Mar 8, 2018

Illumination "The Grinch": The first trailer and the late director's shake-up

A trailer has finally arrived for Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment's adaptation of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!:

It's the eighth fully-animated feature from the studio responsible for giving Minions to the world, and the company's second Dr. Seuss adaptation following its 2012 film The Lorax.

The big news here is today's revelation that Gorillaz music video director Pete Candeland, who had been the director of the film since it was first announced five years ago, is no longer the director.

The Grinch directing team is now comprised of Yarrow Cheney (co-director of Secret Life of Pets) and Scott Mosier, the longtime producing partner of Kevin Smith on films like Clerks and Chasing Amy.

Cheney had already jumped on board as co-director a couple years back, but Mosier, who will make his feature directorial debut, is a new addition. That's not to say though that he's new to the film; he had been working on The Grinch as a producer prior to stepping into the director's spot.

Studio animation features are often a game of directors musical chairs, but this change is particularly curious because Candeland had been associated with the project for a long time. Usually, it doesn't take a studio five years to decide that a director isn't a good fit for a project. Why Candeland left, what he contributed to the finished film, and which credit (if any) he'll receive on the finished film are all unknowns at this point.

But what is clear from the trailer (and the NBC Olympics tie-ins, an example of Comcast-NBCUniversal corporate synergy at its most finely-tuned) is that The Grinch will likely be another huge success for Illumination. It's appealingly crafted, and the trailer does a good job of hitting the familiar Seuss beats, while giving the Grinch a subtly evolved personality.

Led by Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, the story follows the general outline of the original story, but adds some new twists, including a B story about Cindy-Lou Who plotting to trap Santa Claus so that she can thank him for helping her harried single mother.

The script was written by Michael LeSieur (You, Me and Dupree, The Maiden Heist, Keeping Up with the Joneses). Here's the official synopsis:

The Grinch will be out in U.S. theaters on November 9, 2018.