Out on DVD is yet another retelling of the Grinch from Dr Seuss' 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. Interestingly, you can actually look up how long it takes to read the book, and with an average word count of 300 words per minute, it would take 54 minutes to complete. Translating books to movies would usually reduce that time down as images will replace the descriptors that take up most of the book. Even taking the full rhyming nature of the book at face value, The Grinch sits at 92 minutes long, extending an extra 38 minutes to becomes a full-length feature film.
This means there is a fair amount of filler, and that is made clear with all of the additional characters introduced, and extra arcs that strangely enough don't seem to go anywhere. There is an entire arc around the search for a character named Fred, that adds nothing to the plot of the film. Simply padding the runtime. There's a side arc with one of the Who children that goes off on many tangents but gets no resolution (unless you include a very short clip during the credits after the end of the film).
The film is also inconsistent in its treatment of the Grinch in his personality. While there are certainly some Grinchy moments that you can see in the trailer, that is largely the extent of his escapades. His entire character feels not like an out-and-out villain that finds glee in ruining things for other people. Rather, he seems tired, lonely, and otherwise an introverted character who is constantly being hassled by his neighbours. It's a complete departure from the Grinch that we have seen many times before.
This personality inconsistency is exacerbated by his softness towards animals. One of the most memorable parts of the Grinch storyline is where his heart grows "three sizes" to show the change from grump to good, but when he is frequently being kind-hearted throughout the film, it reduces the effectiveness of this mentality.
On the upside, the animation is spectacular! Everything is so crisp, with some great detail and rendering, the film has a beautifully bright and vibrant look to it. The Grinch looks lush, his companion Max looks like he's been pulled right out of The Secret Life of Pets, the Whos from Whoville have a wonderfully detailed world, (their faces, on the other hand, look very much like a case of copy and paste).
While generic in appearance, Grinch's companion Max is one of the highlights of the film. the animators clearly had a lot of fun with his animation and for a character with no dialogue, the emotional dexterity was impressive (on par with Toothless' performance in How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World).
Really, what did I expect from an Illumination film post-minions? The animation is great, but the plot of lacking; full of filler and unfinished, unnecessary story arcs and support characters. It failed to keep me interested and seemed to drag on, but it certainly has enough to appeal to the younger audiences.