Despicable Me follows a supervillain Gru (Steve Carell), his scientist assistant, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), and hundreds of small yellow creatures with strange speech patterns called Minions. Gru wants to be the best and biggest supervillain in the world. To get there and defeat another villain, he adopts three orphan girls to help him with his plan, and his life changes forever. Since then, there have been multiple films about his adventures, and the scene-stealing Minions have had two more movies of their own.
Which is your favorite Despicable Me film? Are you partial to the first one where everything started? Love Dru and his quotes so much that you’re an avid fan of the third one? Or are you a Minion-head who has tattooed Kevin, Stuart, and Bob on your body?
- Photo:
Gru's Plan: After Vector steals the Pyramid of Giza, supervillain Gru decides to steal the moon. To do so, he needs a shrink ray in Vector’s very secure base. To get inside, Gru adopts three orphan girls, Margo, Edith, and Agnes, who can enter the base because they’re selling cookies. Spending time with the girls, Gru discovers he cares for the three kids very much. When Vector kidnaps the girls, Gru exchanges the stolen (shrunken) moon for his new daughters, almost dying in the process.
What The Minions Are Up To: All kinds of shenanigans. They help Gru with his supervillain plans and become the girls' best friends. Their greatest moment is when they save the day. In the aerial fight between Gru and Vector, Margo jumps and misses the plane, falling from the air to certain death, so Gru jumps behind her to catch her. Who is catching the catcher? The Minions! They create a Minion rope and catch them before they hit the ground.
- Actors: Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett
- Released: 2010
- Directed by: Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin
Great movie?- Photo:
Gru's Plan: Gru (now a former villain) wants to be left alone to raise his daughters, but gets recruited by the Anti-Villain League (AVL) and partnered with agent Lucy Wilde. The mission: find a mutagen that can transform any creature into a deadly monster. Gru suspects Mexican restaurant owner Eduardo Pérez has the mutagen as he looks like “El Macho,” a supervillain who died years ago. He gets even more suspicious when Eduardo’s son woos Margo and starts dating her. Gru is right, but "El Macho" has used the mutagen on the Minions, transforming them into murderous purple creatures.
What The Minions Are Up To: The Minions are eating ice cream and having fun. That is, until they get kidnapped. Unfortunately, they get experimented on with the mutagen and become deadly creatures who help "El Macho". The Minions are so evil that they even try to (gasp!) kill Gru and his daughters. But, before the movie ends, they’re back to their yellow, adorable, lovely, not-so-bright, lemmings-like selves thanks to Gru, Lucy and the girls.
- Actors: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand
- Released: 2013
- Directed by: Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin
Great movie?- Photo:
Gru's Plan: Young Gru is still learning the supervillain ropes when he gets a call to audition for the Vicious 6, a supervillain team led by Gru’s hero, Wild Knuckles, until the other villains betray him. The interview goes poorly, and Gru steals the Zodiac Stone, making the Vicious 6 come after him. He gives the stone to Minion Otto before being kidnapped. Minions Kevin, Stuart, and Bob go to San Francisco to rescue him and learn kung fu under Master Chow, learning to “find their inner beast” and saving the day by fighting the Vicious 6 team.
What The Minions Are Up To: While Kevin, Stuart, and Bob are having their adventure in San Francisco, Otto has lost the Zodiac Stone, exchanging it for a rock. He understands his mistake and goes after the biker who has the stone and befriends him, traveling together and having fun experiences on their trip to the bay. The other Minions are back home, waiting for Gru and their friends to come back and start working on their master becoming the biggest supervillain in the world.
- Actors: Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh, Russell Brand
- Released: 2022
- Directed by: Kyle Balda
Great movie?- Photo:
The Plan: The Minions have always worked for evil masters, from a Tyrannosaurus Rex, to Count Dracula and Napoleon. After decades in the Arctic, three brave Minions (Kevin, Stuart, and Bob) decide to go out and find a new evil master for them and the other Minions to serve. After living in 1968 New York and learning about Villain-Con, they meet the first female supervillain, Scarlet Overkill, and become her Minions. They go to London, and while trying to help her, Bob becomes the new King. From there, hijinks ensue as they fight with Scarlet, and Stuart becomes a gigantic Minion.
What The Minions Are Up To: Kevin, Bob, and Stuart are having the time of their lives in New York and London while all the other Minions are waiting back home in an ice cave. When they meet a family of yetis, it looks like they finally found a new master, but that ends as badly as it could as the Minions almost kill them. To survive, the yellow blobs escape to London, where their friends have promised there’s a new supervillain to follow and help in her evil endeavors.
- Actors: Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan
- Released: 2015
- Directed by: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda
Great movie?- Photo:
- Despicable Me 4
- Universal Pictures
Gru's Plan: Gru’s family is expanding as he and Lucy now have a son, Gru Jr, a baby who is not vibing with his father’s energy. When supervillain Maxime Le Mal escapes prison, the Gru family has to go to a safe house as Le Mal and his femme fatale girlfriend, Valentina, have some unresolved business with Gru and want to kill him. While in the safe house and trying to pass as a normal suburban family, Gru, his son, and the Minions will do some spying and stealing so the kid can learn the family business.
What The Minions Are Up To: Although the favorite Minions are in the safe house with Gru’s family, most of them now work at AVL. Five Minions become volunteers in an experiment that will give them superpowers (or kill them, one of the two). The experiment is a success, and now there are five Mega Minions with powers: super strength, flying, elastic powers, an eye laser, and rock-like abilities.
- Actors: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Miranda Cosgrove
- Released: 2024
- Directed by: Chris Renaud
Great movie?- Photo:
- Photo:
Gru's Plan: After being fired from the AVL for not capturing the villain, Balthazar Bratt, Gru and Lucy don’t know what’s next. Everything changes when Gru’s secret twin brother, Dru, invites them to his house in Freedonia. There, Gru discovers their father was also a supervillain. While getting closer to his brother, Gru has a new plan: stealing back a diamond from Bratt with the help of Dru (who also wants to be a supervillain) and bringing it back to the AVL to get Lucy and his job back. Bratt kidnaps the girls and Gru, Lucy, and Dru go to their rescue, while also preventing Bratt from destroying Los Angeles.
What The Minions Are Up To: Led by Mel, the Minions are tired of not working for a supervillain, so they abandon Gru and look for new jobs. Unfortunately, they crash into a television studio and get sent to jail. There, they become the toughest jail gang of them all, scaring every other jail mate. Mel remembers the good times with Gru and the Minions escape the prison and try to help him save his family. In the end, they work for the new supervillain in the family, Dru.
- Actors: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier
- Released: 2017
- Directed by: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda
Great movie?
