Summer Preview: Banana! The Minions expand their empire

NEW YORK — Some of the movies’ biggest stars barely speak a word of English, or any other language for that matter. The Minions may be the world’s most popular, and lucrative, foreign language movie stars — even if “Minionese” isn’t an officially recognized language. “It’s like power by wearing you out.” “There’s a paradox about them,” says Kyle Balda, director of “Rise of Gru,” “Minions” and “Despicable Me 3.” “They want to serve an evil boss of some sort yet there’s nothing evil about them, really. A breakthrough, Renaud says, came while they were scripting a scene where the Minions craft Gru’s internet dating profile and “go full incompetent.” That was when the “Despicable Me” filmmakers started to sense that they had hit on something potentially big — a truly cartoon creation with limitless possibilities. Says Balda: “It’s almost like the Minions tell you what they want to do as you’re drawing them.” ___ Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP