“奴才：格鲁的崛起”was a kind of homecoming for director Kyle Balda. A computer-animated homecoming, but still a fond revisit to a place he loves.

The new “Despicable Me” spin-off/sequel finds the series’ protagonist Gru (voiced, as ever, by Steve Carell) as a preteen wannabe evil genius in 1970s San Francisco, leading his roly-poly yellow henchmen, the Minions, into battle with the Vicious 6 supervillain group.

巴尔达（Balda）在1993年至2001年间为工业光与魔术和皮克斯（Pixar）工作时，住在湾区。然后，他搬到了法国，他在所有“卑鄙的”电影中握手，并导演了在Illumination Mac Guff Studios制作的第一部“ Minions”电影。除了旧金山的日落区外，他还住在伯克利和米尔谷，显然把他的心留在了海湾。

Now residing on the Oregon coast, Balda spoke with The Chronicle about how the city was a perfect backdrop for the lovable bad guys’ antics and how it inspired his artists’ fanciful — and sometimes a bit off-kilter — imaginations half a world away.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

问：在旧金山设置这部电影的三分之一是您的想法吗？

A:是的。有很多原因与故事协调以将其设置在那个地方。对我来说，其中一部分是，我上高中时第一次来到旧金山。我在亚利桑那州图森长大，这是完全不同的，所以它一直困扰着我。我迫不及待地想离开学校，搬到湾区。我可以观看的任何东西，例如“旧金山的街道”或“满屋”，甚至还有旧金山的照片，我做到了。这是我真正想成为的地方，而且这个地方对我来说仍然很自家。

Q: More specifically, what made the Bay Area right for this sequel?

A:最后三部“卑鄙的我”/“奴才”电影以世界城市为角色。（“卑鄙的我3”）强烈地以好莱坞和“奴才”为特色，以伦敦为特色。这部电影中有很多功夫在1970年代举行，所以我想到了布鲁斯·李（Bruce Lee）和他在（几年前湾区）的住所。布鲁斯没有出现在电影中，但是关于功夫在旧金山周围合并的功能太多。同样，在农历新年中，唐人街的位置（尤其是）在电影中确实很强。

Beyond that, with the trolleys, the hills, the Golden Gate Bridge, it’s such a visual city that there’s a lot to play with, especially in an animated film, like the Minions rolling down the hills. Wild Knuckles (voiced by Alan Arkin), one of the villains in the story, has one of those Victorian Painted Ladies, but it’s built in the shape of his initials, a big WK.

Q: That house is one of the movie’s most striking images. Tell us how that came to be.

A:这是由埃里克·吉隆（Eric Guillon）设计的，他负责所有“卑鄙的我”和“奴才”电影中的许多视觉语言。这些电影都是关于反派世界的，但它们并不认真对待自己，它们都是荒谬的。詹姆斯·邦德（James Bond）的恶棍总是有真正令人印象深刻且过高的秘密湖泊，因此我们也尝试这样做。我们玩了《野生指关节的秘密巢穴》，由于他住在旧金山中部，所以要做这个荒谬的维多利亚时代。另外，他很傲慢，有一个大的自我，所以我们以他的名字缩写为他建造了一所房子。

问：对城市更现实的描述进行了什么样的研究？

A:I think Eric did a lot of his own research for the city. Beyond that, all the designers and the art department were constantly getting references so that we would have something true to base everything off, like the cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge. One of the other things is that it takes place in the 1970s, so there’s that kind of flavor on top of it.

Q: For the climactic showdown between the Minions and the Vicious 6 at a Chinese New Year parade, you seem to have combined the top of the Sing Chong Building with the Old St. Mary’s Cathedral clock tower. What else went into the Chinatown sequences?

A:当时在巴黎的障碍是很难让人们克服（观察农历新年庆祝活动）。因此，其中很多是通过照片和在YouTube上观看的。来自Marin的Skywalker Sound的一些人确实参加了新年游行，以录制我们在电影中发表的一些环境声音。否则，我们将不会进行任何实地考察。我们必须做从谷歌搜索图像到寻找旧的70年代参考的所有事情。如今，Google Earth是一种令人难以置信的资源。

Q: Michelle Yeoh’s having quite the year with “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and now voicing the Chinatown acupuncturist Master Chow, who trains the Minions in kung fu.

A:每个人都知道米歇尔是她在行动和武术中的传奇人物，但她对自己的声音也有敏感性。她的范围很好，可以在船尾导师和小兵的养育角色之间进行。在训练蒙太奇期间，渔夫的码头有一些。其中也有一点缪尔林。

Q: One of the Minions hitches a ride to San Francisco with a biker he meets in Death Valley. That would be a drive north, so why does it look like they’re heading south through Big Sur and over the Golden Gate to get here?

A:当然，这在地理上是一个错误。之所以更具电影作用，是因为它们正在移动的屏幕方向。

Q: Want to share a particular memory of your time in the Bay Area?

A:The whole time I was there was a really great experience, but especially my time in Mill Valley. Where we live now in Oregon is very similar to that, but there’s even less people — the presence of all the forest and the green.

当我第一次来旧金山进行学校实地考察时，当我离开市区的货车时，这是一种内在的经历。我从来没有像这样强烈地感觉到城市的存在，只是嗡嗡作响和振动。只是在城里走来走去，这是我随身携带了这么长时间的东西。一旦我看到了旧金山如何在我们想讲述的故事中非常适合，这种可能性使我感到兴奋。当我与作家和制片人一起工作时，这似乎对每个人都很有意义，我们跑了。

“奴才：格鲁的崛起”(PG) premieres exclusively in theaters starting Friday, July 1.