Igor
Movie Information
In a world filled with Mad Scientists and Evil Inventions, one talented evil scientist's hunch-backed lab assistant has big dreams of becoming a Mad Scientist himself and winning the annual Evil Science Fair.
Rated: [PG] Mild themes and violence
Cinema Release: 8 Jan 2009
Director: Anthony Leondis
Running Time: 86 mins
Stars: John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Jay Leno, Sean Hayes, Molly Shannon
| Movie Review
Rating: 
IF YOU are the type that wishes filmmaker Tim Burton still put his name to funky animated monstrosities like The Nightmare Before Christmas, then Igor will fit the bill just nicely.
This genially macabre comedy fantasy is set in the land of Malaria, a strange and forbidding place that is home to a majority of the planet's evil scientists.
These lab-coated loons use Malaria's thunderstorms to power-up all kinds of sinister gizmos.
However, insane inventors such as Dr Glickenstein (voiced by John Cleese) would be nothing without their ever-faithful, hideously deformed assistants, all of whom are named Igor.
One Igor stands out from the hunchbacked pack. This guy (John Cusack) has some grotesquely great ideas he would like to inflict upon the world.
But there is just one problem.
Malaria's class system is infected by an entrenched prejudice against all Igors. An Igor must remain a slave until the day he dies. Giving orders instead of taking them is completely out of the question.
Nevertheless, when Dr Glickenstein goes AWOL, the greatest Igor of them all takes his shot at the big time. Igor enlists the help of a depressed rabbit named Scamper (Steve Buscemi).
While Igor's director Anthony Leonidis is clearly in thrall to the groundbreaking work of Tim Burton, he does not resort to cheap imitation. The film boasts a look, feel and sense of humour that is definitely all its own.
Not all children will connect with the hipster cinema references and inside jokes, but there is plenty to keep the not-so-easily scared kid in all of us merrily entertained.
