Despicable Me 4 is now available on Digital HD and to mark the occasion, we were able to catch up with director Chris Renaud to talk about the latest blockbuster entry in Illumination's fan-favorite animated franchise.
The fourth installment sees Gru square off against a new nemesis named Maxime Le Mal, and in our extensive conversation, we talk about the reunion of former Anchorman co-stars Steve Carell and Will Ferrell, as well as a number of other things including the introduction of the Mega Minions, the franchise's lasting power, the possibility of aging up characters, and a whole lot more.
Renaud's past credits include Despicable Me, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Despicable Me 2, The Secret Life of Pets, and The Secret Life of Pets 2. He also served as a producer on Minions, Despicable Me 3, The Grinch, and Minions: The Rise of Gru.
The film's full cast featured Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Miranda Cosgrove, Stephen Colbert, Sofía Vergara, Steve Coogan, Chris Renaud, Madison Polan, Dana Gaier, Chloe Fineman, and Will Ferrell.
Watch our full video interview with director Chris Renaud below and/or keep scrolling to read the transcription. Plus, please remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: Considering the lasting power of this franchise, what does it mean to you now having been part of this story since the beginning?
CHRIS: Well, I think that the whole franchise and the characters have a universal quality, a relatable quality, that's allowed it to kind of change over time, but keep its relevance. I think that, you know, first and foremost, we make the movies as comedies, you know, they're light hearted, they're there for people to laugh with and at, and I just think that inhabits a unique space in, you know, contemporary entertainment and animated films that really nobody else is doing, and, but people just like to come and have a good time. And, I think that also the characters themselves, starting with Gru and his family, there's, of course, everyone loves a villain, and that was really how the main concept started, but, we've seen Gru change over time. He's certainly less of a villain now, and he's more of a relatable family man, but he still has that kind of inner grumpiness that I think, in some ways, I always say it's about being a bad parent more than a good parent, and I think a lot of people can relate to that.
And then, of course, there's the Minions as comedic relief, or in some cases, in the Minion movies, even more than that, and they definitely define a universal quality through their design, their language, their actions, and I think that they've become really ubiquitous in contemporary culture. So, and again, I think the characters also live in our world. It's not a world of mystical creatures or animals, and I think that gives it kind of a potentially a timeless quality that allows us to do a lot of different things without having to bend over backwards to kind of fit it into a certain narrative or a certain structure. So, I think there's a combination of elements, but those are some of the big ones that I think have allowed it to flourish over all these years.
ROHAN: Yeah, I love how the Minions can fit into everything, really enjoyed those Nikola Jokic commercials during the NBA Finals.
Speaking of the Minions, what is the process behind those recording sessions? Are you coming up with their Minionese on the fly or is it more just trying to figure out what the funniest sounding words and sounds are?
CHRIS: It’s a little of that actually. So, what we actually do with those is we - so, I did Minion voices in the first two films, just a little bit here and there, but most of it was Pierre, even then and then, since Minions in 2015, it's been Pierre. There may be little, tiny things I do, but not much. So, we send the scenes to Pierre, and he'll give us a pass, but very often, what will happen, and it happened a few times on this movie, we’ll come back and say, because the Minions, you know, what's fun about it, it's not just gibberish. There's an element of it, of recognizing the word, you know, and so we'll go back to him and say, well, can you come up with something better for like, I'll give you an example, when Mega Dave jumps off the roof. I can't even remember - Oh, he had a yell. It's just a generic yell, which is pretty funny actually, kind of this high pitched yell. And then, we went back to Pierre looking for more laughs, and as we're always trying to pump it up, and he came up with the word suppository. *laughs*
That's what he yells as he jumps off the roof. So, it's this kind of back and forth and trying to, you know, find the funniest expression. And, we do several passes at it, you know, again, another example is there's a Minion in a vending machine, and we had a moment where he was sipping tea very demurely, which we thought was funny, but I guess it lacked a little energy in the moment. So, then we changed it to he was eating popcorn and cheering on the action and again. So, sometimes it's a back and forth of like, oh, we need more than just changing the voice here. We probably need to change the idea, and then we'll go back to Pierre to change the voicing to support that. So, it's a lot of back and forth to try to make it as strong as it can be.
ROHAN: Everytime they said "Pomodoro," it made me chuckle.
CHRIS: Yeah, that became, that was their Avengers Assemble, actually, right? *laughs*
ROHAN: I saw this the other day, Pete Docter asking Hayao Miyazaki, ‘When do you make changes for yourself, and when do you make changes for the audience?’ and Miyazaki replying “I never think about the audience" - do you have a similar approach or is it more film specific?
CHRIS: Well, I do think about the audience, and I think as a company, we do. I mean, look, I don't know Miyazaki’s process, but, we preview these films and we preview them, as I said, they are first and foremost comedies. And the great thing about previewing a film like this is that you know if a joke is landing or not instantly, and I like that. I look at it more like being a stand up comic, actually, and you hear stories of Jerry Seinfeld changing a word, rewriting the bit, and he goes out and he goes to clubs and he tests it, and that's exactly what we're doing. We're trying to find where are the laughs, you know what I mean? And, sometimes it's like, ah, let's remove that idea. It's just not landing. And sometimes it's, you know, oh, let's tweak a little thing, and then boom, it's through the roof.
You know, an example, I had one on Secret Life of Pets, but I'll stick with this movie, was the bus driver getting the pie in his face. That's the oldest joke in the book. And we tried a couple of different things, and it just never landed. It was like a hat on a hat. But then, we got rid of the extra ideas, which involves spitballs, and just went with the pie and the Minion yelling bazooka before he threw it. Boom. It worked. You know, it's one of these things. And, we tested a few different ways. So, I think that our process is a bit different because, you know, again, I think it's more analogous, almost, to creating a stand up act then, then, you know, something that we're not thinking about the audience, because we're really trying to create a comedy. I'm sure people, I have no idea, but I'm sure there are people that create comedies that don't test them either, but that is not our process. And I've been asked like, oh, do you feel like you're selling out and blah, blah, blah - I don't, because I think that there's no lying when you preview something. And, I like that, you know, you put it out there, it either works or it doesn't work. You cannot lie to yourself about that.
ROHAN: This film gets to reunite Steve Carrell and WIll Ferrell, which is a major casting coup - what was it like recording with them and were you able to get them in the booth together at any point?
CHRIS: We didn't, unfortunately, we did talk about it. The scene we really wanted to get them together on was towards the end of the movie, where they're talking to each other as just the two of them in the scene. And, you know, there's always a range of issues with, you know, first off, when we started recording actors for this film, we were coming out of Covid, and so getting anybody together was impossible. We couldn't even, you know, have somebody, I wasn't going to LA or anything like that. But also, the other big part of it are schedules. I mean, these guys are, you know, they're all at the top of their game. They're producers, they're writers, they're actors. So, there's also a level of difficulty of just making it happen. And honestly, I've actually never done that, but I have a very talented editor, and, of course, the actors themselves are so skilled that, really, I would defy anybody to point a spot where it doesn't feel like they're talking to each other, because I think what we're able to pull off is pretty amazing given the fact that two actors aren't together.
ROHAN: Ah, yeah, there's a scene near the end where it's really hard to believe they're not in the same room.
CHRIS: Yeah, right? I mean, it feels that way.
ROHAN: This film introduces the Mega-Minions, could we see those characters resurface in a future film?
CHRIS: It's not, it's a no. I mean, right now, it is what you see. I think part of what the challenge with a movie like this is all the stuff that we have in it, you know, and finding the proper balance of screen time between these different stories and characters. So, that's one of the reasons their superpowers are so archetypal and simple, because we just didn't, you know, things like Nightcrawler teleporting or whatever. There was no way we could explain that kind of stuff in the amount of time we've got. So, you know, right now, it is what you see. But, again, you never know. I mean, that's the fun part about the world. I mean, even in this film you've seen where, you know, the expanded universe comes together for a bit. So there could always be an opportunity to pick these characters up at a later point.
ROHAN: There's been a lot of talk recently about possibly aging up the younger characters in a potential Despicable Me 5, what are your thoughts on that? And/or would you prefer keeping them the same?
CHRIS: Listen, what I would say is, I think it's a compelling idea. I think that, you know, in some ways, if we wanted to go forward with developing new things, we might have to kind of break the mold a little bit, and maybe, you know, we fast forward into the future. Who knows? But, there's a lot of ways you could go. Ultimately, I mean, clearly, at least, I don't know, fifteen months went by between movies with the birth of the baby, but our decision - I look at the world a little bit like The Simpsons, you know, nobody ages, but they sort of play them at different ages. And, part of the reason for that, in this film, is that, and I agree, I mean, I understand from a visual point of view, it's a little trickier in 3D animation.
But if we age up Margo, in particular, it sort of starts to say, well, where's Margo now in life as a way to kind of avoid having to deal with that issue while we're dealing with all these other character things. It just feels like, I think, that the audience, to some degree, comes in and enjoys the nostalgia and the familiarity of the family as it is, versus like with this new addition of the baby, which is enough to process. And, if everyone is like, and they love Agnes, I mean, you know, when you have kids and they're sort of, you know, five and under, they're as cute as they're ever going to be, you know what I mean? So, to have a, I don't know, a nine-year-old Agnes, it starts to eh. So, anyway, it just kind of ultimately became a decision of like, what's the most fun and just the most pleasing experience, I think. And, despite the fact that it doesn't make sense, that's the great part about animation. I don't think the audience, I get asked a lot about this question from the press, but I don't think the audience cares. I really don't. I don't think they're viewing it from like, oh man, why isn't Margo older? I think they're just glad to sit with these characters that they've grown to love.
In the first Despicable Me movie in seven years, Gru, the world’s favorite supervillain-turned-Anti-Villain League-agent, returns for an exciting, bold new era of Minions mayhem in Illumination’s Despicable Me 4.
Following the 2022 summer blockbuster phenomenon of Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru, which earned almost $1 billion worldwide, the biggest global animated franchise in history now begins a new chapter as Gru (Oscar® nominee Steve Carrell) and Lucy (Oscar® nominee Kristen Wiig) and their girls —Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Madison Polan)—welcome a new member to the Gru family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad.
Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal (Emmy winner Will Ferrell) and his femme fatale girlfriend Valentina (Emmy nominee Sofia Vergara), and the family is forced to go on the run.
The film features fresh new characters voiced by Joey King (Bullet Train), Emmy winner Stephen Colbert (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) and Chloe Fineman (Saturday Night Live). Pierre Coffin returns as the iconic voice of the Minions and Oscar® nominee Steve Coogan returns as Silas Ramsbottom.
Packed with non-stop action and filled with Illumination’s signature subversive humor, Despicable Me 4 is directed by a co-creator of the Minions, Oscar® nominee Chris Renaud (Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets), and is produced by Illumination’s visionary founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and by Brett Hoffman (executive producer, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Minions: The Rise of Gru). The film is co-directed by Patrick Delage (animation director Sing 2 and The Secret Life of Pets 2), and the screenplay is by the Emmy winning creator of White Lotus, Mike White, and the veteran writer of every Despicable Me film, Ken Daurio.
Despicable Me 4 is now available on Digital HD!