The Grinch (Dir Yarrow Cheney & Scott Mosier, 1h 26 m)

One may ask themselves what the point of another adaption of Dr Seuss's iconic, conveniently Christmas themed, children's book, The Grinch truly is. After all, we've had a nigh-perfect adaption for over fifty years, voiced by the legendary Boris Karloff and animated by the equally legendary Chuck Jones, and despite the Ron Howard version, starring a versatile Jim Carey, being a worth live action adaption, the older adaption still remains the best. And, for all their efforts in a modern-talking, slick-looking, Cumberbatch-starring version for the 21st Century, Illumination's adaption, whilst retaining a little of the heart and feel of the story, adds nothing new to the Whofeast.

The story's bones are adapted well enough-the Whos, who live in Whoville, looking every bit like the Seussian illustrations and bedecked in Christmas paraphanalia from street to rooftop, inside and out, are a Christmassy bunch, despite distracting voice actors (Pharrel Williams must have taken up permanent residency in Illumination's headquarters, for he, in Seussian couplets, narrates this film, rather well too), and busy themselves for the coming of Christmas and gifts. Among them is single mother, Donna Lou Who (Rashida Jones) and her precocious daughter, Cindy Lou, who wants nothing more for Christmas than peace and quiet for her mother, and seeks to find Santa to ask him for exactly that.

The Grinch (Benedict Cumberbatch, for it is he), who lives just north of Whoville, of course, does not. Cumberbatch, sadly, is probably my biggest problem with what is otherwise a rather charming package-not so much that it is Cumberbatch, for there's a likable charm about him as an actor-but more that Cumberbatch is in full transatlantic Doctor Strange voice. This itself isn't that odd, although his casting makes you wonder why Cumberbatch was chosen if he was only going to do an American accent, except that, on occasion, and usually mid-sentence, his accent begins to make its return trip from the States to the UK.

Nevertheless, voice aside, he adds a typically Cumberbatchian charm to the Grinch, as a grumpy curmudgeon who, after childhood trauma, wants nothing to do with Christmas, or its paraphernalia, instead staying on the omnious mountain that overlooks Whoville with his dog Max. However, in the first big change to the story, out of food, the Grinch stalks into town, finds himself assailed with Christmas, and retreats, only to find the Whos bringing a truly colossal Christmas tree into town to erect.

Grumpy, and foiled in his attempts to destroy the tree, he hatches, and succeeds in his plan to steal the Who's Christmas, and, whilst the story beats from here to the end are familiar, there's a likable twist in the reason the Grinch eventually returns Christmas to the Whos who already celebrate it without all its trimmings, and the film draws to a satisfying, and pleasingly moralistic, ending. So far, so familiar, and for Illumination's workmanlike style, it's certainly a much better adaption than their earlier adaption of The Lorax, and thankfully does not raise another green hipsterish spectre from who knows where...

So what do Illumination add to The Grinch aside from their cheap and cheerful, but faithful animation style? Comedy, sideplots and odd musical choices. In places, these are reasonably well wrought-Cindy Lou has a small, Breakfast Clubish gang of toddler sidekicks, who help her build traps to catch Santa for a few scenes, there's a moose character called Fred who the Grinch has a character arc with, eventually letting him go back to his moose family, but elsewhere these seem bizarrely added-the new backstory for the Grinch wanders dangerously close to stepping on the toes of the Howard version, whilst there are a couple of scenes with Cindy Lou with her main sidekick that feel like padding.

The comedy has Illumination's usual perfunctory style, and most of it is carried off well by the look and feel of the world-the Grinch himself, angular and grumpy, stalks through a winter wonderland of Whoville, there's a lot of perfectly serviceable slapstick, a screaming goat appears to cause the Grinch and Max chaos, and the comedic back and forth between Grinch and Max is well animated and well written if unadventurous for such a despicable character. The problem is that it has Illumination's usual industry tooled marks all over it-nothing is too funny, (aside from the screaming goat), and seems to have been tested to destruction by test audiences

The music, for its part, is the oddest part of the construction-Illumination, as usual raid their music collection for suitable or on point tracks to accompany the film, in what is fast becoming their answer to the "sing what you see" approach of Phil Collins' relationship with late 90s Disney. Except, for no apparent reason, Tyler the Creator, a man with the dubious accolade of being banned from entering the UK, is singing a retooled, Danny Elfman-scored version of "You're a Mean One, Mr Grinch", and releasing, in the second oddest Christmas album after Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart, a short album, in a move that clearly apes the Black Panther EP from Kendrick Lamar and friends earlier in the year. It's not a very good cover, by the by

And really, this is what Illumination's version of The Grinch feels like. A cover-version, the skilled but mechanical band switching between elements of the Chuck Jones and Ron Howard versions, but in a way where it's clear they're playing from the score, not the heart, adding little flourishes and needlessly extending certain seconds, but overall adding nothing to the piece as a whole.

All in all, you're a dull one, Mr Grinch. You really are rehashed. You're as needless as The Lorax, you're a film with no ideas, Miiiister Grinch. You're a dull movie...with little to no appeal.

You're overmarketed, Mr. Grinch Your comedy's far too droll, Your film is too distracted,
You've got nothing new to say, Mr. Grinch!

Rating: Neutral.