“Minions may not have quite hit
the stratospheric stardom of
Mickey Mouse, but like Mickey
and other culturally significant
characters, they have won the
hearts of those who watch
them,” says Katherine O’Connor,
senior lecturer in animation at
Teesside University. “I would say
that they’ve hit one of the key
animation principles laid down
by Disney in their early days –
that of ‘appeal’, as well as the
classic cute tropes of the big
eyes and childlike proportions.
They are squishy and rounded
like marshmallows, blended with
a puppy-like appeal, and the
expected textural properties
of a stress toy. They allow us
to move back, through our
on-screen connection and
suspension of disbelief, to a
space of freedom and magic
that we once experienced
as children but has since been
lost or suppressed in adulthood.”https://catalogue.thehutgroup.com/zavvi/thelowdown/13-june-2022/34-35/
O’Connor says: “They have a life,
an existence even, outside
of the screen. Not just through
the merchandise, but in the
hearts of the public. Through
their affection for these
characters as ‘beings’, they have
taken on an existence of their
own – a life independent to that
of the constraints of the screen.”O’Connor says: “They have a life, an existence even, outside of the screen. Not just through the merchandise, but in the hearts of the public. Through their affection for these characters as ‘beings’, they have taken on an existence of their own – a life independent to that of the constraints of the screen.”