Igor (2008)

Animated fable about a cliché hunchbacked evil scientist's assistant who aspires to become a scientist himself, much to the displeasure of the rest of the evil science community.

Director:

Anthony Leondis

Writers:

Chris McKenna, John Hoffman (additional screenplay),

Stars:

John Cusack, Molly Shannon, Steve Buscemi

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Cusack	...	Igor (voice)
Myleene Klass	...	Dr. Holzwurm (voice)
Robin Walsh	...	Dr. Holzwurm's Igor (voice) (as Robin Howard)
Matt McKenna	...	Dr. Herzschlag (voice)
John Cleese	...	Dr. Glickenstein (voice)
Steve Buscemi	...	Scamper (voice)
Sean Hayes	...	Brain (voice)
Jess Harnell	...	Announcer / Royal Guard #2 (voice)
Eddie Izzard	...	Dr. Schadenfreude (voice)
Jennifer Coolidge	...	Jaclyn / Heidi (voice)
Jay Leno	...	King Malbert (voice)
Molly Shannon	...	Eva (voice)
Zoë Bright	...	Blind Woman / Killiseum Fan #1 (voice)
Sophia Eraklis	...	Blind Orphan #1 (voice)
A. Cheron Hall	...	Blind Orphan #2 / Blind Orphan #4 (voice)

Storyline

In a world filled with Mad Scientists and Evil Inventions, one talented evil scientist's hunch-backed lab assistant has big dreams of becoming a Mad Scientist himself and winning the annual Evil Science Fair.

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Plot Keywords:

evil scientist | science | mad scientist | assistant | invention | 

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Taglines:

He's got a monster of a problem.

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France] Official site [United Kingdom]

Country:

USA France

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Igor, el bueno de la película

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£981,750 (UK) (17 October 2008)

Gross:

$19,528,188 (USA) (16 January 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Exodus Film Group, Exodus Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

DTS SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Christian Slater:  as one of the other Igors. Slater was the first choice for the lead role of Igor.

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Goofs

When Igor takes Eva to the "Brain Wash", she's put in carriage/booth #12. Brian/Brain gets his own brain cleaned in #04. However, both of these are not only next to each other, but by the end, they both appear to be getting out of the same carriage #04, next to #03.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Igor: [voice over] Nice weather we're having, huh? Here in the Kingdom of Malaria, every day's forecast is rainy, with a 100% chance of horror! It wasn't always like this, though. Years ago, Malaria was a sunny land of farmers, until the mysterious storm clouds rolled in, and never left. They killed our crops, and our people became poor. And that's when King Malpert thought up a new way for us to make money: Evil Inventions! The kind that crush you, kill you, bring you back to life, then ...
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in Animation Lookback: DreamWorks Animation Part 2 (2010)

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Soundtracks

Jump Jive N-Wail
Written and performed by Louis Prima
Courtesy of Capitol Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

User Reviews

Worthwhile comedy-horror fun

In this animated comedy adventure, John Cusack plays the titular character, a sweet, intelligent lab assistant to an evil mad scientist who creates life, much to the chagrin of the mad-scientist community, in the, uh, person of a giantess named Eve. Although it's completely computer animated, the movie recalls such stop-motion-animation fare as The Nightmare before Christmas and the recent Coraline, not to mention the old Universal monster classics, whose old clichés get tweaked a few times.

Igor (it's both his name and his profession) works for Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese), who's desperately trying to make an evil invention to enter into the Evil Scientists Fair. See, King Malbert (Jay Leno) believes that the town can prosper only through these evil inventions, what with the farming community destroyed by climate change. Meanwhile, Igor - our Igor - is much smarter than he lets on, as Igors are stereotypically supposed to be dumb, slurring oafs good only for fetching things and pulling switches. Igor, in fact, has already made two inventions - a snide, suicidal-yet-immortal rabbit (Steve Buscemi), and a dumb robot with a brain (Sean Hayes).

Circumstances lead Igor to try to make his own evil entry - the creation of life itself, something the real evil scientists have never been able to accomplish. The result: Eva, a giant, giant, giantess who's... well, not evil. This is because her Evil Bone must be activated, see; to do so, Igor even takes her to get brainwashed, but instead of horror images Eva somehow watches an episode of Inside the Actor's Studio with James Lipton, so when she emerges she's a struggling actress who's on her way to a big audition.

Personally, I found this movie a whole lot of fun, probably because a) I love the old monster movies that are just skewered here and b) I love animated movies, too. John Cusack, one of my all-time favorites (I've seen more than thirty of his films) is great as the not-quite-evil lab assistant, and the animation is top notch, with wonderfully realized backgrounds that recall those old monster movies quite well. Steve Buscemi is an absolute hoot as Scamper, easily stealing every scene he's in - he gets all the great lines, but it's Buscemi's comic timing that make them come alive. So to speak. There's also a contextually perfect soundtrack, including a bouncy tune by Louis Prima called "The Bigger the Figure." Molly Shannon, who voices Eva, also delivers a fun, appealing performance.