Felonious Gru and his brood return to the big screen July 3 in Illumination and Universal Pictures’ Despicable Me 4, seven years after its predecessor and two years after spinoff prequel Minions: The Rise of Gru.
Co-directors Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage touched down at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in mid-June for its French premiere, prior to the movie’s launch in the U.S.
It was a special occasion for Renaud, who still gets goosebumps at the memory of the audience’s rousing response to the screening of the original Despicable Me movie there in 2010.
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Talking to Deadline the next day, Renaud admits he nearly teared up while on stage to introduce the new film.
“I could see it going that way, so I kind of talked myself out of it… it’s been a long time that I’ve been working with these characters, so you do get a moment to reflect a little bit,” says the Baltimore-born, Paris-based animation heavyweight.
Renaud vacated the director’s chair for Despicable Me 3, after taking credits on the original film and second instalment with Pierre Coffin, but has remained involved in the franchise throughout.
“In the Despicable Me–Minions world, even if I didn’t direct it, I’m either an executive producer or producer. I will be in reviews, giving ideas and creative input but it’s definitely not the day to day of being a director,” he says.
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Annecy always makes for a different kind of premiere, he suggests, because most the audience hails from the animation business, including, this year, some 100 staff from Illumination’s Paris studio where the film was made.
“It’s a very different vibe,” he says. “I was at the premiere in New York and then we’ll have a Paris premiere with some of the French actors [Gad Emaleh plays Gru in the French language version]. Each has its own kind of character in terms of what’s being celebrated and what people are bringing to the movie or thinking about as they’re watching.”
“I read a very funny tweet… somebody said, ‘You know you’re at Annecy, when the only actor who gets applause is Pierre Coffin,” he adds.
Coffin is not co-directing this instalment but continues to provide the nonsensical dialogue and voices for the Minions, with new exclamations including “Dua Lipa prosciutto.”
Despicable Me 4 sees Gru fall foul of childhood nemesis Maxime Le Mal after he orchestrates the latter’s arrest in an Anti-Villain League sting operation during a reunion at their old boarding school for baddies.
When Le Mal escapes from prison, Gru, wife Lucy Wilde, daughters Margo, Edith and Agnes as well as new family addition Gru Jr., are forced into witness protection in the upmarket town of Mayflower.
Faithful Minions Ron, Phil and Ralph join them, while the rest of the gang is rounded up and sent to AVL headquarters for special training, with five of them selected for a new experiment to create superhero Mega Minions.
Development on the movie began just as the Covid pandemic hit in early 2020, shortly after Renaud had delivered The Secret Life of Pets 2.
“Minions: The Rise Of Gru got delayed. There was a lot of knock-on effects not just for us but for everybody,” recounts Renaud. “We had a lot of elements, and it was a long journey trying to figure out the proper balance for all these different ideas that we were trying to weave through the story.”
The trigger for the storyline was a suggested scenario in which Gru and his family end up in a witness protection.
“That was the umbrella… on these movies, when you’re coming up with a story, you’ve got the two aspects, what’s the new family problem or dynamic? And then, who’s the new villain that Gru is up against,” says Renaud.
“It this case, the new family dynamic problem was the need to move, which was then married to the villain… Originally, he was kind of a more generic bad guy and then we got into the idea of him being a high school rival of Gru.”
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Steve Carell returns as the voice of Gru with Kristen Wiig as wife Lucy Wilde opposite new voice cast addition Will Ferrell as Maxime Le Mal and Sofía Vergara as his girlfriend Valentina.
“Will Ferrell felt perfect for the role against Steve Carell,” says Renaud.
The White Lotus creator Mike White and long-time Illumination collaborator Ken Daurio take co-writer credits.
“Mike came in and gave us a script that was very funny. He did a couple of drafts. It had the witness protection idea. Then we came back to him with the new idea for the villain being a rival of Gru’s from high school,” recounts Renaud.
“We had a great foundation from Mike. He’s obviously got great dialogue and ideas, things like Agnes not wanting to lie and Lucy working in the hair salon. From there, we worked with Ken Daurio, who was one of the original writers on the first three movies, to turn it into a Despicable Me movie.
“It was very grounded in its setting and character interactions. What we had to do was give it that kind of Looney Tunes, cartoons kind of sensibility, that’s a hallmark of the films. A lot of the stuff, particularly the Minions comedy, those specific moments, which are very often what get the laughs, those come out of the animation and storyboarding.”
Renaud describes the enduring popularity and cult status of the Minions as “a gift.”
“There are other things that have worked that way. If you look at Star Wars and something like R2-D2. He’s a fun character. To have something like that, that you can rely on, that people are going to be glad to see, is really a gift to us as filmmakers.”
He reveals his pleasure at the 2022 TikTok trend in which young fans donned a suit and tie to watch Minions: The Rise Of The Gru in theatres.
“You can only hope for that kind of dedication, and fans taking ownership. There were a lot of things that came together, which you just can’t predict,” he says.
“It was really a celebration, not just of the movie, but coming out of Covid and like let’s go have some laughs together. And yes, I’m sure some kids were rowdy, who knows, but for me, seeing that was so gratifying… seeing fans really embrace something, loving it and taking ownership of it. That’s really what you wish for.”
Like most directors involved in the Illumination productions, Renaud is based out of the company’s Paris HQ.
“Up until very recently, typically all the directors — whether they’re American, or Garth Jennings (Sing, Sing 2), who is English — are based in Paris. Sometimes I work with storyboard artists in the U.S. or the UK, but the picture is assembled in France.”
Renaud agrees that this gives the backdrops and details a European feel at times even when the films are set in the U.S., as the Paris-based artists tap into their own surroundings for inspiration.
“100%. Think of the school, the location, it feels like the Alps. That’s the fun part of having the French and American team… it’s everywhere and nowhere,” he says.
“They get there in a hot air balloon, we were originally thinking but it’s so far. Then we realise we don’t have to worry about those rules. It’s our world, it’s made up.”
He reveals that the large coastal town which provides the backdrop for the final mid-air, stand-off between Gru and Maxime Le Mal is loosely inspired by Stamford, Connecticut, while the family’s new home town of Mayflower is a composite of a number of places.
“The touchstones I was giving from a design point of view were Greenwich, Connecticut; East Hampton, Long Island; and Main Street Disney, so it’s got this kind of gingerbread kind of magical quality to it,” says Renaud.
Further new characters include demonic teenage neighbor Poppy (Joey King) and baby Gru Jr. Renaud acknowledges there was discussion over whether the introduction of Poppy would sideline Margo, Edith and Agnes.
“It’s narrative question. What we needed there was for Gru’s identity to be compromised… we weren’t going to get that narrative drive with Margo or Edith. We had a bigger storyline for Margo, at one point, as well as for Edith… but you have to make decisions on what to serve and where to put your focus and we always err on the side of what is going to be the most fun for the audience,” says Renaud.
Miranda Cosgrove and Dana Gaier have returned to voice Margo and Edith while Madison Skyy Polan has joined the cast for the voice of Agnes, previously played by Elsie Fisher (Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2) and Nev Scharrel (Despicable Me 3).
Renaud says there are no plans to age the girls and expand their storylines into puberty or college years.
“It’s funny, it comes up a lot. I don’t think the audience cares,” he says. “First off, to your point, we could do a story about Margo being 18 and going to college… but we’ve taken a The Simpsons approach that nobody ages. They’re frozen in time. I’ve seen the film with an audience quite a few times and I don’t feel people are coming out and seeing it as an issue, asking, ‘Why didn’t Margo grow up?’”
Renaud cannot confirm whether Maxime Le Mal or Poppy might reappear in future Despicable Me instalments or other spin-off works.
“I never say never but we’re not like Marvel where we have decades of comic books. It’s more about is there an interesting idea, like this one that began with witness protection, and whether characters like Poppy or Maxine can serve it.”
Following the introduction of the Mega Minion superheroes in a teaser trailer in early June, fans have also been asking whether they could be ripe for a spin-off, but Renaud says it is not on the cards right now.
“Making comments on superhero movies is very difficult at this point, there have been a lot humorous things – with films like Kick-Ass. So it was a struggle to look for material, that seemed funny and fresh in this world,” he explains.
“We have the Minions so that’s a help. I love that in this character design their tights are their skin colour with a zipper up the back. You can do dumb things like that with these characters to give them some distinction, but the truth is coming up with comedy around superheroes is tricky, because there’s just so much material and it’s been done in comics and movies.”
Box office expectations are high for the upcoming July 3 release in the U.S., especially in the light of a stellar $154.2M opening for Pixar’s Inside Out 2.
“Obviously I’m hopeful it does well. I think anything like that is good news for everybody,” comments Renaud, speaking prior to the June 14 release of Inside Out 2. “I also have nothing but sincere hopes for success for Inside Out 2, and I hope that they feel the same for us, I’m sure they do.”
“Has it changed of course,” he says of the current box office environment. “Is it ever going to be as huge as it was previously? Probably not, because the media is so fragmented but anything that happens that is good news, is good news and I’ll take it as that. If Inside Out 2 or Despicable Me 4 does well that’s good news for everybody and let’s not argue with it.”