The Grinch Review: 3 Ups & 6 Downs

5. It Isn't Smart Or Funny

Illumination's films have never been renowned for their Pixar-calibre scripts, but even so, most of their movies do boast a sly intelligence that makes them easy for adults to sit through.

Sadly The Grinch is probably their least sophisticated offering to date, with a screenplay that's extremely reliant on mediocre sight gags and not enough on clever, funny character-based humour.

Pharrell Williams' narration, which spins a contemporary riff on typical Seuss rhetoric, has a few neat moments, but it's shocking just how devoid of even merely decent laughs and vaguely smart wordplay the movie really is.

To that end the film is certainly best recommended to the very youngest kids, who will likely be contented enough with all the pretty colours.