Watch: A Minion-centric Clip from 'Despicable Me 3'

The Minions didn't play a big part in the Despicable Me 3 promotion so far, but that's about to change; Illumination Entertainment has released a one-minute clip featuring the popular (ahem) characters. Watch it below.

Watch: The New 'Minions' Trailer Reveals Scarlet Overkill's Master Plan

Minions, the spin-off to Illumination Entertainment's star franchise Despicable Me will be released this summer, but you can watch a brand new trailer for it right now. And yes, it's pretty hilarious. Check it out below.

This Week on A113Animation (16th - 22nd September, 2013)

Apologies that this is a day late, but we were recording our two-part (and thus rather long) Disney Renaissance podcast late yesterday, and frankly, if I looked at anything else animation related, I fear I may have imploded. Nonetheless, here's the recap of what was a very packed - if not all entirely cheery - week of animation news. Lots of Frozen stuff (you wouldn't have believed that a month ago), two hotly anticipated 2014 animation films pushed back to 2015, a spooky new trailer for Toy Story of Terror!, your usual features, some special editorials and a brand new interview/podcast all make this an exciting week! Check out what happened this last week on A113Animation.

Despicable Me Spin-Off, Minions, Also Delayed to 2015

It's not quite as drastic as Pixar's 18 month delay on The Good Dinosaur, but yet another highly anticipated 2014 animated film has been pushed back to the already packed 2015. Variety reports that Illumination Entertainment have delayed Minions, their spin-off of the Despicable Me franchise, from the originally reported 19th December, 2014 release date, to one of 10th July, 2015.

Despicable Me 2 Review - Illuminatingly Hilarious, Minion-Packed Fun

*This review is largely spoiler free, and most plot-details mentioned are evident in the trailers, but read cautiously if you haven’t seen the film yet*

2010 was a very strong year for animation, providing two of the best animated films of the last few decades with Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon; other great films were also released that year, including Tangled, Megamind and the debut feature from Illumination Entertainment, Despicable Me. The film won itself a lot of praise, with audiences loving the tender dynamic at the centre of the film, the adorable orphaned girls who Gru adopts and, most crucially, the hilarious little yellow swarms known as the minions. I loved the first film, but have been sorely disappointed by Illumination's two subsequent films, Hop and The Lorax. As such, I, sadly, didn't have high hopes for Despicable Me 2. And I've never been quite so spectacularly wrong: Despicable Me 2 is hilarious, well told and even manages to be better than the first film.

Jon Hamm Joins Minions Voice Cast

I've dreamt of the day I'd be able to somehow fit Jon Hamm into an A113Animation post, and now Illumination have answered my prayers. The Universal-owned studio have announced that the Mad Men actor will be lending his voice to the Despicable Me spin-off, alongside Sandra Bullock.

New Despicable Me 2 Trailer Shows Gadgets, Girls and Gru

After a series of Minion vignettes, Universal have finally cranked out a trailer for Despicable Me 2 featuring its main character. iTunes Movie Trailers debuted the new trailer (embedded above) which returns Steve Carell to his role as the villainous Gru.

Sandra Bullock Turning Evil for Despicable Me Spin-Off, Minions

Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me spin-off based around the series' yellow henchmen, now seemingly titled Minions, just got its first voice cast member, America's Sweetheart, Sandra Bullock. The irony being that Bullock is following in Steve Carell's footsteps and playing an evil-doer in the film.

New Despicable Me 2 Trailer

Universal and Illumination Entertainment have debuted a new trailer for Despicable Me 2 on iTunes Movie Trailers. It shows more of what we can expect story-wise from the follow-up to the 2010 hit: alien abductions, more minion focus (seguing into that planned spin-off maybe) - the return of Vector maybe? He was stranded in space at the end of the first film, and space is, after all, where most aliens would tend to be found.

Being a big fan of the original, this is quite exciting stuff! Let's just hope it turns out more like Despicable Me 1, and less like The Lorax. Be sure to watch in 720p, Illumination's animation is always fantastic.

This trailer will apparently play in front of Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, starting Friday. Despicable Me 2 is directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, and is released on 28th June, 2013 (UK) and 3rd July, 2013 (US).

Minion-Centric Despicable Me Spin-Off On the Way

This was kind of an inevitability. Illumination Entertainment, who most recently released Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, broke onto the scene back in 2010 with Despicable Me. The film was a big commercial hit, making $543 million worldwide, and well received by critics also - averaging 81% on Rotten Tomatoes - but arguably the biggest hit in the film were the minions.

The gibberish speaking yellow army were huge merchandise hits, received their own short films on the Despicable Me DVD and Blu Ray, and even their own theme-park ride! The minions are sure to feature prominently in 2013's Despicable Me 2 (which adds Kristen Wiig and Al Pacino to the voice cast)but they're going to get even more focus the year after, as the Minions are getting their very own spin-off movie!

Being produced in parallel with Despicable Me 2 with a view for a 2014 release, Deadline reports that Despicable Me co-director Pierre Coffin will direct and The Lorax co-director Kyle Balda will co-direct, from a script written by Brian Lynch (who has experience writing spin-offs, writing the script for DreamWorks' Puss in Boots, and working with Illumination, having worked on Hop). How great a Minions spin-off would be is questionable, but it's sure to rake in a lot of money, and this is sound business for Illumination's parent-company, Universal.

Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem

Back in 2010, Universal threw themselves into the world of animation, with the first theatrical release of their own dedicated animation department, Illumination Entertainment: Despicable Me. Despicable Me was a huge success, taking over $543 million worldwide and inspiring an upcoming sequel. However, arguably the biggest hits to come out of Despicable Me were the adorable minions.

Everybody fell in love with the minions and Universal clearly recognises that, as, following three dedicated Minion mini-movies on the Despicable Me home media releases, the minions are now even getting their own attraction at Universal Orlando!



The ride is called "Minion Mayhem" and, according to the official press release, sees you enter Gru's house to be recruited as a minion. Read an extract from the press release below:

"This brand-new ride combines the outrageous humor and memorable characters of Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s blockbuster film Despicable Me, with an all-new storyline, incredible new animation and the latest 3-D technology to create a wildly hysterical theme park experience.

Families will watch in amazement as they are transformed into minions, laugh together as they train to join Gru’s minion army and boogie down during the world’s-first minion-inspired dance party. Despicable Me Minion Mayhem is hilarious and heartwarming fun for the entire family."

You can see some photos from early runs of the attraction here, as well as a video (above) showing the mischievous minions causing havoc at Universal Orlando. "Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem" opens officially on 2nd July.

Also, you can check out a Facebook app with the minions, "Dance Party Marathon", similar in idea to Disney's "Mahna-Mahna" app for The Muppets a few months ago: you have 10 seconds to record yourself dancing. Hundreds and hundreds of such clips from around the world are then spliced together with some minion dancing (Universal seem really rather fond of making the minions dance) acting as an interlude.

Between this and Disney's Cars Land, studios definitely seem to understand how crucial good advertising and film-based theme park attractions are to business success!

Despicable Me 2 is released on 28th June, 2013 (UK) and 3rd July, 2013 (US), let's hope this pacifies us until then.

Despicable Me 2 Teaser Trailer

Ahead of the US release of The Lorax later this week, Illumination Entertainment have released a short teaser trailer for another of their upcoming films: the sequel to their first, immensely popular, animated film, 2010's Despicable Me.

The short teaser trailer (above) reveals no plot points, or really anything new, instead offering us up arguably the biggest hit in the original, the Minions, singing a Beach Boys song. Nonetheless, it does a good job of slowly building the hype, after all 2013 is a long way off yet, and if it's anything like the original, Despicable Me 2 promises to be great!

We also get the first new, also Minion focuses, poster the sequel (below).

Via Empire.

Despicable Me out on DVD and Blu Ray in the U.K.

Finally one of my favourite films of last year, Despicable Me, is out on DVD and Blu Ray in the U.K., I will personally be getting it at the first opportunity. The multi A113Animation Award winning Despicable Me, was great and I really look forward to seeing it again and seeing all the minion mini-movies.

Despicable Me, Minion Mini-Movies

With the U.S. release of Despicable Me on DVD and Blu Ray this past week (yet not until February here in the U.K. *sigh*) came three new short films featuring the minions:

• Home Makeover
• Orientation Day
• Banana

I loved Despicable Me, most of all the Minions - and Agnes - and as such loved these three shorts, all were funny, adorable and entertaining. I liked Home Makeover the best, yet all 3 were really good.

Embedded above is the trailer, from the official Despicable Me YouTube page, for the 3 Mini-Movies and below is the trailer for the DVD and Blu Ray.

Megamind vs. Despicable Me

Having just been to see DreamWorks latest animation Megamind, I thought that given the glaring similarities between it and Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me, it was a good idea to do a comparison.

*Warning* Spoiler Alert

If you're unfamiliar with the films, both Despicable Me and Megamind are films about Super-Villains, both of whom aren't the most successful villains in the world, that eventually, for the good of those they care about, see the light and become the "good guys", in the process defeating the greater evil.

In Despicable Me (the first feature from Chris Meledandri's Illumination Entertainment) the main character, Gru, changes his ways to become a father to 3 orphaned girls (not dissimilar to The Pacifier). Whereas, in Megamind, the main character (Megamind) falls in love with the stereotypical Lois Lane rip off, Roxanne Ritchie (even down to the alliterative name) and rises up against a super-powered monster, of his creation, becoming the good guy in the process.

Personally I prefer Despicable Me's reasoning, it's more emotional and just a bit deeper, whereas Megamind's story feels like it's been done before.

Another area of note is the voice acting, in Despicable Me, it's hard to tell who anyone is, Gru does not sound like Steve Carell, Dr. Nefario doesn't sound like Russell Brand and Vector doesn't sound like Jason Segel, the characters are interesting and original. However, in Megamind, whilst all of the characters are really funny (I particularly liked Minion), you can instantly tell who's who, Will Ferrell is instantly recognisable as Megamind etc..., however he still turns in a great performance.

But, overall, I preferred the characters in Despicable Me, they just felt more original, however the side characters in both films were some of their best qualities, the Minions in Despicable Me and Minion in Megamind (notice a similarity there?).

When I first heard about both of these films, I thought three simple words... Incredibles, Rip, Off... But I was really happy to be wrong; whilst neither film had the depth or originality of Pixar's 2004 classic, both were really entertaining and had far more depth than I expected. Both films, really brought something new to the table, both with a funny and interesting ensemble of characters.

All in all, I preferred Despicable Me for its originality and the extra subtlety it showed in its voice cast compared to Megamind, however I was really impressed with both films and enjoyed them both really much.