小黄人逆袭成功，翻身做主角咯！

电影《小黄人》是卖座动画《神偷奶爸》的衍生长片，集中讲述小黄人们在遇到格鲁之前的漫长历史：在遇到格鲁之前，这群小东西可谓“成事不足败事有余”，几乎害死了每一任主人——从霸王龙、埃及法老，到拿破仑，甚至还包括357岁的吸血鬼。在和平年代，这群小黄人渐渐找不到自己的主人，慢慢地陷入了忧伤之中。不过，有三名小黄人开始了自己的新计划——他们要找到最强大的新主人，并且辅佐他的作恶事业。

为了了解小黄人的前世今生，《时代》杂志儿童版（Time for Kids，以下简称TFK）采访了本片的其中一位导演——皮埃尔·科芬。不说不知道，原來小黄人就是由他配音的！

Though he had been working in childrens animation[动画片] for years， director Pierre Coffin accidentally ended up as the voice actor for all of the minions in Despicable Me， Despicable Me 2， and now， Minions. After helping create the iconic[象征意义的] look of the lovable henchmen[追随者] for Despicable Me， he recorded a sample of what the minions might sound like for the movies producer. To his surprise， he was immediately cast[选……扮演角色] in the part—which turned into more than 100 parts over time.

Once the minions became so popular， Coffin and the other creators of the first two Despicable Me movies decided it was time to come up with a backstory[背景] for the beloved[心爱的] creatures. They created Minions to explain who and what these naughty little creatures are and where they come from.

Minions is a prequel[前篇]， set in a time before the minions became Grus henchmen. The story mostly takes place in 1968. It follows the three main characters， Kevin， Stuart， and Bob， in their quest for a new master after the minions accidentally killing off so many of their leaders.

“These guys have always been around and theyve always been searching for an evil[邪恶的] master，” Coffin told TFK.

尽管导演皮埃尔·科芬多年来参与了各种少儿动画的制作，没想到他最后却意外地成为了《神偷奶爸》、《神偷奶爸2》以及现在的《小黄人》中所有小黄人的幕后配音。科芬参与创作了《神偷奶爸》中这些可爱跟班的标志性造型，随后他给电影制片人录了一段小黄人的声音样板。令他吃惊的是，他马上入选演员阵容——他的声音更逐渐演变成一百多个角色。

小黄人爆红以后，科芬以及前两部《神偷奶爸》的主创人员马上决定，是时候为这些人见人爱的小东西创作一个背景故事了。于是他们制作了《小黄人》一片来解释这些淘气的小家伙的身世和来历。

《小黄人》是一部前传，时间设在小黄人成为格鲁跟班之前。故事主要发生在1968年，讲述了三个主角——凯文、斯图尔特和鲍勃在小黄人意外害死众多领头人以后，寻找新主人的故事。

“这些小家伙一直都存在，并不停地寻找邪恶的主人。”科芬对TFK说道。

TFK： How did the minions as we know them come to be？

Coffin： Originally[原先]， the minions were drawn as these big muscular thugs[暴徒]. We couldnt go that way because it was ugly. So we went to little guys in overalls[工装裤]， like humans， but very small. Then， we had the idea that maybe they were subterranean[地下的] creatures， so thats where the goggles[护目镜] came from， but we kept the overalls. They became these sort of frog-like characters. We realized those guys were pretty ugly， too， so the designer came up with their basic pillshape.

Also， there were only a couple of scenes with the minions. When we saw the first animation test， I remember saying， “Oh man， these guys are awesome. Theyre very expressive and funny. Weve got to find more places for them in the movie.” Around then， Steve Carell （who plays Gru） came up with the idea of naming all of them.

TFK：我们现在认识的小黄人是怎样来的呢？

科芬：一开始，小黄人被设计成那种身形庞大的肌肉型暴徒。我们不能那样做，因为太丑了。于是我们选择了穿工装裤的小人，和人一样，但体形非常小。而后，我们产生了“也许它们是地下生物”的想法，护目镜就是从这里来的，但我们保留了工装裤，然后它们就变成类似青蛙的角色。我们发现那些小家伙还是挺丑的，于是设计师就想出了药丸的基本造型。

另外，原本小黄人只有几个镜头。当我们第一次看到动画片的试片后，我记得我说：“噢伙计，这些家伙棒极了。它们相当有表现力，很搞笑，我们要在电影里多给它們一些镜头。”没过多久，史蒂夫·卡瑞尔（格鲁的配音）就想到要给所有小黄人取名字。

TFK： Whats it like now that theyve become so popular？

Coffin： It is heartwarming[暖人心房的] to see how loved these guys are， but its also scary to see them as much as we do. Theyre everywhere： on bags， phone cases， schoolbooks…Its almost overwhelming[强悍而令人难以应对的].

TFK： What language do the minions speak exactly？ Is it just gibberish[胡言乱语]？

Coffin： Its a mix of Spanish， French， English， Russian， Korean， Japanese， Chinese， Indonesian…The idea was to make these characters as international as possible. The main concept of the minion movie is to show that they served all of the evil masters around the world throughout time， so it would make sense that they have this mishmash[混杂物] of different languages embedded[使嵌入] in their own language.

TFK： Do people often ask you to do the minionsvoice？

Coffin： I cant really do it offhand[即时地]. Weirdly[古怪地] enough， I do write out the words that Im going to say because when you speak this kind of foreign nonsensical[无意义的] language， you have to repeat it over and over so that it feels natural， like a real language. I write it down and basically record myself over and over until the moment that it feels natural， which isnt the easiest thing to do with words that dont mean anything.

TFK：现在它们这么受欢迎，你有何感受呢？

科芬：看到这些小家伙如此受宠，我感到很欣慰;但经常看到它们又觉得有点吓人。哪里都是它们——在包包上、手机壳上、课本上……好像有点过了。

TFK：小黄人说的究竟是什么语言？或者只是乱说一通？

科芬：那是西班牙语、法语、英语、俄语、韩语、日语、汉语、印尼语等各种语言的混合体。我们的想法是让这些角色尽可能国际化。小黄人电影的主要构思是展示它们一直以来效忠过世界各地的各种邪恶主人，所以它们的语言当中凌乱地混杂着不同语言也很合理。

TFK：大家经常叫你扮小黄人的声音吗？

科芬：其实我无法随时那样做。说起来挺怪的，但我的确要把要说的话先写下来，因为当你要说这种没有意思的外来语言，就必须反复说，直到感觉自然、像真正的语言为止。我会写下来，一遍一遍地录音，直到听起来自然为止。用毫无意义的单词说话不是那么简单的事。

TFK： There are three main characters in Minions. How would you describe them？

Coffin： The basic concept， the basics of a human character divided into three. Kevin is the conscience[良心]， the big brother， and the hero in the most general sense. Stuart is the teenager who doesnt want to do anything. Hes lazy， tired， and very sarcastic[讽刺的]. Hes very keen on doing the forbidden[禁止的] things. He has that teen aspect[方面] that makes him very charismatic[有魅力的]. Bob is the innocent[天真的] one. Hes the cutest and the heart of the three. Hes very funny.

TFK： What else can you tell us about the movie？

Coffin： Its great fun because you know already know these characters as a group， but you dont know them intimately[密切地]. The whole movie is about these characters， so you get to meet our three main characters and a lot of others who are also important. While our main characters are out searching for a new master， we see whats happening to the whole core of the minions. All of these moments are very funny and all of the human characters are awesomely evil. Its very exciting to introduce new villains[坏人]， like Scarlet Overkill （voiced by Sandra Bullock）， who is the worlds first female supervillain.

TFK：《小黄人》中有三个主角，你会怎样描述它们呢？

科芬：基本的概念是，把一个人类角色一分为三。凯文代表良知，是大哥，是常规意义上的英雄。斯图尔特是那个什么都不想干的少年;它懒惰、疲倦，很会挖苦人，总喜欢做违规的事情;它身上带有的那种少年气息使他魅力无法挡。鮑勃则代表天真无邪的那一面;它是三人当中最萌的一个，也是它们的甜心，可搞笑呢。

TFK：关于这部电影还有什么可以透露的呢？

科芬：这部电影很有趣，因为你已经从一个群体的层面认识了这些角色，但对个体就不一定了。整部电影以角色为主，所以你会看到三个主角以及很多其他同样重要的角色。当我们的主角在外面寻找新主人时，我们也可以看到小黄人的整个核心部分发生了什么事情。所有这些场景都非常搞笑，所有的人类角色都极度邪恶。新反派的登场让人很是激动，例如世界上第一个女性超级反派斯佳丽·杀人狂（桑德拉·布洛克配音）就是其中之一。