About Minions

The Minions are small, yellow, cylindrical, creatures who have one or two eyes and are one of the most notable characters in the film.

Their existence as artificial beings is noted by the final schematics in the little girls' room. the minions are possibly made from humans by a ray that turns humans into minions as seen in the Minions Mayhem ride at Universal Studios. This is generally considered as non-canon (or just something Gru invented for the express purpose of the ride). However, one of the short films suggests they are made from a single strand of mutated DNA. The minions wear metal goggles accommodating their number of eyes, blue overalls with Gru's emblem on the front, and black gloves. They enjoy playing with Agnes, Edith, and Margo, as seen in the toilet paper fight scene.

They are impulsive creatures with little self-control, but with a wide-eyed wonder and odd innocence that endears them to viewers and makes them relatable. They can be pesky when they are doing weird interactions with other people, animals, or objects. The Minions have standard English names such as Dave, Stuart, Kevin, Jerry, Carl, Phil, Paul, Jorge, Tim, Donny, Mark, Lance, Tom, John, Steve, Frank and Bob

Unlike most other criminal masterminds and their usual doctrine of abusing their henchmen, Gru gets along famously with his minions. He genuinely seems to like them and even shows appreciation for their hard work and support. He even seems to know each of them by name.

 According to Pierre Coffin there are over 899 minions. However, on the Ellen DeGeneres show, Gru himself claims there are actually only 7 minions. He explains that the editor of the photo cuts and reimposes extra minions, and that two of the minions in the the picture above are "Ted", though the accuracy of his statements must be taken with a grain of salt, given the need to maintain the true strength of his forces secret from the public. Strangely, the minion Ellen first pointed that Gru called "Ted" is one-eyed while the second one has two eyes, though it may be that Gru thought Ellen was pointing at the two-eyed minion as he points back to the first picture of "Ted"
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Source : http://despicableme.wikia.com