Illumination can make great movies, and it's not for lack of trying.

[LoudyKaizoku]

The first 2 Despicable Me movies were fun. The Grinch was pretty enjoyable, too, and they actually tried with that one. The artstyle is very whimsical and Seussian, and it is nowhere near is insulting as The Lorax was. The problem with Illumination lies with their parent company, Universal Pictures. They want Illumination's movies to appeal to the masses and be over-commercialized, and that works well in the finance and business sense of things. On the critical side of things, though, it leads to a safe and ultimately mediocre product. They want it to be trendy and hip, but that lessens the movie's quality. If anything, Universal should give Illumination some autonomy, and the freedom to do their own thing. It will allow them to make high-quality animated films, not to mention acclaim. I really hope that the Mario movie will be Illumination's big comeback (their Spider-Verse, so to speak), especially with the oversight of Mario creator Miyamoto himself, but we will just have to see.