Mini-Me
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Mini-Me is a fictional 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.
[edit] History
When Dr. Evil was cryogenically frozen for the second time in 1967, his minions cloned him as a safeguard. The clone was identical in every way but "one-eighth his size." Upon being introduced to his clone, Dr. Evil immediately dubbed him "Mini-Me". Mini-Me has almost no dialogue in the films, beyond an occasional frightened "eeeeee!" and a single line sung in a surprisingly deep voice during a remix performance of Just the Two of Us. 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. Fat Bastard thinks he's a baby. 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.
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.
Another 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 ("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 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, 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. Amazingly, he survives all these assaults in perfect condition, although his brief time in the vacuum of space allegedly gave him the flu.
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. 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.
[edit] Inspiration
It is most commonly believed that Mini-Me was inspired by Nick Nack, the little henchman of the film version of Francisco Scaramanga, the eponymous villain of the James Bond novel 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 stared a mini version of the main character, and was produced/aired in Mike Myers' home area of Southern Ontario when he was a child.
