IGOR

2008, Exodus Film Group

Animation

Rating: PG

Approx. 87 mins.

THE STORY:

The kingdom of Malaria is a dark place, ruled by a monarch who has convinced his subjects that only the evil survive. The raison d'etre of every person and thing there is to be or produce evil.

Igor (John Cusack) is an Igor, which is to say that his lot in life is to flip the switch to bring his inventor master's creations to life. But Igor has aspirations beyond his station: he wants to be an inventor. And when his master, Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese), pays the ultimate price for his incompetence by blowing himself up, Igor gets his chance. He hides his master's death and begins work on his pet project: creating life.

Igor is under a time crunch, as the Evil Science Fair is fast approaching, and the king (Jay Leno) wants Igor's (late) master to produce an entry that beats out the reigning champion, Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard). Igor succeeds in producing Eva (Molly Shannon), a rag tag amalgamation of spare parts who turns out not to have the evil monster character her maker intended. An attempt to brainwash her into becoming evil turns her instead into an actress. Igor decides to go with it and convinces her that the Science Fair is an audition for a role as an evil monster.

In the days leading up to the Fair, Eva and Igor each realize that they have feelings for each other. By this point, however, Schadenfreude, a sham who steals others' ideas, has kidnapped Eva and plans, after activating her evil side, to debut her as his own invention. Igor and his pals have the task of rescuing and restoring her to the kind creature she was.
  

QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:

• stupid
• idiot
• shut up
• ugly

VIOLENCE:

• suggestions of gore (e.g. the rabbit is shown to have chewed his feet off), but more menace than anything else

TEACHING POINTS:

• It's better to be a kind nobody than an evil somebody
• You don't have to be what others tell you to be
• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

THE UPSHOT:

Both the adults and the 5 year-old in the room enjoyed this. It has a pretty unique story-line, clever dialogue and lots of humour. Steve Buscemi and Sean Hayes steal the show as Igor's comic sidekicks, an immortal bunny with a death wish and a jarred brain lacking in any intelligence. Most of the humour was lost on the child, but there was enough visual silliness to entertain.

I also liked the novelty of watching two physically unattractive characters by conventional standards reveal themselves over 87 minutes as genuinely beautiful individuals through their words and actions. 

4/5