The “Despicable Me” franchise is well-known for its Minion characters, who are among the most recognizable modern icons in animated films. In fact, they have become the unofficial mascots of Universal Studios, the distributor behind the films. The recent Minions spin-off film, “Minions and Monsters” might just look like a tribute to the film industry on the outside, but inside, I can report, the movie also contains a disabled character.
Meet Ed, a Minion who is deaf. We are told that as soon as the two main Minions, James and Henry, meet Ed, after saving him from rubble in an incident involving a bunny monster being summoned from a spellbook, the two of them invent a new way to communicate with Ed. This is a form of sign language created for the film: Minionese Sign Language.
According to the director, Pierre Coffin, the idea for Ed came from the fact that the Minions speak a unique form of gibberish that has become one of the most iconic parts of the Minion fan base. Pierre wanted to have a hearing-impaired Minion who speaks this language, but in sign language. Pierre worked with a sign language coach to develop an Esperanto-like form of sign language.
One deaf family on an Instagram that deals with deaf families saw the movie early, took a liking to Ed’s character and his use of a new form of sign language. In an entirely sign language conversation with her kids, the mother in the family said she was surprised to see sign language used in Minions and Monsters. This is because it reminded her of her kids, who are hard of hearing. Later she said that even if the mom and kids didn’t understand some of the Minionese sign language, they still were able to recognize some gestures. This shows how important it was to have the disability community involved in creating this new language.
When I saw the movie, I really liked how Ed’s disability was not focused on a lot. It was only mentioned once, and he is treated like a normal Minion, other than the fact that he uses sign language to communicate. He also plays an important role in the plot by helping Henry and James find monsters for their movie by keeping the spellbook with monsters from earlier in the film, as well as filming the monster movie that James was making. This is the way disability representation should be, as it did not focus mainly on the fact he was disabled, but treats him like anyone else in the film.
The inclusion of Ed is a big step forward for mainstream animated films. Disabilities are not usually focused on in animated films, and to include a disabled Minion was a smart choice. Not only will deaf people see themselves in Ed, this opens the door for more disabilities to be portrayed in media. With several animated TV shows teaching viewers about disabilities such as autism, it’s only a matter of time before we see more disabilities in mainstream animated movies.