Minion Mania

Illumination Entertainment... It's only been two years since they've released their first film in theaters. The three films they've produced all cost much less than what most animated films cost these days, they do very well at the box office and they're backed by incredibly aggressive marketing that pushes cutesy and candy-coated visuals down your throat. Kids love them, big time. Adults and teenagers found joy in Despicable Me, but Hop was for kids and Dr. Seuss' The Lorax was no different than Despicable Me with its paint-by-numbers writing and again, zany antics and visuals. Despicable Me 2 comes out next summer. That will probably be no different as well. What's next?

A Despicable Me spin-off film about the minions...

Slated for release in 2014, this is yet again another safe bet for Illumination. With Despicable Me 2 locked to do extremely well overseas and domestically, it's obvious that the little yellow creatures will be another money pot for the studio. Sure, the minions are cute and they certainly made Despicable Me a lot of fun, but having a whole film about them? That probably won't work well, but Universal and Illumination don't care. The kids will eat it up. Illumination is clearly the candy factory of the feature animation world, pumping out cheap, silly entertainment that aims at children first unlike the Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks films. Even Blue Sky and Sony to some extent.

That said, this will do it's job. Illumination is the most business-oriented studio of all the big guns, and boy do they reel in the dough each time out. The fact that their upcoming films are based on things we grew up with (minus the adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Pluto, who knows what they'll do with that) or pre-existing source material for children proves this. All three of their films are no different from each other, despite the fact that Despicable Me was at least fresh and fun when it first came out.

Anyways, are you looking forward to a Minions spin-off? Or do you think it's a pointless cash grab?