Mini-Me

From Austin Powers

Mini-Me is the midget clone of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers motion picture series. The character is played by actor, stuntman and children's advocate Verne Troyer.

[edit] Plot line

When Dr. Evil was cryogenically frozen for the second time in 1997, his minions cloned him as a safeguard. The clone was identical in every way but was "one-eighth his size." Upon being introduced to his clone, Dr. Evil dubbed him "Mini-Me." Mini-Me has almost no dialogue in the films, beyond and occasional frightened high-pitched cry of despair and a single line sung in a deep voice during a remix performance of Just the Two of Us. 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 miniature version of Dr. Evil's cat. Mini-Me loves Belgian chocolate and delights in 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. Fat Bastard thinks he's a baby. Nigel Powers, upon seeing him, says "Blimey, I thought I smelled cabbage." Mini-Me is appropriately confused by the remark.

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.

Another gag had the character 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 clone in her. The third asked if she'd like to. As seen by Nigel Powers' reaction to Mini-Me genitals ("My word...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.

Mini-Me is very durable and is able to withstand amazing amounts of pain. Throughout the course of the second and third films, he slides down a heating duct into a steel plate, is kicked across a room and is even ejected into outer space. Once, Austin used a katana in its scabbard to beat him. Amazingly, he survives all these assaults in perfect condition, although his brief time in space allegedly gave him the flu.

Mini-Me and Scott Evil are the main rivals for Dr. Evil's attention and love, although, since Dr. Evil thinks Scott is only "semi-evil," he grants his love to Mini-Me. Mini-Me hates Scott and has become violent with him through attacks, drawing a picture of him dying and 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. To date, Dr. Evil only favored Scott over Mini-Me once in the second film (when Mini-Me puts a dead skunk in Scott's bed), and in the third movie when Scott becomes evil, he shuns Mini-Me altogether.

[edit] Inspiration

He was likely inspired by Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize), the midget henchman of the 1974 film version of Francisco Scaramanga, the eponymous villain of the James Bond novel The Man with the Golden Gun.