Chris Renaud Quotes

United States, Illustrator
1966

Chris Renaud (born December 1966) is an American illustrator and filmmaker. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the 2006 animated short No Time for Nuts, which featured the character Scrat from the computer animated Ice Age films. His most notable work is the Despicable Me franchise, including Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, which he co-directed with Pierre Coffin. Along with Coffin, he also co-created and lent his voice to the Minions from Despicable Me.

Also known as Film Maker

We were going for simplicity with the Minions and, frankly, I think that's a huge appeal of the characters. They're essentially pills with goggles. A child can draw them quite easily.

Chris Renaud
- Simplicity
Drawing was a cheap way for me to express myself. It gave a focus to my thinking and my life from a very early age.

Chris Renaud
- Life
- Thinking
- Age

It is so gratifying for me the degree to which the Minions have been embraced. It's almost unprecedented in the CG animated world. It's amazing. That's really all a creator hopes for, that their characters grow beyond them. It's like Darth Vader and Batman. They've gotten bigger than their creators.

Chris Renaud
- World
- Amazing
- Batman
Drawing was a constant in how I expressed myself.

Chris Renaud
- Drawing
I always say that when I was a kid, I only played with the Darth Vadar and Storm Trooper action figures. I gravitated toward the villains. I think it's a common thing.

Chris Renaud
- Action
- Storm
Whenever you have an animal and bring another one into the house, it's a very traumatic event. It's a story as old as bringing home a second child from the hospital, when the first child kind of goes, 'Hey, aren't I enough?'

Chris Renaud
- Home
- House
- Animal
The great thing about working in comics is that visually, you're the sole voice. You have to figure out the staging, the lighting, the composition, the character emotions, the action. You get a script, but you're trying to work it out in individual panels. It's a terrific exercise in creative thinking and creative problem-solving.

Chris Renaud
- Work
- Great
- Thinking
When I was at Marvel, they were in bankruptcy, which is hard to believe now with 'Avengers 2' out, but it was during the 1990s. It was a troubled place. Comic book sales were dropping. Work was scattered.

Chris Renaud
- Work
- Believe
- Book

I get asked a lot if I'd want to get into live-action movies, and the answer, honestly, is 'no.' I'm an illustrator, and I think animation is an extension of that way of expressing myself. That's not to say I'd never make a live-action movie, but I don't strive for it.

Chris Renaud
- Live
- Movie
- Action