Movie site Fandango has released the first installment of its new series of online video shorts, titled Movieclips Mini Movies: Featuring Brian the Minion. It will stream exclusively across Fandango’s digital network, including Movieclips, Fandango.com and its channels on Hulu, Roku and Samsung’s Milk Video Service.
The series is a collaboration between Fandango Movieclips, Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Illumination created the Despicable Me movies introducing the manic yellow Minions characters, which will be featured in the prequel Minions, opening in theaters on July 10.
Movieclips Mini Movies shows Minion characters in a theater, reacting Mystery Science Theater 3000-style to to scenes from Universal releases such Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Back to the Future and E.T.:The Extra-Terrestrial. The initial episode, timed to coincide with Friday’s release of the sequel Jurassic World, shows the minions watching the 1993 original Jurassic Park.
A division of NBCUniversal, Fandango was launched as a movie ticket pre-sale service in 2000. Its online offferings have expanded to include reviews, commentary, celebrity interviews and trailers. Last month, it launched the series I Love Movies, in which celebrities – including NBA star Dwight Howard, country singer Reba McEntire, skateboarding icon Tony Hawk, guitarist Slash and former Hootie & The Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker – share personal stories of how films have touched their lives.