BLU-RAY REVIEW: MINIONS
12/7/2015

OVERVIEW: The breakout stars the world fell in love with in Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me global film franchise headline their own movie for the first time in Minions, available on Digital HD November 24, 2015, and on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand on December 8, 2015 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. A much anticipated prequel to the unprecedented worldwide blockbusters Despicable Me and the beloved sequel Despicable Me 2, Minions is an immensely entertaining film for all audiences called “inventive and hilarious” by Julian Roman, Movieweb.com. The Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and Digital HD also come with three all-new mini-movies and even more Minions everyone will want to watch again and again especially during the busy holiday travel season.

SYNOPSIS: Since the dawn of time, Minions have served (and accidentally eliminated) history’s most despicable villains. After their latest explosive mistake leaves them without an evil leader, the Minions fall into a deep depression. With the tribe on the brink of collapse, three unlikely heroes--Kevin, Stuart, and Bob—embark on a journey to find a new big boss. When their quest leads them to their next potential master, Scarlet Overkill (Academy Award® winner Sandra Bullock), our three heroes must face their biggest challenge yet: saving all of Minionkind...from annihilation!

BLU-RAY: The film is presented in widescreen in a 1.85:1 aspect ration preserving its theatrical format. The picture is just flawless. Not only the picture looks great in this release, also the sound it is good, a 7.1 Dolby Digital in English that provides a good complement to the picture. It also includes  English, French  and Spanish subtitles.

VIDEO:
Widescreen (1.85:1) 16x9

AUDIO:
Atmos Dolby True HD/DVS Dolby Digital 2.0 DVS (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (Spanish and French)

Subtitles - English SDH, Spanish and French

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Blu-ray™ unleashes the power of your HDTV and is the best way to watch movies at home, featuring 6X the picture resolution of DVD, exclusive extras and theater-quality surround sound.

DVD offers the flexibility and convenience of playing movies in more places, both at home and away.

DIGITAL HD with UltraViolet™ lets fans watch movies anywhere on their favorite devices. Users can instantly stream or download.

THREE ALL NEW ORIGINAL MINI-MOVIES:
Cro Minion
Competition
Binky Nelson Unpacified

DELETED SCENE – ME, MYSELF AND STUART
AROUND THE WORLD INTERACTIVE MAP - Explore the world of the Minions with this interactive map featuring a collection of games, trivia, featurettes, storyboards, and more all themed to movie locations.

BEHIND THE GOGGLES – THE ILLUMINATION STORY OF THE MINIONS – Get a “behind the googles” look at the history and evolution of everyone’s favorite yellow henchmen.

WRITER - See how the Minions evolve throughout the different time periods. Writer, Brian Lynch discusses creating distinctive personalities for the three main Minions, his VillainCon idea, and the Minion family.

BOSS’ OFFICE – Illumination Entertainment CEO and founder and Minions producer, Chris Meledandri discusses the origins of Illumination Entertainment and the genesis of both Despicable Me and the Minions.

ART DEPARTMENT - See how the Minions came to life, from the original art concept of the henchmen to the final creation of the Minions and how to differentiate them between new time periods. Also, see how the idea of Herb and Scarlett Overkill’s characters came to be.

GALLERY – CONCEPT ART (stills)

GALLERY – COLOR SCRIPT (stills)

COMPOSER - Listen to how composer Heitor Pereira creates the sound of the Minions and what it takes to create big music for small characters.

ACTORS STUDIO - Listen to the actors’ experiences being part of the Minions movie, who their favorite Minions are, and why they love them so much

NOTICE BOARD (stills)

SAFETY VIDEO

ILLUMINATION MACGUFF ANIMATION

ANIMATION - Go behind the scenes and hear about the challenges and excitement behind the Minion characters and bringing them alive through animation in the movie

LIGHTING, LAYOUT AND EFFECTS - A look at the ways in which layout and lighting plays a big role in the emotion and motivation in the movie. Also see the ways in which they try to keep the 60’s vintage look and the challenges they face with very technical shots, where one shot can take weeks.

3D MODELS GALLERY (stills)

DIRECTORS - Directors Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda discuss the unique challenges of creating distinctive personalities for the Minions

PRODUCERS - Producers Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy and Executive Producer Chris Renaud discuss the three main characters – Kevin, Stuart, and Bob – little family in the movie and the goal of creating a special bond between them and the audience when they leave the theater.

EDITORIAL - Editor Claire Dodgson discusses the distinctive editing style of the Despicable Me franchise and the three-year process it takes to make these movies from the original storyboards to cutting scenes with Minion dialogue.

STORYBOARD ARTIST - Learn how the actions of the words of the script turn into visual drawings and how much work is put in from the rough sketches to the final cut of the movie.

GALLERY – STUART HOT TUB STORYBOARD (stills)

JINGLE BELLS MINION STYLE - This holiday favorite is brought to life in a merry-Minion way. Now you get to sing along to the beloved video that was the most shared piece of content on Facebook in 2014.

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS THEATRICAL TRAILER