The Stampede

Issue date: 9/26/08 Section: Features

Animated films are a dime a dozen in today's computer animation world. Most of the time, if the film isn't from DreamWorks Animation or Pixar, the film just won't be up to par. Sadly, "Igor" is nothing but your standard paint-by-numbers animated film.

"Igor" takes place in the far away land of Malaria, which is inhabited by evil scientists who do nothing but create new and inventive ways of being evil. In Malaria, if you're not an evil scientist you're reduced to being an Igor, a hunch-backed minion who does all of the leg work. When the evil Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese) accidentally kills himself with his latest invention, Igor (John Cusack) must step in to create the most villainous invention possible for the Evil Science Fair.

Igor enlists the help of two of his previous creations, Scamper (Steve Buscemi) and Brain (Sean Hayes), in order to give life to the monstrous creature, Eva (Molly Shannon), who is anything but evil. Rival scientist, Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard), discovers Igor's attempt at creating a monster and decides to try and pass off Eva as his own evil creation.

The plot has everything that should make an animated film great. The dark, macabre nature of the story and the characters should evoke the spirit of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "The Corpse Bride" or even the fantastic TV series "Toonsylvania." Instead the film tries to follow the mold of "Family Guy" and the "Shrek" franchise, which means that there's pop culture reference after pop culture reference.
The film does a decent job of milking the elements from the golden era of monster movies, but never finds its real voice. It's apparent from the script by Chris McKenna, a writer on "American Dad," that he's more concerned with making jokes that will appeal to the adults in the crowd instead of creating an original cohesive story.
The voice cast of "Igor" is one of the few things that manage to hold it together. Cusack does an admirable job of playing the straight man to the utter craziness of the other characters. It's clear that Cleese and Izzard are having fun as the evil mad scientists. Buscemi steals the show as he voices the character of Scamper, a suicidal immortal creature.
In the end, the real problem with the film is that it's just not sure what kind of film it wants to be. The great concept is watered down into a standard family comedy that's just as good as the "Shrek" sequels. If for any reason you should see the film for the concept that's presented. It's just a shame that the rest of film doesn't live up to it.
Three out of five stars.

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