Mini-Me

Mini-Me is a character played by Verne Troyer in the second and third Austin Powers movies; Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember.

History

When Dr. Evil was sent back in time to 1969, his minions made him a clone, in addition to his supposedly cloned son Scott. The clone was identical in every way but "one-eighth his size." (in reality, he is only about a third of Dr. Evil's size) Upon being introduced to his clone, Dr. Evil immediately declared "Breathtaking. I shall call him... Mini-Me". Mini-Me has almost no dialogue in the films, beyond an occasional frightened "eeeeee!". He also likes to lip-synch the occasional line when Dr. Evil raps. In the beginning of Goldmember, Dr. Evil asks him to "Use your words like a big boy clone!". At one point, he asks Dr. Evil to hug him after meeting Fat Bastard, who wants to eat him. On most other occasions, Mini-Me prefers to express himself through written notes.

Mini-Me has a pet called Mini-Mr. Bigglesworth, a kitten version of Dr. Evil's cat. He loves Belgian chocolate and terrorizing Scott Evil, Dr. Evil's son and rival for his affection. He is sometimes referred to and treated as a dog or other small object. Scott refers to him as "That vicious little... Chihuahua thing". Austin says, upon Mini-Me being knocked out, "Poor little bugger...he's like a dog or something". In the third movie's opening scenes, Dr. Evil uses a leash to restrain Mini-Me from attacking Scott. He also has the tendency to dry hump random things. Nigel Powers, upon seeing him, says "Blimey, I thought I smelled cabbage", thinking he is a Carny (referring back to an anecdote from the first Austin Powers film). Mini-Me is appropriately confused by the remark.

A memorable gag had him passing a series of notes to Foxxy Cleopatra, first stating she was so beautiful, she must be the clone of an angel. When she smilingly disagreed, the second note asked if she was sure she didn't have a little clone in her. The third asked if she'd like to. As seen by Nigel Powers' reaction to Mini-Me's genitals ("If you ever get tired, you can use it as a kickstand" and "You're a tripod!"), he seems to have a large penis, which may or may not follow the "¹/₈ Dr. Evil's size" rule.

Hand-to-hand combat

Despite his stature, Mini-Me is very adept at hand-to-hand combat, beating Austin Powers into submission during a comical scene in The Spy Who Shagged Me. Footage of this beating was re-used in Goldmember, representing Austin's memory of the event and prompting him to violently counterattack, not realizing that Mini-Me has defected to Austin's side after being shunned by Dr. Evil in favor of Scott. With Mini-Me being unable to speak, he is therefore prone to misinterpretation.

Withstanding pain

Mini-Me is very durable and is able to withstand amazing amounts of pain. Throughout the course of films 2 and 3, he slides down a heating duct into a steel plate, is tied up in a sack and used to smash tables and cabinets, is slammed repeatedly against a steel post, is kicked across a room, and is even ejected into space. Once, Austin used a kendo stick to beat him, as well as a frying pan. Amazingly, he survives all these assaults in perfect condition, although his brief time in the vacuum of space allegedly gave him the flu. He also survived when he was going downwards in an air vent passage at high speed and slamming into a metal sign and still surviving to stand up and continue.

Relationship with Scott Evil

Mini-Me and Scott Evil are the main rivals for Dr. Evil's attention and love, but since Dr. Evil thinks Scott is only "semi-evil," he grants his love to Mini-Me. Mini-Me hates Scott and has become violent towards him several times (attacking him, drawing a picture of him dead, trying to press a button to incinerate Scott). Scott, due to his belief that Mini-Me is insane and wants to kill him, feels much the same way. It is yet uknown which would be able to kill the other. To date, Dr. Evil has only favored Scott over Mini-Me once in the second film (when Mini-Me puts a dead skunk in Scott's bed), and when Scott becomes evil in the third movie, Dr. Evil shuns Mini-Me altogether, and treats Scott as if he were Mini-Me

Inspiration

It is most commonly believed that Mini-Me was inspired by Nick Nack, the little henchman of the James Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun. However, he could also draw inspiration from either a similar character in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), as Marlon Brando has a miniature sidekick who dresses like him and even duets with him on a tiny piano, or from The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, which starred a mini version of the main character, and was produced/aired in Mike Myers' home area of Southern Ontario when he was a child. He could also be a parody of the supposed clone (who was really a man who had plastic surgery to look just like Blofeld) of Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever who only appears briefly but looks exactly like Blofeld that James Bond even mistaken him for the real Blofeld (Also, the first appearance of Mini-Me he is behind a screen door, where his shadow makes him look like a perfect clone, adding to this effect).

External links

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