Illumination

Background
Illumination (also known as Illumination Entertainment) is an animation studio owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal. It was founded by Chris Meledandri in 2007, after leaving as president of 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios. The company was originally announced as Universal's family entertainment arm which would produce one to two films a year, starting in 2010. In Summer 2011, the company acquired French animation and visual effects studio Mac Guff to form Illumination Mac Guff (which was renamed to Illumination Studios Paris in 2021).

The studio is responsible for the Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets and Sing franchises. The minions from the first title are the studio's mascots.

(July 9, 2010-)
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Logo: On a dark background with a reflective floor, we see large stacked text reading "ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT" or simply "ILLUMINATION" (written in Futura Condensed). Minions appear below the text and perform a comedic skit, which varies between movies/trailers/shorts:

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Other Variants:
 * Despicable Me: Here are the two announcers in this variant:
 * Miles Neff: A tiny one-eyed creature peeks out and waves at us. Behind him, light shines through the words "ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT". Its brilliance blows past the creature like wind. The light fades. The creature falls flat on its face and crawls out of view.
 * James O'Hara: A small animated character with one eye runs up and waves. "ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT". The little character falls over and crawls off.
 * Hop: Now words appear: “ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT”. A frolicking minion tosses candy from a basket. He wags a bunny tail at a one-eyed minion but throws candy at his goggles. Embarassed, he takes off the bunny ear headband and grins.
 * The Lorax: Another logo appears: “ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT”. Two minions stand under a pink-tufted truffula tree. As one uses a chainsaw on the trunk, a chubby Barbaloot drops from the treetop and squashes him. Eating fruit, the brown bear looks to the other minion who backs away.
 * Despicable Me 2: Beside big silver letters spelling “ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT”, two minions try to outdo each other. The small yellow capsule-shaped creature slap fight. One shoves the other out of view.
 * Minions: Big silver letters read “ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT”. A singing minion falls on his face. Other minions stare.
 * The Secret Life of Pets: A silver logo reads "ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT". A minion points to it.
 * Sing: Big silver letters read “ILLUMINATION ENTERTAINMENT”. Some letters flicker out.
 * Despicable Me 3: Big silver letters spell “ILLUMINATION”. Three small yellow minions knock each other out. A fourth minion uses green gas to knock out the third, then reads from a piece of paper. One of the knocked out minions sprays gas behind.
 * The Grinch: The minion Bob holds a sparkler and stands under the word “ILLUMINATION”. Snowball the rabbit drops down and pyrotechnics go off. Sprinklers put out the sparks. Bob hands Snowball his sparkler. Fade to white.
 * The Secret Life of Pets 2: A ball bounces under the word “ILLUMINATION”. A group of leashed dogs pulls a minion into view. The dogs crouch around the ball, and the minion smiles. The ball bounces away, and the dogs pull the minion out of view.
 * Sing 2: The minions Bob, Stuart and Kevin stand together. Bob leads them in song. They sing with countless other minions. Above them, a glowing word reads “ILLUMINATION”.
 * Minions: The Rise of Gru: A logo reads “ILLUMINATION”. The minion Stuart swings on a disco ball and knocks several letters away, leaving the word “MINION”. He gets squished between the letters.
 * The Super Mario Bros. Movie: Stuart the minion revs a race car at a checkered starting line. A word glows in neon colors, then turns white: "ILLUMINATION". The kart breaks down. Stuart bangs on the kart and it accelerates.
 * The still version and some trailers lack the minions. Also seen on the game Despicable Me: Minion Rush.
 * Starting in 2016, the logo is three-dimensional, and appears to be neon-lit rather than naturally glowing.
 * Starting with the second trailer of Despicable Me 3, "ENTERTAINMENT" is removed.
 * From The Grinch to Sing 2, the logo cuts in and out.

Technique: CGI from Illumination Studios Paris. 2D animation for How to Draw a Minion, Saturday Morning Minions and Penglai.

Music/Sounds: Just the minions (voiced by Pierre Coffin) doing the actions based on the variant.


 * On the Despicable Me variant, a loud, bombastic three-note fanfare sounding similar to the 9th Viacom Productions logo and based on Richard Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra" is heard as the logo appears, composed by Heitor Pereira (one of the film's composers).
 * Starting in 2016, one of the minions (usually Bob) says the company name at the beginning or the end of each logo.
 * In variants where Bob appears without Stuart and Kevin, the name is said twice.
 * In variants from the Sing franchise, they sing the name in unison.
 * On Minions & More, they only say the name at the end of a few variants.
 * On Minions & More, sounds from the non-minion characters differ. Sometimes they use laughs, grunts and screams, other times they are completely silent. Unlike the others though, Miss Crawly uses full English sentences.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * None or the opening theme of the trailer for the still versions.
 * On Saturday Morning Minions, only Bob's voice is present.
 * There used to be a version of the Despicable Me variant on the company's website that removes the footstep sound effects, the fanfare sounds a little different and is louder and a little more bombastic, and the thuds when the minion falls and crawls off-screen are different. The minion's groans are still the same, though.
 * Sometimes, the opening theme plays over the logo, with the sound effects intact.
 * On some of the Minions & More variants, a calming guitar tune is heard.
 * On the Italian dub of Despicable Me, the minion (voiced by Francesco De Francesco), yells "Hey, ciao!" instead of greeting in Minionese. Pierre Coffin's original voice of the minion groaning at the second half was kept though.

Availability: Current and common. Seen on all of the company's films.
 * The variant formerly seen on Illumination's website is extinct as the website rebranded around 2016.
 * The prototype variant for The Secret Life of Pets is unused, and can be found online.
 * The logo also appears on Penglai, that being Illumination's first film without Universal's involvement, and the first one not to be paired on a home video release.

Legacy: This logo has gained notoriety for its constant use of the minions.