Illumination's 'The Grinch' Trailer Arrives

Dr Seuss' The Grinch is a perennial festive family favourite. The 90's Ron Howard directed movie has its fans, but most would agree that Chuck Jones' TV special How The Grinch Stole Christmas is the definitive version. But is the time right for another animated adaptation of the story? Illumination Entertainment seem to think so.

This is actually the studio's second Dr. Seuss movie, following their 2012 adaptation of The Lorax, and their first film outside the Despicable Me/Minions franchise since 2016's Sing. The film will feature Benedict Cumberbatch as the title character.

Following a brief teaser released during the Winter Olympics, the first full trailer has been released- which you can see below.

The trailer introduces us to the movie's version of The Grinch, and it's not exactly a million miles away from how he has been portrayed before. There's also a lot of similarity between his character and Gru from The Despicable Me series. Rather than an army of Minions, however, Grinch's only companion is his faithful dog, Max. Based on what we see here, we're fulling expecting Max to be the movie's breakout star.

The trailer shows off some pretty solid character animation, that seems to combine the classic Seuss designs with Illumination's own style fairly effectively. It also confirms that (in the trailer at least) the classic song You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch will be making an appearance.

The film will be released on November 8 in the US and the UK