Igor

I took my daughters (7 and 3) to see this movie today, knowing absolutely nothing other than seeing about 5 seconds of a TV commercial. I am normally relatively picky about what my kids see, but decided to join a friend who was going anyway. Plus my daughter loves Tim Burton, and this was at least stylistically similar.

I thought this movie had a cool twisted sense of humor, and much more original than the typical warmed over rehashes we normally get from a lower-budget CGI flick. And guess what- not a single fart joke! That alone means it meets my very low expectations for what passes as children's entertainment these days. Unofortunately, I think it is a little too off- kilter for most, thus the small marketing budget as well.

A nice little take on the classic Shelley Frankenstein tale. Not sure why the accusations of Nightmare Before Christmas rip-off, Frankenstein was obviously the source material for this story. Which is a very good thing in my opinion. Me and my daughters liked it a lot.

I don't know why this movie doesn't get more positive recognition; I thought it was terrific, and I've seen most the feature-length animated films of the past several years. This holds it own against most of them.

For an animated film, it has exactly what you want: fantastic colors and colorful characters -most of them very funny and entertaining to view and hear - and a good story with some interesting twists to it. The artwork in this film is just amazing, especially on Blu-Ray. (I've discovered that's how to watch these new animated movies - in high-def, because most of them look awesome. This film certainly is no exception.) There were many times I just wanted the freeze-frame the picture and take in all the wild artwork. I might do that on a second viewing.

Also no surprise is Steve Buscemi, who always gets humorous roles in these animated films and makes everyone laugh. He usually plays a rat, too. I mentioned that to a friend and he said, "That's because he looks like one in real life." I wouldn't go that far, but I understand where he's coming from.

Actually, all the leading voices - Buscemi, John Cusack, Molly Shannon, Sean Hayes, John Cleese, Jay Leno and more were all great. I'll give a special nod to the voice that cracked me up more than all the others, the one of "Hedi," done by Jennifer Coolidge. She was hilarious!

If you enjoy the famous Frankstein monster story, or wild characters in a monster-lab-type setting, you should enjoy this parody. It's an underrated film and looks super on DVD.

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.

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.

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.