Summer Sequels: Despicable Me 2

Once you start, you just can’t stop.

In the summer heat, no one really wants to do any work, the clock gets watched more closely, and the calendar count-down to vacation gets a lot of attention. What we could all use right about now are some minions.

Fortunately, Despicable Me 2 is out, and it’s got all the minions you need.

Despicable Me was a huge hit – over half a billion dollars worldwide – so it’s clear the studio would get busy producing another one. But this is a sequel audiences actually wanted. Heck, I left the theatre in 2010 chomping at the bit for a Despicable Me TV show just for more of those minions.

The big success may be beyond the screen, however, is that a European animation studio – French studio Mac Guff (acquired by US Illumination Entertainment in 2011) – has finally done what no one else could: get US distribution for a project that was European-made but made-for-US-audiences. This is not just a milestone for international studios, but it just might change the animation industry. It will be interesting to see what Illumination Entertainment does for its next move.

Do you think it’s too much to ask that they might bring Spaceman Jax back to life and back to the big screens?