"Despicable Me 2": The Rise of Minions

Hollywood animation often happens like this: when an animation's supporting role unexpectedly gains popularity beyond the protagonist, the screenwriter will often add more roles in the sequel, and then produce an overwhelming effect. The most famous examples are the little squirrel in the "Ice Age" series that always chased the pine cones, and the four penguins in the "Madagascar" series. The latter even launched a spin-off animation "Madagascar" last year. "The Penguin", the studio's efforts to excavate the residual value of the film can be seen from this.

Of course, the "Despicable Me" series is also a typical example that is difficult to circumvent. In the first part, the "little yellow man", born out of the shyness of the production, has unexpectedly become the new favorite of global movie fans, so that the proportion of the drama in the second part has increased sharply, and it is impossible for the plot to develop. An essential piece of chess.

Corresponding to the rise of the minions is the bitterness of "Gelu". The character that was successfully portrayed at the beginning not only lost his previous personality and charm, but was also pushed along by the plot, looking so bleak under the shining of the little yellow man. In fact, the Chinese translation of the film has changed from "Despicable Me" to "Despicable Me", which may have reflected Gelu's embarrassing situation from one side.

The genre positioning of mainstream Hollywood animation basically determines the living space of "anti-heroes." Traditional moral values ​​and positive value systems do not allow "bad guys" to exist. Therefore, in the first part, we saw the process of Gelug being influenced by the three little girls and abandoning the evil to the good. This change in personality is bound to make the character plump and three-dimensional, and can produce a relatively good dramatic effect. However, when Gelug officially changed his job to a "professional dad" and talked about love in a cliche, the "sordid" side of his character was completely erased. Although it seemed to be kind and loving, he also became The plane becomes boring.

It can be said that if there is no minion’s tricks, "Despicable Me 2" will be an intolerable and unattractive animation. The so-called "Success is also Xiao He, failure is also Xiao He", this animation has almost declared its end while making the Minions. This year Universal Pictures will launch derivative works featuring Minions as the protagonist. From this perspective, the production company has made the transition from "Despicable Mess" to "Minions", and it should be at least commercially successful.

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