
Minions
  • Species: Small, yellow, capsule shaped creatures
  • Eye Color: Brown (most of them) Blue (Alex only), Green
  • Hair Color: Black
  • First appearance: Despicable Me

The Minions are small, yellow, capsule shaped creatures, who have one or two eyes. They are the signature characters of the Despicable Me series, as well as the official mascots for Illumination. They bring much of the comedy in the film, and they are known as the scene-stealer of the movie. Frequently, they speak in an incomprehensible language, called Minionese, occasionally switching to English. They are much childish in some ways, yet they seem to be very intelligent in certain aspects. All the minions are supporting characters in Minions (with the exception of Kevin, Stuart, and Bob), major characters in Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 and supporting characters in Despicable Me 3 (with the exception of Mel).

They are impulsive creatures with little self-control, but with a wide-eyed wonder and odd innocence that endears them to viewers and makes them relatable. They can be pesky when they are doing weird interactions with other people, animals, or objects; they are also famous for their gibberish-speaking language. Minions have standard English names (see below).

Unlike most other criminal masterminds and their usual doctrine of abusing their henchmen, Gru gets along famously with the minions. He genuinely seems to like them and shows appreciation for their hard work and support, only having to be strict with them very few times. He even seems to know each of them by name.

Personality[]

They are fiercely loyal to Gru and Dr. Nefario and extremely eager to please, willingly helping with any evil plans, but at the same time they are friendly and fun-loving. Despite being relatively simple-minded, they are capable of building weapons, operating those weapons, using computers, and even driving.

They express themselves mostly through actions, not words: their "language", Minionese, is fairly basic, they speak in strange jabber combined with various human languages. Hence, their language is incomprehensible to most humans, though they do understand English. It is also possible to isolate elements of Japanese and Spanish from their speech patterns.

Minions love bananas and apples (or "bapples", as they call them), and the mere sight of one of these fruits can result in complete chaos. They also enjoy fine arts and find anything having to do with buttocks extremely funny. There are few things these little guys do not find funny. They love trying new things and presumably, they also love potatoes (they mention potatoes on occasion.) They dislike being unsure of themselves, and when Gru leaves questions unanswered. Their sense of humor is somewhat childish, if not silly, laughing from the sound of bubbles in a water filter, scanning their own butt in a copy machine, and when mentioned words such as "bottom" or "butt".

Minions also enjoy playing, especially with Agnes, Edith, and Margo, as seen in the toilet paper fight scene. There is a minion cameo in Sing in a drawer.

Appearance[]

As a rambunctious bunch of simple-minded homunculi, Minions are a similar size and shape but have unique features to tell them apart, such as height, number of eyes, roundness or secondary features such as hair, eye/pupil size or clothing.

Minions are yellow and wear black gloves, small black boots, metal goggles accommodating their number of eyes, and blue jean overalls with Gru's emblem on the fronts.

Minions possess few additional physiological characteristics; with a crack and a shake, they can double as glow sticks for activities in the dark, such as going through ventilation ducts. They additionally can survive without air, as one is seen in outer space without oxygen in Despicable Me.

Though there are several hundred minions, there are only about forty-eight possible combinations of height and build (short and chubby, medium, tall and thin), hair (tall buzz-cut, short buzz-cut, sprout, combed, bald), and eyes (one, two). One-eyed minions are always almost all small, although a tall one-eyed minion appears in promotional artwork. Tall Minions are all with Sprout-Cut Hair which none of the other minions have. Also some of the minions (e.g.. Mel, Bob, Otto, et cetera) have unique traits.

Voice Actors[]

  • Pierre Coffin (2010-present, most of them)
  • James Arnold Taylor (2010, video game)
  • Chris Renaud (2010–2013, Addition Minions)
  • Jemaine Clement (2010, Jerry only)

Notable Minions[]

For the category of all the identified minions in the film, see here. The italic names below are those minions who have distinctive appearances in different films.

Despicable Me[]

Home Makeover[]

Orientation Day[]

Banana[]

Despicable Me 2[]

Puppy[]

Panic in the Mailroom[]

Training Wheels[]

Minions[]

Cro Minion[]

Competition[]

Mower Minions[]

Despicable Me 3[]

Yellow is the New Black[]

The Secret Life of Kyle[]

Minion Scouts[]

Minions: The Rise of Gru[]

Minions and Monsters[]

Post Modern Minions[]

Despicable Me 4[]

Quotes[]

"Poppadom?" — Stuart when disguising as a girl.

"Gelato!" — Minions (means ice cream).

"Kanpai!" — Kevin (means cheers).

"Pwede na?" — Minions (means "can we start").

"Papoy?" — When Minions are talking about toy.

"What?" — Jerry.

"Para tu" — Phil when giving Agnes a toy.

"Bee-do! Bee-do!" — Carl mimicking fire truck siren.

"Ka ga" — A Minion when excited to join a beach party.

"Bottom" — Phil and Stuart making fun of Silas Ramsbottom's name.

Pinof! Pinouf! Pinouf! Pinouf! - Minions cheering for Gru's past villainy.

"Ditto" - Dave's shame of expression.

"Blamoc." - Minions in disgust.

"Bubble, Bubble!" - Eric clapping at the end of the training video.

"KING BOB!" - Bob in the Minions movie.

"Oooh la la" - Kevin

Trivia[]

Gallery[]

Appearances[]

Advertisement