8 Mistakes That Will Ruin Upcoming Movies

The Mistake: Copying Despicable Me.

The recent teaser for Illumination Entertainment's The Grinch - starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the title character - was met with a mixed-to-negative reception, and it's really easy to see why.

Rather than trying something different or exciting, the animation studio appears to be sticking to what they know. And while that can sometimes be a good thing (the Marvel Studios formula always delivers), here, that essentially means copying their 2010 breakout hit, Despicable Me.

From the trailer, it's clear that this version of the Grinch is just Gru with green hair; a grumpy loner with a minion sidekick (his dog) who enjoys walking around his nearby town acting like a complete d*ck. Just look at that early Despicable Me scene where Gru freezes the people waiting for coffee. This trailer feels exactly like that.

But isn't the Grinch supposed to hate interacting with other people? Isn't he meant to be a scheming, evil villain, who doesn't just do annoying things like knock products off store shelves (oh, what absolute wickedness!), and generally keeps himself to himself?

Sure, it'll probably be entertainig enough, but it looks safe and generic, and it would've been far better to see something a bit more creative - and faithful to the original character - from the studio.

And to make the Despicable Me comparison even more apt, Illumination couldn't even get through a two-minute trailer without several Despicable Me nods, including a lone Minion, and Pharrell's song, Happy.