Minions franchise like Bond films

American filmmaker Chris Renaud finds a connect between animated film franchise, Minions... and James Bond films. He says there are several facets of the stories waiting to be explored.

The James Bond franchise has grown popular over the years with a story around a spy who fights villains with the help of advanced gadgets. Daniel Craig is back as James Bond in the upcoming 25th instalment of the series. And Renaud feels that many common elements are present in his animated film franchises as well. 

"The good thing about those stories (Despicable Me and Minions) is that they are like the Bond films. There are a lot of ways in which you can make movies with Gru (the main character in Despicable Me) and his family," Renaud said. 

Renaud brought the world of Gru, his minions and villains alive with Despicable Me in 2010. "Gru comes up against the new villain, then there is a new family problem too and the girls facing different phases of life. The first one was about him adopting children, and then the second one was about finding love in Lucy Wilde, who becomes his wife, and then in the third, he finds a long-lost brother... That is the family dynamic the franchise has, and then there are different villains," he added.

At the moment, he is busy making a sequel to The Secret Life of Pets, a film which opened a chapter on of what pets do after their owners leave. "The idea of the film started with Chris Meledandri, the head of Illumination Entertainment. We were looking for a new project to start with. We were thinking of many different things but Chris asked us to think about a movie about what pets do when you leave the house," he said. Renaud added that the film "grew out of our shared love of pets". 

Talking about the sequel, he said: "We will be starting production very soon and are in the development stage of the story. We are sort of looking at the main characters and trying to think of ideas that would introduce change in their lives."

Renaud promises that the sequel will be fun.