"Minions," out July 10, grants "Despicable Me" fans their deepest wish: a full 90 minutes of "evil" shenanigans starring the scene-stealing yellow henchmen.
We've watched them transform into lovable mischief-makers and face off against their purple enemies. We've seen how they have a special knack for collaboration, and a special love for yellow fruits. But our total knowledge of Minions is relatively slight. Where did they come from? What do they want? Who are they?
The new movie promises to answer some of these questions. Until then, here's everything we've figured out about Minions so far.
Minions have butts. It's true.
They originated from the Cretaceous sea millions of years ago to serve evildoers the world over. This according to the "Minions" trailer and early reviews. As you'll see, they've always been bad at being bad.
They get their voices from "Despicable Me" directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud. Coffin, who is French-Indonesian, is credited with coming up with the little guys' odd speech patterns. He also voices the new film's three main characters by himself. Curiously, despite his success, Coffin says his father still "has this idea" that people working in show business are "strange." As Coffin explained to The Guardian, "He wanted me to have a serious job.”
Their language is a scrapbook compilation of different human tongues. The Minions count to three in Korean with "hana, dul, sae," according to the "Despicable Me" wiki. They love saying "banana" in English (along with the food itself) and "да" ("da") in Russian, meaning "yes." Coffin will pick and choose words from various languages -- "for instance, something Dutch for an argument as it’s quite guttural" -- when he sees fit. And then some of it is pure gibberish.
They are probably all male. Based on their first names, every Minion we've met so far has been a guy. It's possible some are asexual or genderqueer -- and one expressed shame at emerging from the water without some kind of upper chest covering in the new film's trailer -- but they might just be self-conscious dudes.
They are probably all immortal. Minions predate human history and are likely to live far beyond to serve some alien race.
They are one exact shade of yellow. In case you were wondering, Pantone has nailed it down.
There are around 48 unique-looking Minions. That's accounting for all the combinations of their different hairstyles, heights, number of eyes and other things, according to the wiki.
One-eyed Minions might lack depth perception. Unless the goggles make up for it somehow.
Over 10,400 Minions have been seen at one time, supposedly. That's how many are on the promotional poster for "Despicable Me 2," which someone actually counted, according to the wiki page.
The Minions were originally supposed to be a bunch of Orc-like "muscular thugs," not pint-sized goofballs. Coffin told The Guardian how the little guys evolved into their current yellow form in order to make Gru's character more likable. The animators "put goggles on them, added workers' overalls -- making them look like these subterranean mole men-type creatures -- gave them an increasingly saturated yellow skin tone and then they became the Minions," he said. Gru, somehow, was able to learn all their names.
UPDATE 7/3 -- HuffPost Entertainment spoke to Minions creator Pierre Coffin, who clarified that Minions, despite their male names, are genderless. Although the animators considered including some female names in the mix, they chose not to.
"Minions are so dumb that they couldn't be girls," Coffin explained with a laugh. Additionally, the director confirmed that Minions cannot reproduce or divide themselves in any way to create more Minions.
"Once you start saying, 'Well, they do reproduce and it happens this way,' it obviously becomes awkward," Coffin said. And so, however many Minions exist now is the same number that have existed through the centuries. They are basically immortal, even if the animators prefer not to answer that question outright.
"We're just sort of making things up as we move along," Coffin said.
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