Igor (2008)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Anthony Leondis

Writers:

Chris McKenna (written by) and
John Hoffman (additional screenplay)

Release Date:

19 September 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Family

Tagline:

All men aren't created Evil.

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Evil Scientist | Mad Scientist | Assistant | Science | Invention

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

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)

MPAA:

Rated PG for some thematic elements, scary images, action and mild language.

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG (certificate #44613) | UK:PG | Ireland:PG | Philippines:G (MTRCB) | Australia:PG | Singapore:PG | Malaysia:U | New Zealand:PG | Netherlands:6 | Argentina:Atp | Mexico:A | Portugal:M/6 (dubbed version)

Company:

Exodus Film Group

Trivia:

Scamper was originally to be introduced while hanging himself as Igor returns to the castle at the beginning of the movie. This is included in the novelization of the film but was cut from the actual release.

Goofs:

Continuity: 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.

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...
[...]

Movie Connections:

References The Wizard of Oz (1939)

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.