Illumination

Illumination, originally Illumination Entertainment, is an American animation film production company, founded by Chris Meleandri in 2007. It is now owned by Universal Studios, a subsidiary of Comcast. The company is best known for its first animated feature film, Despicable Me (2010), its sequel, Despicable Me 2 (2013) and its first $1 billion highest-grossing film and prequel/spin-off to the Despicable Me films, Minions (2015).

History
Meledandri left his post as President of 20th Century Fox Animation in early 2007 where he supervised or executive produced movies including Ice Age (2002), its sequel Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Robots (2005), Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007), and Horton Hears a Who! (2008). After leaving, he founded Illumination Entertainment. By 2008, a deal was announced positioning Illumination as NBC Universal’s family entertainment arm that would produce one to two films a year starting in 2010. As an independent production company, Illumination retains creative control and Universal exclusively distributes the films. During the Summer of 2011, Illumination acquired the animation department of the French animation and visual effects studio Mac Guff, which animated Despicable Me (2010) and The Lorax (2012), and formed Illumination Mac Guff.

Also see

 * Universal Studios