3D Printing a World for Minions

The minions, first introduced in Despicable Me and its sequel before getting their own film, are not the most complex of creatures. Speaking nonsense that vaguely resembles Spanish, with a variety of number of eyes, and a general good will to do the best evil possible, they have worked their way into the hearts of one of the most diabolical forces known to humanity: children. I may be a bit biased, but if I am, it is only because my children have forced me to spend a significant amount of time watching them, time that I used to spend in such frivolous pursuits as reading, sleeping, or staring off into space.

Not content to allow them only their animated antics, there is also a line of plastic figurines on the market so that kids can create their own miniature minion mayhem. I do have to admit that they are cute. Cute in the same way as a tiny hamster only without the necessity of changing their litter or filling a water bottle. Part of what is so appealing about these creatures is their babbling, bumbling liveliness. Unfortunately, that’s pretty hard to capture in a set of hardened plastic statuettes.

In the best spirit of evil science tradition, the team at Indonesia’s MOXY Graphic Design was prepared to help reanimate these lifeless creatures. However, rather than relying upon a fortuitous bolt of lightning and the brain of a hanged man, they turned to the cleaner, friendlier, and altogether more legal method of 3D printing. The team at MOXY used 3D printers to create a series of backdrops against which the minions figurines could be shown to their best advantage and engage in their trademark wackiness. As the diminutive dynamos tumble through scenery, we see them move from prehistoric cave-minions to grass-skirt-wearing beach bums in a stop motion melee designed to capture the hearts and minds of wallet carriers everywhere.

Each of the minion figures has its own wardrobe and storyline and MOXY worked to create a backdrop that would put the figure in context and heighten their humorous nature. Pharoah Minion-Ra is shown dramatically posed in front of a 3D printed pyramid surrounded by sand; while the dastardly pirate Minion-Beard surveys the landscape through goggle covered eyes in front of a 3D printed shipwreck.

3D printing is playing an increasingly integral role in the creation of movies and merchandise as both an alternative and a complement to clay or computer graphics. In other words, it’s all going exactly according to the minions’ plan…as long as they can use it to assist in taking over the world.

What do you think of these minions and their three-dimensional landscapes? Let us know in the MOXY 3D Prints Minion Worlds forum thread over at 3DPB.com.