This Minion trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the whole Despicable Me universe: Gru's plan to steal the Moon, the three girls he adopts, the Anti-Villain League, Lucy Wilde and El Macho, twin brother Dru and Balthazar Bratt, Maxime Le Mal and the Mega Minions, plus the two Minions prequels with Kevin, Stuart and Bob, Scarlet Overkill, the Vicious 6 and Wild Knuckles. The early questions are ones any fan who has seen the films can answer (who voices Gru, what colour the mutated Minions turn, what Agnes loves). Later ones dig into the making of the films: which studio in Paris animated them, why the Minions were not in the original script, who really speaks Minionese, and how much money the yellow henchmen have earned at the box office. It works for a family movie night, a kids' party or a classroom brain break, and every answer has been checked against a documented source that appears under the explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which actor provides the voice of Gru in every Despicable Me film?
Steve Carell
The accent was Carell's own experiment; one producer described it as halfway between Ricardo Montalbán and Bela Lugosi.
Q 02In the first film, what does Gru plan to steal to prove he is the greatest criminal mastermind?
The Moon
The shrink ray's effect turns out to be temporary, and the bigger the object, the faster it grows back.
Q 03Which famous landmark does Gru's young rival Vector steal at the start of the first film?
The Great Pyramid of Giza
The theft wounds Gru's pride and sets the whole moon heist in motion.
Q 04Where does Gru go to ask for a loan to fund his heist?
The Bank of Evil
Its president, Mr. Perkins, turns out to be Vector's father.
Q 05Gru adopts the three girls by pretending to be what?
A dentist
He only wants them to sell cookies at Vector's fortress so he can sneak inside.
Q 06Which of Gru's adopted daughters is the youngest and has a strong love for unicorns?
Agnes
She has been voiced by three different young actresses across the four main films.
Q 07What is the name of Gru's small, sharp-toothed pet dog?
Kyle
The pet even got his own short film, The Secret Life of Kyle, on the Despicable Me 3 home release.
Q 08Which legendary actress voices Gru's mother, Marlena?
Julie Andrews
The Mary Poppins star spends most of her screen time ridiculing her son's schemes.
Q 09Before she voiced Gru's wife in the sequels, Kristen Wiig played which character in the first film?
Miss Hattie
Playing the mean orphanage owner and then Gru's love interest makes her one of the few actors with two roles in the franchise.
Q 10Who provides the voices of the Minions themselves?
Pierre Coffin
The co-director only recorded temporary dialogue until a real voice actor could be cast, but test audiences loved it so much he kept the job.
Q 11What is the Minions' invented language called?
Minionese
It mixes gibberish with real words from English, French, Spanish, Indonesian, Hindi, Korean, Filipino and Italian, and it is re-dubbed for every country.
Q 12The Minions' look was partly inspired by which characters from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory?
The Oompa-Loompas
The Jawas from Star Wars, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Bugs Bunny were also on the mood board.
Q 13Early designs for the Minions imagined them as what, before they became small yellow creatures?
Humans and robots
They were not even in the original script and were added while the first film was in production.
Q 21The stolen mutagen in Despicable Me 2 turns Minions into mindless monsters of which colour?
Purple
The filmmakers first considered giving the Minions superpowers, an idea shelved until Despicable Me 4.
Q 22El Macho was presumed dead after doing what 20 years earlier?
Riding a shark into a volcano with dynamite on
He turns out to be Eduardo, the cheerful owner of the Salsa & Salsa restaurant at the mall.
Q 23Which star recorded all of El Macho's lines but left Despicable Me 2 shortly before release?
Al Pacino
Q 14The first Despicable Me was animated by the studio Mac Guff, which is based in which city?
Paris
Only about 100 artists worked on it, a fraction of a typical Hollywood animated feature.
Q 15What was the working title of the first Despicable Me film?
Evil Me
Spanish animator Sergio Pablos pitched it, imagining the lead as a Dracula-like figure.
Q 16In what year was the first Despicable Me film released in cinemas?
2010
It came out the same day as the sci-fi film Predators and beat it easily.
Q 17Which musician wrote and performed the original songs for the first Despicable Me?
Pharrell Williams
He shared scoring duties with Heitor Pereira, who has scored every film in the franchise since.
Q 18Which Despicable Me 2 song had a 24-hour music video and a Best Original Song Oscar nomination?
Happy
It was the best-selling song of 2014 in both the US and the UK and topped the charts in more than 19 countries.
Q 19In Despicable Me 2, what does the AVL stand for?
Anti-Villain League
Its director Silas Ramsbottom has Gru kidnapped from his own street to recruit him.
Q 20Having retired from villainy in Despicable Me 2, what kind of business is Gru running?
A jelly and jam company
The product is so bad that Dr. Nefario quits to go work for a real villain.
Benjamin Bratt was brought in to re-record the part with only weeks to spare.
Q 24How many dates do Gru and Lucy go on before they get married at the end of Despicable Me 2?
147
The wedding makes Lucy the girls' adoptive mother, fulfilling Agnes's biggest wish.
Q 25What was the Minion-shaped airship Universal flew around the US to promote Despicable Me 2?
The Despicablimp
It measured 165 feet long and covered a 20,000-mile tour.
Q 26In the 2015 film Minions, which three Minions set out to find a new boss for their tribe?
Kevin, Stuart and Bob
The trio's quest starts because the tribe has become sad and unmotivated without a master to serve.
Q 27The Minions went into hiding after accidentally firing a cannon at which historical figure?
Napoleon
The film's prologue shows them serving a T. rex, a caveman, a pharaoh and Dracula, and losing every one of them.
Q 28In Minions, the trio hitchhike to which gathering for supervillains?
Villain-Con
They get a lift with the Nelsons, a cheerful family of thieves.
Q 29Which Oscar-winning actress voices Scarlet Overkill, the world's first female supervillain?
Sandra Bullock
Jon Hamm voices her husband Herb, the inventor who supplies the gadgets.
Q 30What does Scarlet Overkill hire the Minions to steal for her?
The Imperial State Crown
The plan goes wrong when Bob pulls the Sword in the Stone and is declared King instead.