The Minions are back on our screens in Minions & Monsters, which currently holds the record as the highest-rated movie in the entire Despicable Me series, ahead of the first movie's 80% rating.
Ever since they won our hearts in the first Despicable Me movie way back in 2010, the cute little yellow critters have invaded pop culture over the last few years. Whether you've seen a Despicable Me movie or not, you'll know the Minions.
To mark the release of Minions & Monsters, we've rounded up some fun facts, figures and trivia on the characters and their movie outings below...
1. Who voices Kevin, Bob, Stu and the Minions? It's none other than Pierre Coffin, the French animator who co-directed the first three Despicable Me movies and directed Minions and Minions & Monsters. Don't ask him to do the voice though as it's his real voice, but pitched up six semitones (via Variety).
2. The average Minion stands at 105cm in height.
3. The Minions were originally envisioned as giant "Orc-like brutes", but over time, they got smaller and smaller in a bid to make their master Gru more sympathetic. "The easy way [to do that] was to actually have him surrounded by incompetence," Coffin said of the yellow critters.
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4. The Minions' language may sound like gibberish, but many of their phrases will be recognisable. "Banana" is banana (natch), "bapples" is apples, "para tú" is rough Spanish meaning "for you" and "gelato" is ice cream. Each word in "minion-ese" translates to an actual word.
5. Bob suffers from heterochromia iridum, making his eyes two different colours. He's in good company as David Bowie had it too, while Kate Bosworth and Mila Kunis also have a similar eye discolouration.
6. Short film Orientation Day suggests that the Minions were spawned from a single strand of mutated DNA that transformed into one-cell organisms.
7. The Despicable Me movies have grossed more than $5.6 billion at the worldwide box office. The first Minions movie leads the way with $1.16 billion, which makes it the 31st biggest movie of all time (as of 2 July 2026).
8. Outside of an officially-released short movie, the most-viewed Minions video on the web is a remix of the 'Papaya' song with a staggering 340 million views to date. Try and get it out of your head when you listen to it.
9. Talking of short movies, there have been a total of 20 short films released in the Despicable Me franchise so far with all-but two of them featuring the Minions as the main characters.
10. The Minions have two Oscar nominations under their belts, both for Despicable Me 2. The film nabbed a nom for Best Animated Film and Best Original Song for Pharrell's 'Happy', but sadly missed out on both of them.
11. The Minions love to croon, and as such they've sang versions of 'I Swear', 'YMCA' and 'Barbara Ann' across the movies. YouTube is rife with fan-made covers, including 'All About That Bass', 'Uptown Funk' and 'Let It Go', if you dare wade into those waters.
Minions & Monsters is out now in cinemas.
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Movies Editor
Simon has worked as a journalist for more than a decade, writing on staff and freelance for Hearst, Dennis, Future and Autovia titles before joining Cision in 2022.
