The Minions are consistently funny characters, but their weirdest appearance was in a straight-laced, serious flop of a YA fantasy movie.

The Minions are easily some of the most iconic animated mascots in years, with the lovable yellow "tic-tacs" being the stuff that memes and box office hits are made of. The face of the Despicable Me franchise, the Minions have also become the face of animation company Illumination, headlining a franchise that's still going strong over a decade later. Of course, not all of their appearances have been laugh-out-loud success stories.

The Minions also showed up, of all places, in the 2018 movie Mortal Engines. This box office failure of a Young Adult novel adaptation arguably came too many years too late to capitalize on the YA craze, but it did successfully give the Minions their strangest cameo yet. In fact, the movie made them more than just Gru's despicable sidekicks: it turned them into gods!

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The storyline of the Mortal Engines books and film is set in a dystopian, steampunk future where much of society has transitioned to gigantic, mobilized cities. These environments are essentially city-sized tanks that can actually consume each other, resulting in random rubbish and other "artifacts" becoming far more valuable than it was beforehand. Such artifacts include two idols that should be fairly familiar to fans of Illumination's animated films.

Early during the events of Mortal Engines, two statues of the Minions are seen, with those around the objects seeing them as idols that represent "ancient gods." This is hilariously ridiculous, though it's also logical. After all, given the gap of time, those in the far-flung future would likely see objects from current society as potentially more than what they were, having no real concept of their purpose.

Such was the case with two banana-loving statues in the movie's future, which were given all the reverence of a Pietà. The most interesting part is that this plot point was, in fact, in the original Philip Reeve Mortal Engines novel, albeit slightly different. There, the ancient gods were statues of Mickey Mouse and his dog Pluto, but the change to making the characters Minions might have made more sense.

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The popularity of the Minions can't be argued, though some might still object to their outright "replacing" figures as iconic as Mickey Mouse. At the same time, such an aura surrounding the yellow characters makes sense in a modern context, as kids nowadays don't quite see Mickey in the same light as their parents or grandparents. Back in the proverbial day, Mickey Mouse was synonymous with Disney, which itself was synonymous with animation and wholesome, family-friendly fun. In modern times, there's a lot more competition on the cartoon front, and Disney lacks the monopoly it once had. Likewise, Mickey Mouse himself doesn't have quite the same level of popularity with the younger generation, with other, newer Disney properties far eclipsing his former clout.

The same goes for non-Disney franchises, with the Minions being some of the most beloved animated characters across several generations. Beyond just kids and pre-teens, the Minions are stereotyped as being the subject of memes shared between grandparents and middle-aged moms, showcasing their cross-generational pull. This, along with their headlining box office juggernauts, bolsters the idea that they are the modern-day equivalent of Mickey Mouse. Of course, them being revered as outright gods might be a bit of a stretch, and it certainly didn't save Mortal Engines from stalling at the box office. The poorly-received movie simply came out too late, with the Young Adult novel adaptation craze having ended after the conclusion of the Hunger Games movies. Nevertheless, even with that movie's failure, the Minions will continue to go on to be annoying, lovable and utterly iconic parts of future projects.

Timothy Blake Donohoo is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he majored in Communication and minored in Creative Writing. A professional freelance writer and marketing expert, he’s written marketing copy and retail listings for companies such as Viatek. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, playing video games, watching documentaries and catching up on the latest Vaporwave and Electro-Swing musical releases.

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