Igor: il mostro

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.

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.

King Malbert (Jay Leno) rules the world of mad scientists with flashy clothes and dark storm clouds. As such, the mad scientists all clamor for the honor of winning the royally-sponsored "Science Fair". Each scientist has their own right arm, an Igor, with optional Lorre-esquire manner. When one scientist's efforts leave nothing but his actual right arm, however, his Igor (John Cusack) sees a chance at greatness, in activating his own monster. But is he too good to be evil? This one's a sleeper in every sense, which is kind of a good thing. Although it's a grand year for animation, with ambitious offerings from many studios, sometimes you look for something a little simpler. Igor excels at that. There are just a few things that keep it out of the "great" category, so let's point those out first. Technically, there are a few instances when the lip-sync is off, probably due to shuttling, as noted below. A noticeable number of the jokes (and a couple of songs) have the feel of being recycled from other animated films, which is never good. This being an animated comedy, that naturally hampers the story a bit. Although pop culture references (a recurring complaint on various message boards) are kept to a bare minimum, the ones used...well, grate on the nerves a bit.

The good parts: the film is beautiful to look at, in a "Tim Burton" fashion. The tight animation is well-serviced in digital; a feat in itself, since the credits reveal that this thing was literally made around the world. Visuals of the environment are consistently stunning. The stylized design does help to endear you to the characters, who themselves are a parade of great ideas, with voice talent that shows some thought. Examples include Igor's pals: the surly Scamper (Steve Buscemi), a reanimated roadkill rabbit, with the tire track to prove it, and Brian (Sean Hayes), a disembodied brain in a machine, named by way of dyslexia. There's also invisible talk show host Carl Cristall (voiced most appropriately by Arsenio Hall) and the villain's girlfriend, a shallow, multi-personality fashion plate called Jaclyn Heidi (well-voiced by Jennifer Coolidge). Even the James Lipton cameo is oddly appropriate.

So, in short, what works really works, and what doesn't really doesn't. It will likely be a welcome dollar peep once Halloween is closer.

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.

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.