From their first appearance in “Despicable Me” to their very own major motion picture, the minions have generated mixed opinions among students at MHS.

Senior Diana Guliyeva expressed her love for minions by saying, “They are probably the best animated characters I’ve ever watched.”

She has seen all the “Despicable Me” movies and hopes to see a sequel to “Minions” although it is unknown if the creators will be making one.

“From the first “Despicable Me” movie, I wanted [the minions] solely,” she said.

“Despicable Me” tells the story of an evil villain named Gru who uses children to carry out his plans. In this movie, the minions are secondary characters who help his cause, but in “Minions,” they are the main characters, pre-Gru, who are in search of an evil villain to serve.

If a sequel is made for “Minions,” some students already have hopes of what it might contain.

Guliyeva, for example, would like to see Gru and the characters with some type of hair. Such differences in appearances will help distinguish the individual minions, who are currently all yellow blobs in blue-jean overalls.

“I’d also like to see them make minion girls. That’d be fun. I’d call the girls Minotas,” she said.

Sophomore Nomika Harris had a different outlook on these animated characters. Her swaying opinion was mostly negative with a touch of positive.

“I don’t like the minions because I feel like they use the concept of them too much,” said Harris.

However, if the creators made a sequel, Harris, too, would want to make the minions all look different because adding variety would make is easier for the audience to identify each character.

“I would have more variety in their voices, too, because they use the same actor to voice all of them,” said Harris.

Pierre Coffin, actor and director, is responsible for voicing every individual minion. They are a more conformed group because of this. Some people feel that if there were more people voicing the minions (maybe even women), there would be more variety and more options with the plotline.

When it comes to their voices, Junior Meghan Ehemann said, “I saw the movie, and I guess for little kids it would be fun, but they don’t speak English, so I didn’t know what was going on. I would’ve made them speak English.”

Despite these complaints, there are viewers who found the original point to the minion characters appealing.

“Though they can be annoying at times, they are a great asset to the “Despicable Me” movie,” said Freshman Mikey Parduhn.

And their popularity doesn’t just exist on-screen; it’s off-screen, too, in the form of apparel, toys and games.

When it comes to the merchandise, Sophomore Nick Manaligod said, “I think they’re cute in the movies and animated, but once people start bringing that [minions] into real life, that’s creepy.”

Others can’t get enough of the merchandise.

“I wanted to buy the backpack, pajamas, the pencil case and pencils,” said Guliyeva.

Ehemann also is fond of the minion products. At one point she even had the minion cup. That is until her sister broke it.  Now, she would like to get the pajama pants.

Harris, though, criticized the repetition of the product, much like the criticisms people have of the minions’ appearance and the difficulty involved in telling them apart.

“They make everything look the same. If you got a keychain with a minion on it, it’s the same exact thing as a minion backpack,” said Harris.

But even critics of the characters and merchandise recognize its positive effects on children.

“Once I was babysitting these kids, and they weren’t in the best mood because they were tired,” said Harris. “All I had to do was show them a clip of the “Minions,” and their mood lightened up.”

Therefore, her favorite aspect of the minions is their “ability to make kids happy.”

While they were created for a young audience, teens and adults find the joy in them, too.

“I love them because I think they’re cute little beings,” said Manaligod.

And many people can’t help but chuckle when they hear the minion laugh.

Guliyeva said, “I think everyone gets a good laugh out of the movie, so why not make more?”