Igor

What I found in Igor was nothing more than pure fun and entertainment. I was delighted every second while viewing it by how interesting and enjoyable it actually ended up being. Though the movie itself isn't the best movie of all time, it tries as hard as possible to be memorable, and even though it was a bit bland and mediocre around the edges, the movie doesn't fail at just having a good time. The character of Igor for me was absolutely unable to hate, and all the other characters are so intriguing as well that they make the film unable to look away from. While this movie did get boring at times, it is just so cute and it has a lot of humorous and sweet scenes. It still of course isn't a masterpiece, but it's a film that anybody in the right mood could have a decent time with and I recommend it if you can appreciate if for what it is.

It's a shame that this little film did not receive the deserved acclaim. Anthony Leondis's 'Igor' may not tell a story that is completely original but it's a nice and fun adaptation of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. It has all the ingredients of an amusing adventurous animation film. The atmosphere and colour created by the vivacious animation draws the viewer and the colourful characters keep one involved. The actors that include Steve Buscemi, John Cusack, Molly Shannon, Sean Hayes, John Cleese and Jennifer Coolidge, behind the voices of the characters do a remarkable job. Coolidge is particularly hilarious with her weirdly funny accent as Heidi. Writer Chris McKenna does a very good job in adapting the story and making it lighter in order for it to appeal to children as well. However, I must add that the film is targeted at the young adult audience than children because many of the jokes are for 'grown-ups'. That does not mean that children will have less fun. Even though McKenna has made some big changes from the original, the heart of the story pretty remains the same even though this one ends on a more positive note with a different message. However, perhaps as a result, the story sometimes lacked in depth and a few little things remained unexplored. Yet, this flaw is very minor and doesn't ruin 'Igor' from being wholesome family entertainment.

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.

The nation of Malaria was once sunny and had a prosperous agricultural economy; then the weather changed. The sun never shines and it is always raining. The king decided on a rather different economy... the scientists of Malaria would invent evil devices and the world would pay for them not to be used. Of course every evil scientist needs a hunch-backed assistant named Igor.

Our story is centred on the Igor who works for the less than competent Doctor Glickenstein. This Igor dreams of becoming an evil scientist in his own right and has already has already has had some (secret) success having created Scamper, an immortal but suicidal rabbit and Brain, a talking brain in a jar. An incident leaves him free to try to come up with a truly evil creation for the upcoming Evil Science Fair. He creates a creature, later named Eve, much like a female version of the one created by Dr Frankenstein... there is just one problem; she isn't evil. Meanwhile Dr Schadenfreude is hoping to steal Eve and win himself.

I rather enjoyed this animation, it may not be up there with the works of Disney, Pixar or Ghibli but it is a lot of fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. Our protagonist, voiced by John Cusack, is a good lead and his sidekicks Scamper and Brain are rather fun. The story doesn't go anywhere too surprising but that isn't a problem; films aimed at younger viewers can't be too convoluted. There are some scares but these are all child-friendly and never last long. There are quite a few laughs to be had; most provided by the sidekicks. The character design is fun, although some viewers may wonder if one female character needs to show off so much cleavage! The voice cast, which includes several well-known actors with distinctive voices does a fine job bringing the characters to life. Overall I'd say that while this will never be considered a classic it is rather fun and well worth watching if you are an animation fan looking for something a little, but not too dark.

Let's clear something out of the way right now : Igor is an animation movie, but mainly not for children. Kids will not understand most of the jokes as the topic for most of them are intended for an older audience. There is, however, a visual comedy that will apply to younger viewers, but overall I think this movie targeted teenagers and adults.

People will like Igor based on what they expect from the movie. If they expect it to be like Wall-E and other Pixar movies, you probably will be disappointed. Igor has it's good sides and bad sides. The visual side was breathtaking, the setting is beautiful, with unorthodox character design. However in some cases, like the king of malaria, it seemed like a copy of Nightmare Before Christmas' mayor, and that was disappointing. The story is not too bad, but not the best. It lacked a bit of depth at some times, but it is still amusing and entertaining.

Overall Igor is a good animation movie. It's not the best, definitely not the worst. It's definitely worth seeing for animation fans, people who like Tim Burton's work (as the design in the movie is similar to his style), and anyone who wants to enjoy a light story with a happy ending.