For Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri, it’s all about the magic of Hollywood.
A recent graduate of Dartmouth College, the born-and-bred New Yorker took a job as an assistant to Footloose executive producer Daniel Melnick. It was his first time in California.
“For me, there were a few things that really symbolized the magic of Hollywood that I had imagined. The first was the studio itself,” he says. “For me, having a parking space with my name on it was very life-giving because I was a runner, but it also symbolized being part of this magical industry.”
Since then, he has walked down Hollywood Boulevard countless times and his films also premiered there. But that first time was special. “You go from name to name looking for directors and actors that particularly resonate with you, and for me it was the embodiment of what I imagined Hollywood was becoming when I was walking around looking at the stars,” he says. “Every time I returned to that place, a magical feeling was evoked.”
On June 10, Meledandri was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, joining the ranks of magical names.
Meledandri founded Illumination in 2007 after serving as head of animation at Fox. The studio’s first film was the 2010 blockbuster Despicable Me, and other global hits include the Minions series and The Secret Life of Pets, which together grossed more than $11 billion at the global box office.
In 2023, Illumination collaborated with Nintendo (a first for a Japanese gaming giant) on “Super Mario Bros. Movie,” a hit that grossed more than $1 billion at the global box office despite the coronavirus pandemic.
The sequel, “Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” became the first movie to surpass $1 billion this year, and Illumination is scheduled to release “Minions & Monsters” on July 1st. The continuation of the popular Minions series is expected to generate a staggering amount of ticket sales. But it’s not about Meledandri’s box office success. It’s all about artistry and the hundreds of artists who have dedicated years of their lives to bringing animated films to the big screen.
Artistic excellence has always been of paramount importance to Meledandri. In 2007, when he was establishing his studio, the competition for artists was extremely competitive in the United States. “We really had to look elsewhere, so by the time our first project, the movie that Despicable Me was based on, was ready, we were looking for talent to make it,” he says.
In what he calls “one of the most serendipitous moments of my career,” Meledandri met a group of artists working at Mac Guff, an animation company and VFX house in Paris. These artists created “Despicable Me,” and “years later, it grew 10 times the size and is now Illumination Studio Paris,” Meledandri says.
He says artists can tell you intuitively what works and what doesn’t. “You can tell by feeling how interested the characters are in the filmmaking team,” Meledandri explains. “These are great barometers of the state of storytelling that you’re embarking on, and it’s just this incredible collaboration.”
With the release of Minions and Monsters just around the corner, director Meledandri says, “That movie is a great example of the group of people who came together to make the seventh movie in this series with such commitment and enthusiasm that it’s indistinguishable from the first movie.”
Minions & Monsters is set in 1920s Hollywood, and the yellow creatures put a unique spin on the monster movie genre. Pierre Coffin, who also directed the first three Despicable Me films and the first Minions film, returns to direct the film.
As someone who was involved very early in the storytelling process, Meledandri says, “This film will benefit not only from the talent of the artists, but also from the conviction of hundreds of people who have caught the bug of excitement that Pierre and I have for this new Minions movie.”
Visually, the film’s animation has changed significantly from the first film, showing the evolution of the studio. “This reflects the software that our research and development team has customized to support the process,” says Meledandri. “The fundamentals of the process are still very similar to when we started, but the ability to achieve greater nuance within the image itself has improved significantly.”
Meledandri teases that the film is highly imaginative and quite unexpected for a Minions movie. “We decided to tell a story that in many ways is an homage to the film itself and, of course, to the Minions’ roots as a character, regional inspirations such as Jacques Tati, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd,” he says.
Photo courtesy of Illumination & Universal Pictures
When planning your studio, especially in animation, you need to think long-term. “For example, if we didn’t plan to make the next ‘Sing’ movie four years ago, by the time we planned it, it would take another four years to get there. So we try to plan what makes sense.”
But it’s not as simple as saying you want to make another movie based on a successful series or original title. “We discover whether there is a story emerging that feels worthwhile enough to bring 300 to 400 people to work on over the next three to four years,” he says. “Once they jump into the realm of storytelling, they tend to declare themselves. We’re very fortunate to have several writers who are as much a part of Illumination as I am. They work with us year after year, and we’re united.”
Ahead of the release of Minions & Monsters, characters from the movie made their first appearance at the Illumination Theater at Universal Studios, Florida. It’s just an aspect of the movie translated into a theme park attraction. “The Secret Life of Pets: Off-Leash!” “Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood” is based on the animated film.
What does it mean to him to see an idea grow beyond a movie?
“Seeing people watch the movie come to life in the park is a real highlight for me, and the opportunity to allow the audience to have different experiences with the characters from the movie is also really meaningful,” Meledandri says.
Now everything is magical.
“Audiences come back to these movies primarily because they form relationships with the characters, and once they form that bond, they want to experience it in different ways,” he says. “What’s most important to me is that whatever experience the audience has, it’s in a way that’s consistent with the creative DNA of the film.”
chip sheet
Chris Meledandri receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Location 6357 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
June 10th around 11:30am
WEB walkoffame.com
