His Heart Gru Three Sizes: Despicable Me

Launching A Franchise For A New Animation Studio

The late 2000s was an exciting time for big-budget animated feature films. In June 2008, Paramount’s DreamWorks released “Kung Fu Panda” and Disney’s Pixar released “Wall-E.” The next year, DreamWorks released “Monsters vs. Aliens,” Pixar followed with “Up” and Sony gave us “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”

In 2007, Chris Meledandri left his post as president of 20th Century Fox Animation and moved to Universal Pictures, where he launched his own animation studio, which he called Illumination Entertainment.

For Illumination’s first movie, he bought a story from Spanish writer and animator Sergio Pablos about a stereotypical evil genius but told from the villain’s point of view. Pablos called it “Evil Me.”Meledandri loved the concept but felt it would need work to turn into a blockbuster animated film. He brought in writer/directors Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, with whom he had worked on “Horton Hears a Who” at Fox. Meledandri must have enjoyed that project because he also brought in Steve Carell, who had voiced the mayor in that film, to star as the lead character in this one, Gru.

It was important for Gru to be an evil supergenius so there would be drama in his change of heart in the film. On the other hand, the film needed to maintain a level of humor and to not allow Gru’s single-mindedness grow too stale. Meledandri reportedly sent the script back for changes until he felt the correct tone had been set.

Eager for success for its first film, Illumination set up a number of marketing partnerships to coincide with the release of “Despicable Me.” These included Kodak, IHOP, Best Buy, American Express and Church’s Chicken. In addition, a video game was released.

“Despicable Me” was the 9th highest-grossing film of 2010. When it was released on DVD and Blu-ray that December, Universal — recognizing the true stars of the film — added three short films starring the Minions.

The success of “Despicable Me” has led to a number of sequels and prequels. In addition, Illumination would go on to release films like “The Secret Life of Pets,” “Sing” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”

The Plan Behind A Movie About Gru's Evil Plans

Carell has described the accent he uses for Gru as a cross between Richardo Montalban and Bela Lugosi. Directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud wanted actors who were adept at improvisational acting. Hence Carell as the lead character and Russell Brand as his elderly lab assistant and sidekick, Dr. Nefario. Brand was replaced in last year’s “Despicable Me 4.”

The design of Gru resembles an Emperor Penguin — notable because it’s the male of that species that cares for its young. Gru’s look was based on Christopher Lloyd as Fester Addams in the “Addams Family” films of the early 1990s. GRU is real thing, by the way: Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye, Russia’s largest intelligence agency.

Originally, the minions were meant to be more human-like: Burly henchmen. But as pre-production work progressed, the studio became concerned about how much it would cost to animate all those characters. Their smaller redesign was inspired by the Oompa Loompas from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and the Jawas from “Star Wars.”

Coffin and Renaud wrote a language for the gibberish the minions speak. They called it “minion-ese.” Each word the minions speak translates into an actual word. Coffin and Renaud performed all the minion voices themselves with the exception of Jerry — he was voiced by Jemaine Clement of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords.

Margo was named for Margo Chester from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” She was voiced by Nickelodeon cable TV star Miranda Cosgrove, who was 17 at the time. Edith, voiced by Dana Gaier, was named for Edith Bunker from “All in the Family.” Agnes, voiced by Elsie Fisher, was named for Agnes Gibson from “The Honeymooners.”

Kristen Wiig provided the voice of Miss Hattie, the head of the orphanage where the three girls live. For “Despicable Me 2,” however, she’d begin voicing an Anti-Villain League agent, Lucy Wilde. That character ends up accepting Gru‘s invitation to go on a date. They date 147 times before she marries Gru and becomes the girls’ stepmother.

The president of the Bank of Evil, where Gru goes for a loan to finance his plans, was voiced by Wil Arnett. The character was designed to resemble the pointy-haired boss in the “Dilbert” comic strip. A sign out front of the bank says it was “Formerly Lehman Brothers.” Lehman Brothers famously played a huge role in the 2008 financial crisis.

Gru’s rival in this story, Victor “Vector” Perkins, is the brilliant but arrogant son of the Bank of Evil president who shames all the other evil geniuses by stealing the Great Pyramid of Giza and then who steals a shrink ray from Gru. He was drawn as a thinly-veiled caricature of a young Bill Gates. Vector was voiced by Jason Segel.

Producers wanted Julie Andrews as the voice of Gru’s mother because Andrews’ usual screen persona is so clearly opposite the character. At one point in the film, a young Gru tells his mother that someday, he wants to go to the moon. “I’m afraid you’re too late, son,” she replies. “NASA isn’t sending the monkeys anymore.” Andrews would return in 2017 for “Despicable Me 3.”

Four months after the debut of “Despicable Me,” DreamWorks released “Megamind.” In both films, the lead characters are introduced as villains but become heroes. Both use their great intellect and create high-tech weapons and gadgets. Gru has an army of minions. Megamind has a sidekick he calls “Minion”: A talking fish in a robotic body.