As our story begins, the Minions are currently masterless in the frigid Antarctic, having grown despondent the more time they spend without a master to serve. Over the centuries, they have had such great intentions for their numerous bosses, but in true Minion fashion, they end up accidentally getting each and every one of their masters killed. When the Minions finally do meet Gru, they’re more relaxed and less insecure. In 1969, however, they’re still in the middle of a steep learning curve. While the majority of film projects concentrate on casting after the script has been written, when preparing Minions, it helped enormously that the three leading men would be vocalized by one of the directors himself. While Minionese is actually peppered with words from multiple languages, the Minions’ physical comedy is what makes them universally accessible to moviegoers. Director Coffin’s goal has long been for the audience to understand the intention of and the melodies behind what the Minions are saying, not necessarily the verbiage that comprises it. As they’ve been around since the dawn of time—and done their fair share of globetrotting—the etymology of the Minions’ language is quite international. And why’s that? Well, whether it was learning the basics of ancient Egyptian from the Pharaoh, high-society French from Napoleon, proper Transylvanian from Count Dracula or simple grunts from the first of the brutish Homo sapiens, they’ve served so many masters across the Earth. That written, Coffin was quite thoughtful in developing unique intonations and vocalizations to differentiate Kevin, Stuart and Bob.
