Since 2010, the Despicable Me franchise has been delighting audiences with Minions, those little yellow henchmen to the villainous Gru. Minions aren’t just loveable, they also speak in a strange nonsensical-sounding language. But “Minionese” is actually a complex and deliberate dialect.

Co-directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud honed the Minions’ language, a combination of real languages, including English (“Banana!”), and old-fashioned gibberish, for years. Learn what their language means and how the Minions themselves, through precise planning and happy accidents, have shaped the films.