‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ Director on How Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and the 1970s Influenced the Film
Carole Horst “Minions: The Rise of Gru” may be filled with familiar, uh, faces of the lovable yellow creatures, but it transports them back to the 1970s, when Gru (still voiced by Steve Carell) was a supervillian in training and the Minions were looking to fit into his burgeoning world.The latest installment of the popular franchise from Universal and Illumination was directed by Kyle Balda, himself a veteran of the world of the Minions and a child of the ’70s. The animation team had to distill tons of research of the colors, the music, the architecture, clothes and hairstyles of the mid-1970s for the film, which follows elementary school student Gru as he applies to join the Vicious 6, a team of supervillians, but of course, events, with the help of the Minions, go awry.