‘Minions’ trailer: ‘Despicable Me’ sidekicks search for a master

They say good help is hard to find, but the eponymous yellow creatures in the first trailer for “Minions” are having just the opposite problem: finding a supervillain to serve.

Spun off from Universal Pictures’ blockbuster “Despicable Me” franchise, the first two films of which combined to gross more than $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office, “Minions” traces the evolution of the jabbering, capsule-shaped critters as they try to support the most heinous masters around.

From the looks of the trailer, which you can watch above, the tiny henchmen have offered their services to some fearsome company over the millennia -- including a T. rex, Dracula and Napoleon -- but for one reason or another, their bosses tend not to last very long.

By the time the 1960s roll around, the leadership vacuum is so dire that three plucky minions set out to do something about it, and that eventually leads them to the world’s first female supervillain, Scarlet Overkill, voiced by Sandra Bullock.

“Minions” also features the voices of Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney and Steve Coogan. The film is co-directed by Pierre Coffin (returning from the first two “Despicable Me” movies) and Kyle Balda (“The Lorax”).

“Minions” is set to open July 10.

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