Renaud’s years of collaboration with Marvel and DC Comics allowed him to illustrate some of the most iconic characters of the modern era.  For his part, Coffin has created several of the most viewed animated shorts on YouTube, including 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

"Chris Renaud is somebody who I’ve worked with for many years, going back to Fox and Blue Sky Studios," Meledandri comments. "He came up through our story department and started out as a storyboard artist, but his experience prior to joining us involved a much deeper level of animation experience. 

"His roots come from the comic book world, where early on in his career he illustrated comic books.  Chris has a wonderful sense of story and how to translate that into imagery.  We had a particularly successful experience with him directing a short at Blue Sky called No Time for Nuts, which was nominated for an Oscar®."

Coffin comes to this side of the industry from his work in such celebrated animated shorts such as Flying Fish Tobby Who Aimed for the Stars and Pings.  "He’s worked on a number of short animation pieces that are absolutely extraordinary," continues Meledandri. 

"Pierre has that gift of being able to capture and define personality with the most subtle of movements. My attention was drawn to Pierre while visiting Paris and being shown about 15 minutes of his work. 

"I knew that he could bring a sense of personality and character to this film that would be wonderful in defining the character of Gru and finding his vulnerability, as well as his edge."

While Renaud’s strength is in storyboarding, fellow director Coffin’s primary work has been in animated performance. Indeed, that is primarily how the two men split their Herculean responsibilities as they crafted Despicable Me.  Management of the lighting,
compositing and art direction teams would be divided between the two.

Despicable Me is released 15th October.

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