Competent Minions (Spoilers, in OP for Disney movies)

[Andy_L]

Incompetent minions are easy to find in all sorts of fiction - like the minions in “Sleeping Beauty” who are still looking for an infant 16 years after Aurora was born. Competent (intelligent and loyal) minions are a lot harder to find, but while watching “The Little Mermaid” with my child, I can’t help noticing that Flotsam and Jetsam (Ursula’s eels) are startlingly effective minions - they manipulate Ariel’s feelings luring her to meet Ursula, they flip the boat that Ariel and Eric are in, just in time to prevent the kiss, and do many other successful services for their mistress.

What other competent minions can you name (for the purposes of this thread, I’d like to exclude minions who are leading characters - so Darth Vader is not in the running even though he is arguably the Emperor’s minion.

[Kent_Clark]

Number Two in the Austin Powers movies.

Dr. Evil: Here’s the plan. We get the warhead, and we hold the world ransom for… (dramatic pause) … One. Million. Dollars."
[The group is uncomfortably silent.]
Number Two: Don’t you think we should ask for more than a million dollars? A million dollars isn’t that much money these days.
Dr. Evil: All right then… (dramatic pause) …FIVE MILLION DOLLARS!
[Again, the group is uncomfortably silent.]
Number Two: Virtucon alone makes over nine billion dollars a year.

[Andy_L]

@kunilou

Number Two in the Austin Powers movies.

Dr. Evil: Here’s the plan. We get the warhead, and we hold the world ransom for… (dramatic pause) … One. Million. Dollars."
[The group is uncomfortably silent.]
Number Two: Don’t you think we should ask for more than a million dollars? A million dollars isn’t that much money these days.
Dr. Evil: All right then… (dramatic pause) …FIVE MILLION DOLLARS!
[Again, the group is uncomfortably silent.]
Number Two: Virtucon alone makes over nine billion dollars a year.

Good example.

[SciFiSam]

Kif in Futurama.

[Lucky_13]

Shego in Kim Possible is pretty competent, sometimes more than Drakken.

[Grumman]

@Lucky_13

Shego in Kim Possible is pretty competent, sometimes more than Drakken.

Exactly who I was going to suggest.

Does Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender count?

[Captain_Amazing]

In Goldfinger, Oddjob is pretty competent. Bond manages to defeat him, but it’s a close thing.

[Serenata67]

We’re even using the word “Minion” and no one has said the Minions from Despicable Me. They’re a little goofy, but they help Gru accomplish what he needs to accomplish. They build rockets and steal stuff, etc. Pretty effective…

[Push_You_Down]

The South African #2 in “Lethal Weapon 2” He’s cocky, funny, brutal and effective.

[Darth_Panda]

Haggar in Voltron was pretty competent, it was usually Lotor who screwed everything up.

[Steve_MB]

@Lucky_13

Shego in Kim Possible is pretty competent, sometimes more than Drakken.

I’d say closer to “usually”, but possibly excluded by the “no leading characters” clause in the OP.

[Maggie_the_Ocelot]

Shan Yu’s henchmen in Mulan were amazingly competent. **Husband **says that if Maleficent and Shan Yu ever teamed up, between her magical power and sheer spite and his cunning and HR department, they would be unstoppable.

For that matter, Lock, Shock, and Barrel in Nightmare Before Christmas got their job done amazingly well.

[Fried_Dough_Ho]

@Maggie_the_Ocelot

For that matter, Lock, Shock, and Barrel in Nightmare Before Christmas got their job done amazingly well.

I just came here to post that!

[jacquilynne]

The minion who is more competent than the theoretical main villain is a trope all its own (and works for heroes, too, see Penny / Inspector Gadget), which is where I think Shego / Drakken falls.