Igor (2008)

Animated fable about a cliché hunchbacked evil scientist's assistant (John Cusack) who aspires to become a scientist himself, much to the displeasure of the rest of the evil science community."Igor" is the first animated feature film produced by Exodus Film Group and the French CGI animation studio, Sparx*. Work was split between the studio's Paris and Vietnam facilities, and despite a large array of celebrity voices, the film ended up becoming rather obscure. While not a smashing success, the film did earn a small profit. (This would also likely be the last film from Sparx*, as they were acquired by Virtuos shortly after.) Rotten Tomatoes writes, "With an animation style that apes Tim Burton, and a slew of cultural references that aren't clear enough to reach the crowds, Igor's patched together antics make it hard to see who the film is trying to please." This sums it up very nicely. The animation is clearly Burton-inspired (the king looks an awful lot like Halloween's mayor), and much of it was hit and miss. Fun, yes, but never a home run. Trying to pinpoint where it went wrong is difficult, though... something just feels off.

This strange inventive movie is straight out of the same ghostly, nightmarish imagination of the same company which produced such great films as 'The Nightmare before Christmas.' In the far away land of Malaria, there lives a odd population of Evil Scientists and their able hunchback assistants all called Igor, who together via yearly for the coveted award of Mad Scientist of the Year. Each of their murderous creations must be as monstrously evil as possible so that King Malbert (Jay Leno) can threaten the outer world with their release if they don't pay him to keep the monster locked up. However this year, one particular Igor (John Cusack) wants to evolve into a Mad Scientist himself and create the ultimate monster. Together with a number of recognizable Hollywood voices like John Cleese, Steve Buscemi and Eddie Izzard assemble to craft what will most likely come to be known as a creative Classic. A movie designed for the entire family. Recommended. ****

An underrated character has overcoming dreams, but he only receives mockery from the people around him.However, thanks to his dedication, he wins trust on himself and he triumphs over the adversity...and over his own insecurities.Does that sound familiar? That phrase could describe a big number of animation films, from the good ones (like A Bug's Life or Finding Nemo) to the horrible ones (like Bee Movie or Doogal).Unfortunately, Igor is a new addition to the second group, and it punishes us with 90 minutes of forced humor, far-fetched design and generic action sequences.Igor tried to make likable references to the horror cinema, but it could not achieve that because of its lack of ingenuity and grace.We are in presence of another pathetic animation film with a bland and insipid screenplay.The only thing I liked on this film was the character Scamper, thanks to Steve Buscemi's solid voice work.Pity that character has a very limited appearance on this movie.I am not among them, but I know many people excuse even the weakest screenplays when the animation is good.Well, Igor will also disappoint them, since the animation is absolutely generic and insipid.Igor may be better than the previously mentioned Bee Movie and Doogal...but that is the same as saying that drinking poison with lemon flavor is better than drinking poison with buttermilk flavour.In fact, saying "less bad" is more proper in this case than saying "better".In summary, Igor is a horrible animation film and an authentic waste of time.

Like a lot of computer animated movies these days, Igor is long on inventive visuals but short on good scripting. We have the formula as usual: misunderstood protagonist, his cute comedic sidekicks, the duplicitous villain and the complicated love interest. Something is missing though: a small ingredient called charm. And wit, if you really want to be thorough. Aside from a few amusing lines from the ever-sarcastic Steve Buscemi, and a indescribable finale where a female Frankenstein creates mayhem while dancing to the hits from 'Annie', there's precious little for anyone over the age of puberty to get their teeth into. The horror film-inspired art design is well done, but it still pales in comparison to the 16 year old stop motion The Nightmare Before Christmas.Which is the main problem.. there's nothing new here which hasn't already been done (and mostly better) in movies of a similar ilk. A decade ago, CGI films were still a novelty. Nowadays, like their 2D counterparts back in the 80's, the market is utterly clogged with them, and the love seems to have gone out of the production. Result: we get forgettable, identikit films like this, which are only good as a flickering babysitter why mummy and daddy are spending their benefits down the pub. I've probably said something similar in another review, but the days of Toy Story and Shrek seem a LLOONNGG time away.. 5/10