'Despicable Me 4': Human characters in franchise are 'the best computer animated characters in the business'
The positive response to the "Despicable Me" franchise reminded director Chris Renaud of watching "Star Wars" as a kid
After being the first animated film in history achieve more than $5 billion in global box office revenue, Despicable Me 4 is now available to watch at home (available to own or rent on digital platforms). With characters voice by Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Joey King, Will Ferrell, Sofía Vergara, Miranda Cosgrove, Stephen Colbert and Chloe Fineman, there's been a great response to this latest adventure for Gru and the Minions.
"Honestly, it feels great," director Chris Renaud told Yahoo Canada, reflecting on the success of the movie. "It's gotten very difficult getting people to the theatre, I think that we're very fortunate and that we've managed to create a group of characters that people really love."
"When that social media trend took off with the GentleMinions, and I had a couple of experiences where kids in high school came up to me and said how much the movies meant to them, ... it reminded me of me being a kid and seeing Star Wars at the age of 10. I was like, oh maybe there's something more here than I'd even been thinking. And I think that the response to the movie, the strong audience reaction, the people coming to the theatre, ... I think is just a validation of that. And so it's really wonderful to see it and to be a part of it."
Creating a great 'Despicable Me' villain
In crafting this story where Gru has to face his rival from high school, Maxime Le Mal, it's an appealing story of revenge and holding a grudge that wasn't actually the initial direction for the Despicable Me 4 villain.
"[I] love the nature of the grudge because I think it's very Despicable Me and very human, where it's the little things that drive us nuts for the remainder of our days," Renaud said.
"We actually started in the script with a much more generic villain. He was very big and dangerous, because we needed somebody impressive enough, scary enough that would get the family to move. But it just felt generic. And so coming up with this idea of this guy who's a rival, but is very, very dangerous in his own right, just gave it a new dimension that ... unlocked comedy and some dramatic stakes as well."
Something fans have taken to social media to express their love for are the songs used in Despicable Me 4, with "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club being the catalyst for the Gru and Maxime Le Mal feud.
"What Karma Chameleon had and has that the other songs didn't is a visual component that is instantly recognizable, which, of course, is the costume of Boy George," Renaud explained. "And so there's just something very appealing about these characters really getting into the moment. ... That quickly became the winner."
Then later in the movie we get the Tears For Fears track "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" to close out the film.
"That was a pitch from the writer and I think it's obviously just perfect," Renaud said. "It's that sentiment that every villain seems to have, wanting to take over the world, for some reason. Who would want all these problems? I have no idea."
"It's got this kind of very heartfelt aspect to it, certainly when Gru is singing, with his family. ... It's got the two sides of it, much like the movies themselves, which is the sort of the two sides of the villains. Wanting to be the villain and then also having a soft spot, a soft heart as well."
Buy Despicable Me 4 through Apple TV for $29.99, or rent for $24.99
Minions with superpowers had been in the works since 'Despicable Me 2'
The task with every new Despicable Me movie is to make something new for fans, but without completely breaking down the things they've loved from previous movies. In this case, that's how we got to the Mega Minions.
"We give the Minions superpowers, which is something we had talked about since Despicable Me 2," Renaud said. "It's always a trick in these movies to figure out, what do we do with the Minions? ... What are they doing that won't disrupt the main story?"
"So originally in this movie, we were talking about them coming to Mayflower with Gru and the family, it might be funny to see them dress preppy, hanging out on yachts or at the country club, playing golf. Ultimately, it wasn't quite funny enough and it felt a little bit like we had to spend more time on it than we would want. So then the idea went to making them AVL agents. ... But that idea didn't feel quite new enough. ... So from that came, OK they're going to get some kind of super serum or whatever to give them superpowers, and so the idea kind of grew as we went along."
'Best computer animated characters in the business'
As technology continues to develop, the way animated films are created has also evolved. Renaud is still a strong believer that while the process of creating these movies has gotten "easier" for things like finding and fixing mistakes, the role of the "individual artist" in the process, over AI and other technology, is critically important.
"The human characters in Despicable Me, for me, bar none, they are the best computer animated characters in the business," Renaud said. "That artistic sensibility from the original design sketch, which is very graphic, to the way it's interpreted."
"I think the hand of the artist is, for me, something that I love and I really think is next to impossible to replace."
