15 years have passed since Chris Meledandri founded the computer animation studio known as Illumination, and during that time, the company has managed to deliver extremely popular and acclaimed productions: The Lorax, Sing, The Secret Life of Pets, and Hop, to name a few. However, there is one franchise that is by far Illumination’s greatest hit, garnering millions of fans worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing animated movie franchise: Despicable Me. This saga was kicked off with the movie of the same name in 2010, naturally in hopes of hitting it big, but not expecting how overwhelming the success would be. The movie was directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin, with a cast consisting of Steve Carell, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig, Julie Andrews, Miranda Cosgrove, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher, among others.
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Despicable Me follows Gru, a villain who plans to steal the moon with the help of his massive army of Minions. Yet, he is faced with the toughest challenge of his life: three little orphan girls who are determined to transform him into their daddy. Of course, these little girls manage to conquer Gru’s heart, changing his life completely, thus sparking an endless number of stories to be told. From 2010 onwards, the Despicable Me franchise has only kept expanding, with films and shorts of all sorts, and still has a very bright future ahead of it. So, the question is: how many Despicable Me movies are there?
Despicable Me: The Story of a Blockbuster Franchise
Universal Pictures
The 2010 release of Despicable Me kicked off a multi-million dollar franchise that currently boasts five films split into two series: the main film series and the prequels starring the Minions. Three years after an overwhelming success, its sequel Despicable Me 2, also directed by Renaud and Coffin, was released. This time, Gru’s villainous days are long gone: he now devotes his time to fulfilling every one of the dreams and whims of his three adorable little girls and, of course, his Minions. But just as he had grown used to his life as a family man, he is recruited to work alongside secret agent Lucy Wilde to catch a shady villain who is apparently trying to fill his old shoes. What is most interesting about this film is that, after getting along terribly during the whole mission, Lucy and Gru eventually fall in love and, along with the girls, become a happy family that gives meaning to this former villain’s life.
It seemed that after these two movies, Gru was convinced that being a villain wasn’t right for him anymore. But that all changes in Despicable Me 3, a 2017 film, as both Gru and Lucy are dismissed from the Anti-Villain League after they failed to accomplish a mission. This triggers an identity crisis in which Gru starts to reconsider all of his life choices. On top of that, his long-lost twin brother attempts to pull him back to the bad guys’ side, making him remember how good it feels to do bad things. Luckily, Gru has a family that makes it worthwhile to remain a hero. This movie was directed by Coffin and Kyle Balda.
The Despicable Me series keeps on growing, with an upcoming fourth movie that was delayed many times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, just like many other movies. This film is scheduled for July 2024 (per Variety), with Renaud directing, and while not much is known about the film’s plot, it is expected to feature all the franchise’s well-known actors reprising their roles.
Minions Stealing the Spotlight
While all the characters in Despicable Me were very well received by younger audiences, the most successful ones were the Minions. So much so that Illumination went on to work on a parallel series of movies starring them, in order to present audiences with more adventures of these adorable and clumsy creatures. Thus, in 2015, Minions was released, a spin-off prequel directed by Coffin and Balda that turned into a box office hit, despite the fact that it got mixed reviews from critics. It depicted the origin of these yellow creatures, whose sole purpose in life is to serve the most evil villains. But after accidentally killing all of their masters, Kevin, Stuart, and Bob set out on a mission to find a new one. This film’s ensemble cast featured Coffin, Sandra Bullock, Michael Keaton, Jon Hamm, Steve Coogan, Jennifer Saunders, and Geoffrey Rush, among others. To this day, Minions is still the highest-grossing animated film not released by Walt Disney Pictures.
Seven years after Minions was released, Minions: The Rise of Gru, directed by Balda, hit theaters. The fifth installment of the Despicable Me franchise also suffered several setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a two-year delay in its release. An appealing aspect of this movie is that we travel back in time not just to the Minions’ past, but to Gru’s as well, to witness how he started his journey to become a supervillain at the tender age of 11 years old. This movie was much better reviewed than its predecessor and became, for the time being, the highest-grossing animated film of the year.
Short Films Featuring the Wildest Adventures
On top of the two series of Despicable Me films, the franchise also includes 15 short films that were included on each movie’s DVDs and supported their theatrical releases. With these short films, the filmmakers were able to expand on the adventures of the characters that children had grown to love so much: Minions. Thus, shorts such as Home Makeover, Banana, and Minion Scouts were released, among many others starring these little yellow creatures. Kyle the dog, Agnes and Binky, the youngest son of the Nelson family, were also featured in their own productions.
