Steve Carell loves working on Despicable Me films

Steve Carell enjoys the small amount of "danger" in the 'Despicable Me' franchise.

The 59-year-old star has voiced the supervillain Gru across four movies in the animated series and loves working on the films as they are "not condescending to children".

Speaking at CinemaCon ahead of the release of 'Minions: The Rise of Gru' this summer, Steve said: "They're really good movies. They're not condescending to children either, and that's one of the reasons I signed on to do these.

"When I read the first script, and I saw all the artwork, I was like, there's a little danger here, and kids love that – not too much, but just enough to be exciting and new and different, that had a different tone to it."

'The Office' actor also revealed the origin of Gru's voice and says he adopted it because it made his children laugh.

Steve explained: "The reason I actually do that voice is because it's the voice that made my kids laugh. When I went in before I did my first taping. I said, 'Hey, guys, (Gru voice) what do you think of this?' And they're like, 'That's the one, just do that.'"

'Minions: The Rise of Gru' will be released in June after being delayed by two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The animated spin-off/prequel to 'Despicable Me' was due to come out in July 2020 but the production company Illumination Animation had to close its studios in France as a result of the lockdown in the country which meant the movie had to be pushed back.

Chris Meledandri, founder and CEO of Illumination, said in a statement at the time: "In response to the severity of the situation in France, we are temporarily closing our Illumination Mac Guff studio in Paris. With this decision we are abiding by the French Government's guidelines and doing everything possible to slow the spread of the virus as we care for our artists and their families."