Despicable Me 4 follows Gru's (Steve Carell) challenges to bond with his son Gru Jr. When evil mastermind Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell) escapes prison and plans revenge, Gru must relocate his family and chaotic minions to a quiet neighbourhood and remain in witness protection.
FILMHOUNDS sat down with Director Chris Renaud to discuss how he attempted to provide a fresh perspective to the franchise and any challenges he faced during the production of the 4th instalment.
You've had a long history with the Despicable Me franchise, directing the first 2 instalments and working as an executive producer on many projects. How does it feel to return as the sole director for the 4th film?
I mean it was great. I've been away as a director since Despicable Me 2, which came out, wow, 10 years ago. So, even though I've been connected as you said to the other films and shorts subsequently, you know it's not the same. You're definitely more hands-on and day-to-day as the director.
I had been working with Chris Meledandri and Mike White and the team at Illumination developing the script for Despicable Me 4 before I signed on as director. So I certainly knew what the story was and where we were going, and you know, possibly some of the things that we'd have to talk about and think about creatively. For me, it was a great opportunity to sort of rejoin the world and the characters.
How has the success of animated competition, such as the Spider-Verse films and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, influenced the way you try to improve Despicable Me with every instalment?
Do you mean like visually or technically?
Just as a whole package.
Well, I think that as far as those other things, I don't know that we've thought about those specifically as far as what they are because we do what we do. I think that when we made Despicable Me, one of the things Pierre [Coffin] and Chris [Meledandri], the producer, were all really determined to do was really make a comedy first and foremost because nobody else was doing that. Really, I mean cartoon sort of Looney Tunes sensibility.
You have elements of it with the Scratch [shorts] and the Ice Age movies. The two things that you just cited like the Turtles and Spider-Verse, they're great, but they're not comedies. I think that when you're doing a sequel like this, what you have to do is deliver something [that] feels a bit fresh and adds to the world, but also delivers what people love about what you do. You know, if you did a complete left turn people would be like “Well, what was that?” So I think that was actually one of the big challenges making this film because our script and even the idea we started with—which was moving to an ordinary town to hide in witness relocation—it was a very grounded idea. So one of the things we had to really find were; “What are those fun over-the-top animated elements that are distinct in Despicable Me?”
We're seeing Disney explore live-action films with great financial success, is there a possibility Illumination and the Minions could eventually make that jump too?
God, I hope not. That's my answer.
I mean if there were conversations like that, I haven't been privy to them. But for me, what defines the world is that it is animated and it allows us to get away with what we get away with. Like locking a minion in the vending machine, or you know, blowing up Gru when he attacks Vector (Jason Segel). These are really cartoon ideas, like what would have been in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I think it just becomes something completely different if you do a live-action version. For me personally, not very appealing. But again, who knows what can happen but that's my personal feeling about it.
This is the fourth instalment in the franchise, when writing and directing this film was there an envisioned end for Despicable Me?
Not specifically… and I know what you're referring to and I'm not going to get into the specifics of the scene so when people watch it they get some surprises. For me personally, I did you know, I had what the scene would be in my head and I did really want to sort of create what I'll call a crossover event — which I used to work in comicbooks and that's what we would call it. An opportunity to see characters and things that we've seen across the years and Despicable Me films, it just felt like a fun opportunity. Really the perfect opportunity given how we were setting up the ending, which initially started out between Gru and Maxime Le Mal, which just felt like an opportunity that was too hard to resist. Again, I think it's one of those things that I think the audience really enjoys and appreciates, so that was kind of the inspiration.
Is it difficult to get good performances out of the big A-Listers that aren't really used to voice acting work [or rather] when it comes to voice acting, how different is it for them?
I think the main challenge for any actor who hasn't done it is energy. What I usually say, when I record somebody for the first time, is that what they have to understand is that we don't have their facial expressions, we don't have their body language. The voice has to do all the heavy lifting. What that typically means is the broader, bigger takes are what I end up using. I think sometimes when they're in the booth and it's somebody's first try they're like “Oh don't use that one, I'm gonna look like a fool”.
But the truth is that animation, and this was like one of the tenets of animation, remember way back in that ‘Illusion of Life' book, was that animation has to operate broader than the subtlety of the real human face and body. We're so in tune to facial expressions that subtly works, but for some reason when you put it on a stylised character it's kind of not enough — the character looks dead. So the voice has to kind of support the bigness of what's going to be the visual animated performance. And so once they get comfortable with that, it's usually a session or two, then we're fine.
I know you've had lots of big names within the franchise so far, but can you reveal any that you couldn't get on board or maybe took a bit of negotiation to join the team?
You know at this point what's happened, fortunately, is that the series is so well recognised—and particularly if someone has kids—we're more often than not able to get them. I think in the early days of Illumination everybody's like, “Who is this?”, and “Who are these people?” We don't have that problem anymore. I was very fortunate, and this was within [The Secret Life of] Pets films, to work with Harrison Ford on Pets 2. I thought that “Oh there's no way we'll get him”, but I think we got Harrison at a great point in his life where he was ready to kinda have some fun. So I think at this point people know what we do, they're comedies, they're light-hearted and fortunately we have some recognition. So more often than not we're able to get who we're going out for.
How difficult is it creating an entertaining movie not just for kids, but for parents too, targeting both younger and older audiences?
Well, our real target is as broad of an audience as possible. Although I would say, particularly with the Minions, children and families with children are a huge driver of who comes to see our movies, particularly in the theatre. It's what you can imagine, it's trying to find certain elements, like the baby in this film who does not like his dad. That's something that children aren't gonna have an appreciation for, but certainly any adult that can see a baby that doesn't seem to like them can relate to. Or, the idea of moving into a neighbourhood and the neighbours seem a little snobbish, a little standoffish, that's more of an adult idea.
Even some of the basic, not even just the comedy, but some of the basic story ideas are something that's going to be more relatable to an adult than a kid. But, I think that ultimately what we try to do, what we shoot for is a film that everybody can find something for themselves in it, and then everyone will laugh together. I mean I remember, and this is in the first Despicable Me, but we had the Lehman brothers joke not long after the 2008 financial crash. There's not a kid in the audience that's gonna understand that. But in that particular film, it was one of our biggest laughs and it was certainly pointed at adults. We always look for that kind of stuff that can play for an older audience as well as the kids.
Despicable Me 4 will be available digitally in the UK on 26th August.
