Powered by a track from Diana Ross and Tame Impala, the animation teams at Laundry Studios and Illumination Entertainment join forces to transport the Minions back to the 70s in this music video promo for the release of Minions: The Rise of Gru.

Laundry ECD/director PJ Richardson in LA: “To match the story setting, we took the opportunity to dive into many 70s visual styles from op art and Peter Max-inspired illustrations, to old James Bond title sequences and straight-up Studio 54 disco vibes. All while keeping it unexpectedly fun and light.

“Timeline was the challenge for sure. This is where working with the Illumination team really came into play. Instead of fighting a short schedule to very likely not reach the level of character animation of the film, we worked with their animation team and assets.

“They ran their character and render pipeline through motion capture of a dancer. Other 2D character work we were able to customize, was a lot more forgiving, and worked magically within our super trippy scene builds and transitions.”
 

 
Client: Illumination Entertainment
EVP Marketing Production and Operations: Cameron Stevning
ECD: Cameron Farrelly
CD & Animation Director: Momo Wang
Director of Social: Andre Hyun

Client: NBC Universal
President Music, and Publishing: Mike Knobloch
EVP Film Music: Rachel Levy
VP Soundtracks and Marketing: Nikki Walsh

Client: Decca/Universal Music
Head of Marketing: Holli Sullivan
Marketing and Label Consultant: Jade Powell

Production: Laundry
Executive Creative Director/Director: PJ Richardson
Creative Director/TD: Dennis Shin
Managing Director: James Sweigert
Executive Producer: Matthew Primm
Senior Producer: Peter Nelson
Production Coordinator: Mihta Garan
Editor: Justin Freedman
Designer: Chris Murray, Whitney Lam, PJ Richardson
Animator: Yuying Herr, Shervin Etaat, Yongmin Park, Sigrun Hreins, Momo Wang, Brian Castleforte, Trae Sjogren

Choreographer: Sherrie Silver