History Franchise / DespicableMe

* OncePerEpisode: Gru's daughters are put in danger in every ''Despicable Me'' movie. In the first movie, they not only had to put up with [[EvilOrphanageLady Miss Hattie]] for God-knows-how-long, but [[spoiler:are kidnapped by Vector, with Margo almost falling to her death for good measure]]. In the second movie, they are almost eaten by Minions mutated by PX-41. In the third movie, they [[spoiler:are kidnapped ''again'' by Balthazar Bratt, and this time, they ''all'' almost fall to their deaths]]. They don't even get a break in spinoffs, as they are under threat of being sent back to Miss Hattie's in the ''Home Makeover'' short, and they almost get crushed by the machinery gone haywire in ''Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem''.

* OncePerEpisode: Gru's daughters are put in danger in every ''Despicable Me'' movie. In the first movie, they not only had to put up with [[EvilOrphanageLady Miss Hattie]] for God-knows-how-long, but [[spoiler:are kidnapped by Vector, with Margo almost falling to her death for good measure]]. In the second movie, they are almost eaten by Minions mutated by PX-41. In the third movie, they [[spoiler:are kidnapped ''again'' by Balthazar Bratt, and this time, they ''all'' almost fall to their deaths]]. They don't even get a break in spinoffs, as they are under threat of being sent back to Miss Hattie's in the ''Home Makeover'' short, and they almost get crushed by machinery in ''Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem''.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: A bit of a running gag with the minions.

%%*''Midnight Mission'' (2024)

* ''Despicable Me 4'' (July 3, 2024)

* ''Mooned'' (2023)

* ''Minion Rush'' (2013)

''Despicable Me'' is a CGI animated film series and Creator/{{Universal}} franchise that began with the 2010 film of the same name, produced by Creator/IlluminationEntertainment and distributed by Universal.

''Despicable Me'' is a CGI animated film series and Creator/Universal franchise that began with the 2010 film of the same name, produced by Creator/IlluminationEntertainment and distributed by Universal.

[[AC:Feature Films]]
* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' (July 9, 2010)

[[AC:Animated Shorts]]

[[AC:Comic Books]]

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:Theme Parks]]

[[AC:Video Games]]

[[redirect:WesternAnimation/DespicableMe]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/13b4ebd8_0644_4dc1_9764_f46a71af801a.jpeg]]

''Despicable Me'' is a multimedia franchise created and owned by Creator/IlluminationEntertainment (which in turn, is owned by Creator/UniversalPictures) about a wannabe villain turned anti hero who goes by the name of Felonius Gru, who gets into various shenanigans as he tries to take over and later save the world alongside his three adopted daughters, Margo, Edith and Anges, his wife and secret agent Lucy, his elderly assistant Dr. Nefario and his ''many'' yellow and silly sidekicks, the Minions.

The franchise is notably known for being the highest grossing animated film franchise of all time (surpassing ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' in 2017) and for being Illumination's FlagshipFranchise, to where the Minions act as mascots for the studio.

!!Works in the franchise:

[[AC:Animated films]]

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' (July 9, 2010)
* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2'' (July 3, 2013)
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Minions}}'' (July 10, 2015)
* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3'' (June 30, 2017)
* ''WesternAnimation/MinionsTheRiseOfGru'' (July 1, 2022)
* ''Despicable Me 4'' (July 3, 2024)

[[AC:Animated Shorts]]
* ''Home Makeover'' (2010)
* ''Orientation Day'' (2010)
* ''Banana'' (2010)
* ''Puppy'' (2013)
* ''Panic in the Mailroom'' (2013)
* ''Training Wheels'' (2013)
* ''Tree Lighting Ceremony'' (2014)
* ''Binky Nelson Unpacified'' (2015)
* ''Competition'' (2015)
* ''Cro Minion'' (2015)
* ''Mower Minions'' (2016)
* ''The Secret Life of Kyle'' (2017)
* ''Minion Moments'' (2017)
** ''Drenched''
** ''Overkill''
* ''Yellow is the New Black'' (2018)
* ''Santa's Little Helpers'' (2019)
* ''Minion Scouts'' (2019)
* ''Minions and Monsters'' (2021)

[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''Minions'' (2015)
** ''Minions Viva Le Boss!'' (2018-2019)
** ''Minions: Paella'' (2019)
** ''Minions: Sports'' (2021)
** ''Minions Mini Boss'' (2022)

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Despicable Me: My Dad the Super Villain'' (2010)
* ''Despicable Me: The Junior Novel'' (2010)
* ''Despicable Me: The World's Greatest Villain'' (2010)
* ''Sleepy Kittens'' (2010) -- {{Defictionalization}} of the book Gru reads to the girls.

[[AC:Theme Parks]]
* ''Ride/DespicableMeMinionMayhem'' : A ride based on the film which opened in 2012 at the Orlando Ride/UniversalStudios, followed by a duplicate being opened at the Hollywood park in 2014, then another duplicate being opened at the Japan park in 2017, and finally '''another''' [[PortOverdosed duplicate]] being an opening day attraction at their Beijing park in 2021. And apparently yet another will open at their Singapore park in approximately 2024.

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''Despicable Me: The Game'' (2010)
* ''Despicable Me: Minion Mania'' (2010)
* ''Minion Rush'' (2013)
* ''Minions Paradise'' (2015)

!!Examples for the franchise as a whole.
* BilingualBonus: The minions' language is mostly nonsense, but includes a mish-mash of words borrowed from other languages. They call ice-cream "gelato" (Italian), say "kanpai!" ("cheers!" in Japanese) when toasting one another, and in several scenes where they give someone something, it sounds as if they say "para tú", which means "for you" in Portugese. There's also a scene near the beginning of the first movie (the one with the water cooler) where a minion says "espera" ("wait", in Portuguese and Spanish).
* CentralTheme: Family and ThePowerOfLove
** The first film is about parent-child relationships.
** The second film is about romantic relationships.
** The third film is about sibling relationships.
* ColorCodedCharacters: Both the heroes and the villains have their own color schemes to set them apart.
** For the Grus:
*** Gru -- Black/Grey.
*** Margo -- Green.
*** Edith -- Pink.
*** Agnes -- Blue.
*** Dr. Nefario, Dru, and Robert -- White.
*** Marlena -- Purple.
*** Lucy -- Turquoise.
*** Minions -- Yellow.
*** Kyle -- Black.
** For the villains:
*** Vector -- Orange.
*** El Macho and Scarlet Overkill -- Red.
*** Balthazar Bratt -- Purple.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Even ignoring Gru's [[BenevolentBoss fair treatment]] of the Minions prior to his CharacterDevelopment, each villain has shown to have genuine care for their relatives and/or sidekicks. Vector has his father, El Macho has his son and pet chicken, and Scarlet Overkill has her husband. Even Balthazar Bratt, the most dangerous of the villains, gets along well enough with his robot assistant.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: While Gru is the franchise's main protagonist, the goofy, silly and [[KidAppealCharacter kid-friendly]] Minions instantly proved to be huge show-stealers and a [[invoked]][[TheMerch merch]] behemot, to the point of gaining their own spinoff films in addition to showing up in many short animated films and commercials.
* VillainOpeningScene: All the movies begin showing the villain's heist, with the exception of ''Minions''.
----

* SpotlightStealingSquad: While Gru is the franchise's main protagonist, the goofy, silly and [[KidAppealCharacter kid-friendly]] Minions instantly proved to be huge show-stealers and a [[invoked]][[TheMerch merch]] behemot, to the point of gaining their own spinoff films.

* SpotlightStealingSquad: While Gru is the franchise's main protagonist, the goofy, silly and {{kid friendly|Character}} Minions instantly proved to be huge show-stealers and a [[TheMerch merch]] behemot, to the point of gaining their own spinoff films.

''Despicable Me'' is a multimedia franchise created and owned by Creator/IlluminationEntertainment (which in turn, is owned by Creator/UniversalPictures) about a wannabe villain turned anti hero by the name of Gru, who gets into various shenanigans as he tries to take over and later save the world alongside his three adopted daughters, Margo, Edith and Anges, his wife and secret agent Lucy, his elderly assistant Dr. Nefario and his ''many'' yellow sidekicks, the Minions.


The franchise is notably known for being the highest grossing film franchise of all time (surpassing ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' in 2017) and for being Illumination's FlagshipFranchise, to where the Minions act as mascots for the studio.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Minions}}'' (July 10, 2015) -- A {{Prequel}} feature film starring Gru's yellow, well, minions, in TheSixties before they met him.

* ''WesternAnimation/MinionsTheRiseOfGru'' (July 1, 2022) -- Another prequel following Gru as a kid and his Minions in TheSeventies.

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' (July 9th, 2010)

''Despicable Me'' is a multimedia franchise owned by Creator/IlluminationEntertainment (which in turn, is owned by Creator/UniversalPictures) about a wannabe villain turned anti hero by the name of Gru, who gets into various shenanigans as he tries to take over and later save the world alongside his three adopted daughters, Margo, Edith and Anges, his wife and secret agent Lucy, his elderly assistant Dr. Nefario and his ''many'' yellow sidekicks, the Minions.

The franchise is notably known for being the highest grossing film franchise of all time (surpassing ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' in 2017) and for being Illumination's FlagshipFranchise, to where the minions act as mascots for the studio.