Those adorable yellow creatures in “Minions” got us thinking about pop culture's other servant characters. Some are cute. Some are gross. Their loyalty might be true, but their hearts are in the wrong place.

Who could forget the bizarre flying monkeys of “The Wizard of Oz,” who do the unconditional bidding of the Wicked Witch of the West? The witch's minions abduct Dorothy and dismantle the Scarecrow, but interestingly, leave the Tin Man and Cowardly Lion alone. The witch orders head monkey Nikko to toss Toto into the river, but Dorothy saves the day. Without their leader, the monkeys are absent from L. Frank Baum's subsequent books in the Oz series. The monkeys have earned a place in the pop-culture lexicon: In trouble with the IRS? Careful, the agency might send one of its flying monkeys to your door.

When your name is Minion, your role in life is pretty well spelled out. As seen in 2010's “Megamind,” this otherworldly fish in a glass globe (voiced by David Cross) accompanies the baby Megamind to Earth when he escapes his crumbling home planet. The two land in a prison and learn that right is wrong and evil is good. After acquiring a robot-like body, Minion assists his evil master in all things bad. When Megamind (Will Farrell) starts to fall for reporter Roxanne Ritchie (Tina Fey) and feels the pull to do good, Minion takes a backseat in his master's affections. But have no fear, friendship, even among evildoers, wins out in the end.

In all his forms, Peter Pettigrew is a rat. The “Harry Potter” series character is an animagus wizard who takes the form of a rat after betraying Harry's parents to Lord Voldemort. After living as Scabbers the rat with the Weasley family for years, he is exposed by Harry's godfather, Sirius Black. Pettigrew then takes up with Voldemort again (although out of fear instead of loyalty), where he does his master's bidding, including carrying the Dark Lord's weak body on the long journey back to Britain and sacrificing his own hand to help Voldemort recover his full body.

There really aren't any rules for minions. Hey, if they do your bidding, they're good enough. The hyenas in “The Lion King” are the crazy-looking dim-witted accomplices of Scar, the movie's big bad. Lions may be the kings, but these hyenas have other ideas: “You know, if it weren't for those lions, we'd be runnin' the joint,” one of them proclaims. Though they occasionally have some funny lines, the hyenas first show up in the elephant graveyard scene and stay creepy throughout the film, providing the basis for uncountable kindergartners' nightmares.

Horace and Jasper eventually grow out of being mere minions to the plotting Cruella De Vil, but it certainly takes them long enough. In “101 Dalmatians,” the alcohol-drinking Jasper and the sandwich-snarfing Horace are the henchmen in Cruella's plot to capture enough pups to make a fur coat. They don't seem to enjoy working for her, but don't have enough strength to stand up to her — which certainly puts them in the minion category. Their lack of fortitude shows up during their time in De Vil's Hell Hall where they laze about, eating, drinking and watching TV while waiting for her to crack the whip. They eventually become clothing businessmen, which shows anyone can leave minion-ness behind.

It's hard to count Smee — a creation of playwright and author J.M. Barrie in 1904 — among the bad guys. But, as the nefarious Captain Hook's right-hand man on the Jolly Roger, he's technically on the dark side. But he's just so cute. Perhaps it's the bumbling, rotund image often associated with him — thanks in large part to the Disney cartoon of 1953 (raspily voiced by Bill Thompson). Or perhaps it's that Barrie himself painted Smee as “pathetic” and “lovable” to the kidnapped Lost Boys aboard Hook's ship. Whatever the reason, the portayals of Smee — from Bob Hoskins in Steven Spielberg's 1991 “Hook” to Chris Gauthier's performance in ABC's “Once Upon a Time” — have left this minion forever more adorable than awful.

Good help can be hard to find, but Renfield is a mostly loyal servant to Count Dracula. In Bram Stoker's novel, M.R. Renfield is first encountered as an inmate in Dr. John Seward's insane asylum. He eats flies, then spiders and birds, to acquire their “life force.” After the undead one promises an endless supply of food, Renfield becomes his minion. Film portrayals of Renfield have often expanded the role. In 1931's “Dracula,” with Bela Lugosi, Renfield is a real-estate agent who comes under Dracula's control. In the 1979 comedy “Love at First Bite,” Arte Johnson gives him a fabulously wicked laugh. What more could a vampire ask than to be taken to a blood bank for a withdrawal?

You won't find Igor in loyal service in Mary Shelly's 1818 gothic novel “Frankenstein.” But Igor has been employed almost constantly as a minion since Basil Rathbone's character Baron Wolf von Frankenstein first hired him in the 1939 film “Son of Frankenstein.” Back then, he was a blacksmith-turned-gravedigger named Ygor who had a broken neck and a grudge against the townspeople who had attempted to hang him. Over the decades, Igor has been an assistant, henchman or servant to members of the Frankenstein family, as a curator's deaf and mute henchman in 1953's “The House of Wax” or as Count Dracula's assistant in 2004's “Van Helsing.” Next up: Daniel Radcliffe will play Igor in “Victor Frankenstein,” set for release in November.

As played by Verne Troyer, Mini-Me is one of the supporting antagonists in the “Austin Powers” series. Dr. Evil's smaller and more concentrated pure-evil protege, Mini-Me is known for insulting people by giving them the finger and often writes notes as a form of self-expression. He has almost no dialogue in the films, beyond an occasional frightened “Eeeeeee!” He loves Belgian chocolate and torturing Dr. Evil's son, Scott. Despite being a clone, Mini-Me is far stronger and tougher than his larger counterpart.

In Disney's rich lineage of antagonist minions, Ursula's Flotsam and Jetsam are the slipperiest. Those diabolical eels from “The Little Mermaid” display everything you'd want in animated henchmen. Menacing? They speak with sinisterly raspy voices and attack with electrical shock. Subservient? The pair never grumble, unlike other Disney minions. Effective? They succeed at Ursula's every task, manipulating Ariel to visit the sea witch and then sabotaging a kiss between Ariel and Prince Eric that would have foiled the octovillian's plan. Ultimately, the eels are inadvertently struck dead by a trident just before the movie's climatic ending.

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