Illumination (company) in the context of "Nintendo"

Santa Monica (Spanish: Santa Mónica, lit. 'Saint Monica') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to its climate, beaches, and hospitality industry. It has a diverse economy, hosting headquarters of companies such as Skydance Media, Hulu, Activision Blizzard, Universal Music Group, Starz Entertainment, Lionsgate Studios, Illumination and The Recording Academy.

Santa Monica traces its history to Rancho San Vicente y Santa Mónica, granted in 1839 to the Sepúlveda family of California. The rancho was later sold to John P. Jones and Robert Baker, who, in 1875, along with his Californio heiress wife Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, founded Santa Monica, which incorporated as a city in 1886. The city developed into a seaside resort during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the creation of tourist attractions such as Palisades Park, the Santa Monica Pier, Ocean Park, and the Hotel Casa del Mar.

Christopher Meledandri (/mɛləˈdɑːndri/; born May 15, 1959) is an American film producer and founder and CEO of Illumination. He previously served as president of 20th Century Fox Animation, working as the executive producer for the Blue Sky Studios-produced films Ice Age (2002), Robots (2005), Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), and Horton Hears a Who! (2008). Since 2010, he has worked as the producer for the film series of Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing. In 2021, he joined Nintendo's board of directors after working with the video game company on The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023). Meledandri also collaborates with Illumination's corporate sibling DreamWorks Animation since 2016.

Despicable Me is an American media franchise created by Sergio Pablos, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. It centers on a supervillain turned secret agent named Gru, his adoptive daughters, Margo, Edith, and Agnes, and his yellow-colored Minions. The franchise is produced by Illumination and distributed by its parent company Universal Pictures.

The franchise began with the 2010 film of the same name, which was followed by three sequels, Despicable Me 2 (2013), Despicable Me 3 (2017), and Despicable Me 4 (2024) and two spin-off prequels, Minions (2015) and Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022). The franchise also includes many short films, a television special, several video games, and a theme park attraction.

The Secret Life of Pets is an American media franchise created by Illumination. Directed by Chris Renaud, the franchise stars the voices of Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Tara Strong, Hannibal Buress, and Bobby Moynihan, among others. The first film, The Secret Life of Pets, was released on July 8, 2016 and received positive reviews from critics. The second film, The Secret Life of Pets 2, was released on June 7, 2019 in the US and received mixed reviews from critics. The series has grossed $1.3 billion so far.

The films follow a group of domesticated house pets who embark on various adventures outside the comfort of their apartment complex.

Sing is an American media franchise created by Garth Jennings and produced by Illumination. It features the voice talents of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Nick Kroll, Taron Egerton, and Tori Kelly among others. The first film, Sing, was released on December 21, 2016, and received positive reviews from critics. The second film, Sing 2, was released on December 22, 2021. The series has grossed $1 billion worldwide.

The franchise takes place in a world inhabited by talking, anthropomorphic animals. It follows a koala named Buster Moon who, with the help of other animals, puts on live theater shows that largely encompass singing.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a 2023 American animated adventure comedy film based on Nintendo's Mario video game franchise. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and written by Matthew Fogel, the film stars an ensemble voice cast led by Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, and Fred Armisen. It was produced by Illumination and Nintendo, and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film features an origin story for the brothers Mario and Luigi, two Italian-American plumbers who are separated after being transported to another world and become entangled in a battle between the Mushroom Kingdom, led by Princess Peach, and the Koopas, led by Bowser.

As a result of the critical and commercial failure of the live-action film Super Mario Bros. (1993), Nintendo became reluctant to license its intellectual properties for film adaptations. Despite this, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto became interested in developing another film during the development of the Virtual Console service. Through Nintendo's work with Universal Parks & Resorts to create Super Nintendo World, he met with Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri. By 2016, they were discussing a Mario film and, in January 2018, Nintendo announced that they would produce it with Illumination and Universal. Production was underway by 2020, and the cast was announced in September 2021.

Minions (/ˈmɪnjənz/) are a fictional all-male species of yellow creatures that appear in Illumination's Despicable Me franchise, created by Eric Guillon, Pierre Coffin, and Chris Renaud. They are characterized by their comedic behavior and their language, which is largely unintelligible.

The Minions serve as the official mascots for Illumination and have also been described by The New York Times as "corporate icons" for Comcast in the years since their 2013 purchase of Illumination's parent company NBCUniversal, similar to Mickey Mouse for The Walt Disney Company, Mario for Nintendo or Sonic for Sega.

This is a list of productions produced by Illumination (formerly known as Illumination Entertainment), an American film and animation studio based in Santa Monica, California, United States. This includes feature films, shorts, television specials, and digital series. As of 2025, Illumination has released 15 feature films, which were all distributed by Universal Pictures, with their first being Despicable Me on July 9, 2010, and their latest being Despicable Me 4 on July 3, 2024.

Their upcoming slate of films includes The Super Mario Galaxy Movie on April 3, 2026, and Minions 3 on July 1, 2026. In addition, an untitled film is slated to be released on April 16, 2027.

Despicable Me 3 is a 2017 American animated comedy film directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda and written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. Produced by Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures, it is the sequel to Despicable Me 2 (2013) and fourth film in the Despicable Me franchise. The film stars the voices of Steve Carell (in a dual role), Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, Coffin, Miranda Cosgrove, Steve Coogan, Jenny Slate, Dana Gaier, Nev Scharrel and Julie Andrews. In the film, Gru teams up with his long-lost twin brother Dru to stop Balthazar Bratt, a former child actor of the 1980s, from destroying Hollywood after his show was canceled years ago.

Development on a third main Despicable Me film began in 2013 with Coffin returning as director alongside Balda. The film was in the early writing stages by 2014, while the cast was announced in 2016. Heitor Pereira and Pharrell Williams returned for the music like the first two films.