Meet Coffin, man who made minions

You would never expect someone of Pierre Coffin’s stature to be as humble as he is. Ahead of ‘Despicable Me 3’s television premiere on Sony Pix, the director of the Despicable Me-Minion universe, in his unique, polite way spoke to Roshan Nair about stepping down as the creative head of the Minion universe and how no one has ever told him about his Indian fans.

Excerpts from the interview:

The Despicable Me-Minion universe has been one of the most financially successful franchises the world over. But what has the Indian response to it been? Have you noticed that there’s a specific fan following for you in India?

No! I wasn’t told any of that! Nobody tells us anything! I am sort of a reserved, reclusive person. I rarely go out and rarely speak about what I do. I know that the stuff we did has pretty much been successful worldwide. But I haven’t heard of any specific responses from India.

Although you’ve created a very unique world, given that there is so much minion merchandise, adaptations and fan fiction, do you feel that your creations have escaped
you somewhere?

I am totally aware of that. I have even put myself in trouble many times when I spoke my mind about it. Anyway, I am going to do it again (laughs). When the directors make a movie,
we are not thinking of how much money the movie will make. While both ‘Despicable Me’ and ‘Despicable Me 2’ were huge successes, it was when the Minion movie came out that this whole thing happened. A lot of times there were poor choices in terms of what came out as toys. I told the producer that this would hurt the actual movie; that it would affect how people would perceive the movie.

Everyone agreed that the merchandise was kind of overdone, although we weren’t saying that this needs to stop. Nowadays, products go on to create other products and that sells both. That’s apparently how things work now.

I have been told that you will bring out Minions 2 in 2020. That would make it a whole decade of just Minions. So, have you ever felt the need to break out of this and make a non-Minion film?

Yeah. But I am not directing Minion 2 or Despicable Me 4, if there will be one. I told my producer that it didn’t interest me anymore. I will continue doing the Minion voices, which I take pleasure in. I am just not in the creative processes of the film. I am working on two other projects, but I haven’t really started on them as yet, so I can’t talk about them. They have nothing to do with the Minion world.

What is the reason the Minions strike a chord with people?

I have two theories, neither of which I am sure is right. One is that the minions were designed such that they are very easy to draw but are still universally recognised as Minions. Secondly, minions are at the essence of animation. The core of animated movies or characters are like the great silent movies, like those of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. The reason those guys were so universal is that you actually understand the story, the emotions and what the characters are thinking without any words. Similarly, people understand them without understanding what they are saying. I may be wrong of course.

When talking about his Indian fans, Pierre was keen to know about Indians’ love for Minions. The loudest he laughed during the interview was when he was told about the Brahmin avatar of the Minion: the Subraminion.

The adorable nonsense that the Minions speak is a jumble of various languages of the world. Pierre had been visiting Indian restaurants a lot, and so it turns out one out every 10 minion word is in Hindi. Hindi and Spanish have been Pierre’s go-to languages for Minion talk.