The moment when you realized you had something with them?
And when I saw all these people just mimicking the choreography, thats when I lost all hope!
[Laughs]
Can you take us back to your own animation influences, then?
Who were the people who sparked your own interest?
Thats really not original!The Jungle Bookwas the one that was right up there.
Then the second eye-opener for me wasThe Simpsons.
When I saw the pilot for the very first show.
I remember thinking oh my god, this is going on TV.
Its politically totally incorrect, the humor is just awesome.
It was very adult for a kids show, although its broader than that, more a family show.
And then the third one was Aardman, and theCreature Comfortsshort, with the animals talking.
That was all about character, about subtle movement, the lip sync, the naturalism of the voice.
Everything was perfect in that short.
The pressure was more coming off at weird angles.
It wasnt going to come from my producer, Chris Meledandri, nor from the studio.
I cant walk in a toy store in a foreign country without seeing a kid with a minion backpack.
Its overwhelming to the point where Im sort of wondering if thats not doing the movie a disservice.
Thats exactly how me and Kyle [co-director] saw it.
We were so scared to lose the battle, we took it the other way around.
We cant do that.
It doesnt make for a good movie.
So we said lets put in there the reasons why we wanted to make the movie.
That I was brought up in a certain way, with classic musicals likeSinging In The Rain.
Lets play around with the music, and have the soundtrack be slightly unexpected for a kids movie.
You have the longest post credits sequence I think Ive seen to date as well.
Its a proper reward for sitting through the credit.
People sometimes leave the odd scene, you go for a full musical number!
So we just put that whole big chunk of thing where anything was possible.
Lets have all the characters from the movie come and sing at the very end!
And all the credit goes to Chris, my producer, who said yeah sure.
Is your life minions now?
Are you planting the seeds for a Minions Movie Universe with this one?
Thats the way cinema goes now I think!
Oh god yeah, I dont know.
All these things, we want to try and look smart, but we end up looking like fools.
I think thats where everyone wants us to go, but Im not sure wed be successful at it.
Its just that whole language thing.
With the second one, I thought I cant invent words any more!
So I used stuff from Indian cuisine, or French paintings.
It was totally stupid, but it totally made sense!
So it made sense that they would speak all these different languages.
Its not about the words, its more about the melody of these words put together.
Thats what Im trying to get my head around!
Pierre Coffin, thank you very much!
