20 facts you might not know about 'Despicable Me'

Spanish writer and animator Sergio Pablos was the first person who worked on the project. He developed the movie that would become Despicable Me under the name of “Evil Me.” The project would take twists and turns from there, but in the end, Pablos retained "story by" credit and was an executive producer.

Chris Meledandri was president of 20th Century Fox Animation but left in 2007. He went to Universal, where he started his own animation studio under their umbrella. There, he founded Illumination Entertainment, and Despicable Me would be the studio's first film.

After Meledandri bought Pablos’ pitch for what would become Despicable Me, he decided to hire new screenwriters to flesh out the project. He brought in the writing team of Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. The duo had written Horton Hears a Who at Fox when Meledandri was president of animation, so clearly, he liked their work and trusted them.

Meledandri got his writers from Horton Hears a Who , but he also likely got a couple of his voice actors. Steve Carell, who voices Gru, voiced the Mayor in that film. Additionally, Will Arnett provided a voice in both movies.

To direct Despicable Me, Illumination turned to Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud. Now, these two were not a pre-established director duo. They were put together for this movie. Not only that, this was the feature-length directing debut for both directors.

Not many people get to legitimately change culture. Coffin and Renaud did. In addition to directing Despicable Me, they invented the language of the Minions, also known as Minionese. Coffin is from France, and Renaud is an American expatriate in France, so the French language influenced Minionese quite a bit.

Jemaine Clement voiced one of the Minions, Jerry, but otherwise, the directors handled the Minion voices. Renaud voiced Dave. Coffin voiced all the other Minions, including Kevin, Stuart, and Bob, now the three primary Minions characters.

Initially, the Minions were more human-like and would be traditional henchmen. As time went on and budgetary concerns grew, the Minions became the short, squat, and admittedly simplistic design synonymous with them.

Andrews was approached to voice Marlina, Gru’s mother, because the idea of playing an odious person went against her Mary Poppins image. (This was before she voiced a sea monster in Aquaman.) Andrews hesitated to take on the role, but they convinced her to voice Marlina.

Gru is more antihero than a villain, but obviously, he has a history of nefariousness before he has a change of heart. Gru is his last name. As we find out, when he adopts his girls, his first name is Felonious. This is a play on the name Thelonious, but felonious is an actual word related to criminality.

Steve Carell’s voice for Gru has a distinct accent to it. What goes into Carell’s Gru voice? He has described it as a cross between Ricardo Montalban and Bela Lugosi.

The date of May 26 recurs throughout the film. Many key events are happening on that day. It may seem like a random day of the year, but not to Carell. May 26 is the birthday of his first child Annie, born in 2001.

Illumination was quick to take advantage of the popularity of Despicable Me, primarily the Minions. On the DVD release for this film, three shorts were included to try and entice people to buy it. “Orientation Day,” “Banana,” and “Home Makeover” were all directed by Coffin.

The “Sleepy Kittens” children’s book from the film was turned into an actual book as a tie-in product. However, the real book did not include the brush featured in “Sleepy Kittens” in the movie.

The Minions takeover of culture couldn’t have happened without success from the get-go. Fortunately for Illumination, their first film hit audiences with gusto. The movie was made for $69 million, grossing $251.5 million domestically and $291.6 internationally. All in all, the film made $543.2 million, making it the ninth-highest-grossing movie of 2010.

While audiences showed up for Despicable Me, there was less attention from critics and awards bodies. The Oscars did not nominate it for Best Animated Feature, and even awards that gave it nominations didn’t yield much success. There was one sign of what was to come, though. The Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards gave it Favorite Animated Movie.

A few years after Despicable Me, we got Despicable Me 2. This is where the series really took hold as a franchise. Despicable Me 2 made a whopping $970.8 million worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing movie of 2013. This time, it got an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. In 2017, Despicable Me 3 crossed the billion-dollar mark at the box office, though it did not win a single award.

No shade at Gru, but the Minions are what drive the success of the Despicable Me universe. In 2015, we got Minions, a prequel movie about the Minions meeting a younger Gru. The film got mixed critical responses, but it made $1.159 billion at the box office. Minions: The Rise of Gru was released in 2022 after a COVID-19 delay. Once again, it has been a huge hit, racking up hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket sales.

Wiig voices Miss Hattie in Despicable Me, and she returned for the sequels but not as Miss Hattie. For the sequel films, Wiig provided the voice for the character of Agent Lucy Wilde.

This franchise isn’t going anywhere. Gru and the Minions are as much a part of the film fabric as anything today. Despicable Me 4 will come out in 2024. It’s being directed solo by Renaud, who left the world of the Minions after Despicable Me 2. It will also be the first Minions-related film not directed in some capacity by Coffin.