Illumination/Summary

Background : Illumination Entertainment is the production studio of Chris Meledandri, who left Blue Sky Studios in New York as a executive producer from Ice Age to Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! It is a subsidary of Universal Pictures (a Comcast Company on behalf of NBCUniversal). It started in 2007 with character animation & CGI by Mac Guff. It was later renamed as Illumination Mac Guff for Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. So far, their works include nine CGI films (most notably the Despicable Me franchise) and one hybrid. A print logo didn't appear until the first trailer for Despicable Me, and an animated logo was first used there.

(July 9, 2010 - )
Nickname : "Minion(s)"

Logo : Over a dark-blue gradient background with a reflective floor, "ILLUMINATION" appears in a tall font, with "ENTERTAINMENT" in a smaller font (but as long as "ILLUMINATION") underneath. While Minions (from the Despicable Me franchise) do appear in the logo, their actions vary by movie:
 * Despicable Me: From the right side of the screen, on a dark background, a short, one-eyed minion peeks out from the right side of the screen, anxiously greeting the audience. Then, all of a sudden, the text fades in quickly behind him, and glows, syncing with the music. This causes him to get frightened, and he struggles to frantically run away from the log but can't due to the powerful force caused by the logo's music. After the music finishes, he is finally able to stand upright, but he makes a fearful exclamation and whimpers, then suddenly falls over and exits the screen to the right by dragging himself on the floor.
 * Hop and Phil's Dance Party: The text is behind a one-eyed minion in the center. After a little while, a two-eyed minion wearing bunny ears and a cotton bunny tail comes prancing in from the left to the right while carrying an Easter basket and tossing confetti, while the minion in the center observes in confusion. The bunny one shows off his costume, but the other is not amused.
 * Dr. Seuss' The Lorax: The text is behind a Truffula tree (with the tree covering part of the text) and two minions. One starts up a chainsaw, and begins to cut down the tree. Suddenly, the tree shakes and Lou, the large Bar-ba-loot from the film, who is eating Truffula berries, drops in, landing on top of the minion. Lou resumes eating his Truffula berries and turns toward the other minion, who slowly backs away nervously.
 * Despicable Me 2: The text, which glows slightly at one point, is behind two minions. The one-eyed one sings "TA-DAAA!", then the two-eyed one shoves him aside and also sings "TA-DAAA!". The one-eyed one then shoves him and sings "TA-DAAA!" once again, and then they then start yelling "TA-DAAA!" at each other and start fighting until the one-eyed one shoves the other off-screen, and triumphantly yells "TA-DAAA!", then laughs. The other one then chimes "TA-DAA!" offscreen, causing the other to mumble in frustration while glancing out at the audience.
 * Minions: The text is behind five minions in the center. The others watch the center one, who is continuing to sing the holding final note from the fanfare of the preceeding Universal Pictures logo. He finally runs out of breath and falls flat on his face, then weakly holds out a hand for the others to lift him up, but quickly puts it back down as the others exchange glances.
 * The Secret Life of Pets (prototype): Stuart the Minion is seen teasing a Beagle puppy by pretending to throw a squeaky ball. He continues until a group of dogs (consisting of a Scottish Terrier, a Dachshund, a Boston Terrier, a Dalmatian and a German Shepherd) comes in, and the German Shepherd catches the minion in the act with a bark. Realizing that he's in big trouble, Stuart then throws the ball, allowing the puppy to chase it, but nevertheless the dogs chase him offscreen. A few seconds later, a chihuahua is seen chasing after them.
 * Despicable Me 2 (NBC airing) and The Secret Life of Pets: Bob the Minion walks in from the right, scatting a tune. After a little while, the text "MIN" and "ION" turns on and flickers briefly, while the light above the "I" in "MIN" glows in. The rest of the text, "ILLU" and "AT" in "ILLUMINATION", along with "ENTERTAINMENT", turn on the same way as "MIN" and "ION". Bob gets excited, shouts "Illumination!" twice, and squees.
 * Sing: Four minions are seen. Kevin blows a pitchpipe, then sings some "La" notes. Then, he clears his throat, takes a deep breath, and sings "Illumination." Then, Stuart and Mel join as the chorus while raising their arms in the air. Bob then screams the name with a crazy look, and holds it for so long, that the "MIN" and "ION" in "ILLUMINATION" lose power and turn off. He stops and looks at the text. He looks at the screen, and says "Whoops!" as the other minions stare in disappointment. This is the final film that features "Entertainment" in the logo.
 * Despicable Me 3: Three minions are seen, with Kevin holding a script, Stuart holding a flower in a vase and Mel holding a wooden hammer. Kevin clears his throat and tries to say "Illumination", but Stuart knocks him out with a vase. He tries to do the same, but Mel hits him with a hammer. Bob comes by with the fart gun (from the first two movies). The minion successfully says the name, and then Mel questions the fart gun, to which Bob sprays gas (which is green as opposed to brown). Mel faints in disgust. Bob then says "ILLUMINATION!" like in the version from The Secret Life of Pets, and chuckles. A fainted Mel then farts on Bob and he shakes his hand in disgust. Starting with this film, the word "Entertainment" is omitted.
 * Dr. Seuss' The Grinch: Unlike other versions, it abruptly cuts in from black. Bob is on the right side of the screen, holding a sparkler, and says "Illumination!". Snowball the rabbit, from The Secret Life of Pets (voiced by Kevin Hart), drops down from the top of the screen and yells "Yeah, ILLUMINATION!", and pyrotechnics suddenly spray over the logo's "stage", burning Bob's feet. Then water sprinklers turn on, dousing the flames and covering Snowball in water. Snowball says "Aw man," but then Bob walks over to Snowball and comforts him, and then gives Snowball his sparkler. Snowball says "Hm. Woah!" as the two look at the camera, and the logo's text brightens up the screen to start the movie.
 * The Secret Life of Pets 2: This is the first variant to not feature Bob since Minions. A ball bounces under the logo. Then, six dogs being leashed by Stuart runs to it and he yells, "Stop-ah! Stop-ah!" at them. The minion anxiously looks at the audience in relief and smiles, while the dogs crowd at the ball. As the ball bounces off, the dogs face the direction, and Stuart screams "Uh...Illumination!" before he gets pulled away, the dogs barking as they do.
 * Sing 2: The light turns on to show Kevin, Stuart and Bob [the protagonists from Minions], alongside Mel, Otto, and other Minions as backup singers. The camera starts backing away and floats as Bob starts singing, until it gets to the "ILLUMINATION" text [in which it glows]. After the singing is over, the "LU" & "A" flickers out leaving MIN and ION before cutting to black.
 * Minions: The Rise of Gru: Stuart swings on a sparkling disco ball saying "Illumination!". The disco ball knocks down the "ILL" and "AT" in the wordmark as Stuart jumps off the disco ball. He notices what the text now reads and jumps up and down excitedly while shouting "Minion!". Suddenly, the disco ball pushes the "ION" into the center, squeezing Stuart in the middle. Stuart says "Minion" again, although his voice is muffled due to him being squeezed in the middle of the text.

Variants :
 * Sometimes, the movie versions is shortened on trailers & TV spots.
 * Sometimes, the minion(s) is absent on some trailers & TV spots.
 * On the mini movies (such as Mower Minions and Yellow is the New Black) and Trailers (starting with Despicable Me 3), the version from The Secret Life of Pets is used, already formed, and still without Bob.
 * Beginning with Sing, the text appears to now be in three-dimensional.
 * On a few trailers for their movies, the variants from its respective movies are used. (e.g. the Minions variant was used on a trailer for Sing.)
 * Starting with the second trailer for Despicable Me 3, "ILLUMINATION" is now slightly shorter in height, and "ENTERTAINMENT" is omitted.
 * Some TV spots has the flickering of the letters of "ILLUMINATION".

Custom Promotional Variants :
 * On the first two trailers for Hop, the text is already-formed and the Minion (Same as the DM version) peeks in from the right.
 * On five TV spots for Sing, there are three Minions in the center.
 * On the teaser trailer for The Grinch, the text is off. Bob turns a flashlight on as if he's saying Illumination in a ghostly manner, while laughing maniacally after. The text suddenly turns on and he runs off in fear.
 * On the theatrical trailer for The Grinch, Carl blows a party horn which annoys Kevin. He notices, and when Carl blows it again, Kevin pulls it, attacking him with his elbow. The text is seen above, then goes to the center of the screen, with Bob saying "Illumination!"
 * On the trailer and the international trailers for The Grinch and The Secret Life of Pets 2, it is the same as the variation from The Secret Life of Pets, but without "ENTERTAINMENT". This also occurs on the mini movies The Secret Life of Kyle and Minion Scouts.
 * On the second theatrical trailer for The Grinch and the Minions Holiday Special, Bob says "Illumination" while raising his hands and sticking out his tongue to taste the falling snow, with Kevin and Stuart shaking their sleigh bells while looking depressed. Also, the minions wear their Santa hats with red overalls, and the text, even the floor, is covered in snow.

FX/SFX : CGI, done at Mac Guff in Paris, France.

Music/Sounds : Just the Minion(s) doing their thing, along with various sound effects.
 * On the Despicable Me version, it has an orchestrated 3-note tune, similiar to Viacom's "Wigga-Wigga" logo music.
 * Trailers/TV spots had their music playing over, sometimes with sounds.
 * On the Phil's Dance Party version, the tail end of the 2012 Universal logo music is heard when it fades in.
 * On The Lorax version, the orchestra starts warming up when the logo fades out, which leads to the start of the feature.
 * The mini-movie version is silent.
 * The version from The Secret Life of Kyle and Minion Scouts has the opening theme starting to play as the logo finishes.
 * The Despicable Me 3 and Minions: The Rise of Gru versions has its opening theme over it.

Availability : Seen on the aforementioned films. The Phil's Dance Party version is only seen on that short, which appears on the 2011 Blu-Ray of Hop, but it and the preceding Universal Pictures logo variant were cut from DVD collections containing that short. The Secret Life of Pets version debuted on the NBC broadcast of Despicable Me 2, inexplicably plastering its version.

Editor's Note: None.