The Copy-Paste Movie That Made $1 Billion

Think of the standout computer-generated animated features you’ve watched in the last decade. Create an imaginary list of the ones you think might supersede your generation and become timeless classics, in the vein of Disney’s mid-20th century pictures. Names like WALL-E, Coco, and the latter half of the Toy Story tetrad probably come up. A combination of inventive storytelling, boundary-pushing technology, and raw command of a medium pushed these movies to the forefront of the modern zeitgeist of western animation. Yet, there is another feature that was just as successful but probably did not come to mind. A movie with a smaller budget than all of those listed above that still managed a box office release which yielded hundreds of millions more in profit… Minions?

Yep, by a box office measure, Minions reached more pairs of eyeballs and developing minds than most of Pixar’s filmography, with half the budget of an average Pixar film. If you find this hard to believe, you’re not alone. The last I heard of Illumination Animations, the production house behind the MCU (Minions cinematic universe), was their debut film: Despicable Me. At this point, it’s been almost ten years since I’ve seen it and I’ve retained zero understanding of the film besides the fact of its existence. Unbeknownst to me, illumination was hard at work for the entire decade pumping out sequels and prequels to despicable me in tandem with a handful of IPs and one licensed film that was so bad that the Suess estate has not given the rights for another movie adaptation in the years since. Prolific is an understatement here. Illumination has made some 10 odd films, of varying quality, and never lost money. but how? What is the secret to their domination of the highest-grossing animated features list?

Basically, they cheat. They use very simple character models, minimalistic animation techniques, and copy assets from film to film. In layman's terms, their budgets are so low because they don’t end up creating a lot of original stuff for each movie. That’s why most of their films have the same plastic-y style: it’s very economical. Plus it’s cute. There’s no realistic skin or hair, which makes lighting and rendering cheaper, but also makes creating toys out of Illumination’s characters extremely easy. Additionally, their style and low animation costs lends itself to advertising in a way that cute characters composed of basic primary colors draws the attention of any passerby. This is a calculated move that has seemingly paid off for Illumination in a very literal way, making them a competitor to industry titans like Pixar within their short, ten-year life as a studio.

The reason I am suddenly so interested in Illumination is their recent announcement of a sequel to their most financially successful film, the aforementioned Minions. Upon viewing the trailer for Minions 2: Rise of Gru, Illumination seems to be following the formula that has worked for them so far. The character models for the minions remain unchanged, even the humanoid characters begin to look alike (if you unfocus your eyes a little). In the trailer you can spot cars and city sets that have been used in other Illumination films and, with so many recurring assets, it feels like I’ve seen this movie before. That’s my real gripe with Illumination. Not that they are cheap with their visuals in and of itself, but that they fill the void of simplicity with a heaping dose of nothing. They aren’t sacrificing visual fidelity for quality storytelling or for any reason besides the fact that: if their movies are cheap and easy, they can make more movies, essentially printing money. I am scared that other studios will start to see how Illumination has been rewarded for valuing quantity over quality and follow suit. Of course, that seems unlikely now, but so did Minion’s chance at making $1.1 billion off of a $74 million budget.

With that, revisit the list of movies from earlier. Consider what tools of judgment you assessed them with. Does Illumination meet those same standards? Are they deserving of their box office success? Personally, I don’t believe so, but I do recognize the ingenuity that Illumination has harnessed to create a copy-paste movie machine.