MGM
Review in a Hurry: It's alive?! It's alive?! Eh, not so much. With dreams of becoming a mad scientist, the titular hunchbacked assistant vainly tries to create a horrific monster from reanimated body parts. Igor gives you a hunch that this animated experiment could've been more successful, too.
The Bigger Picture: Igor's characters look like they've stumbled in from The Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride. Too bad they didn't drag Tim Burton along with them. This goth-lite kiddie pic really needed that auteur's dark lyricism and wit. Yes, master!
In the kingdom of Malaria, lowly slave Igor (John Cusack) sees a chance for notoriety after his cruel master, Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese), kicks the bucket. With the help of two sidekicks, dim bulb Brain (Sean Hayes) and suicidal bunny Scamper (Steve Buscemi), Igor builds a ferocious monster for the annual Evil Science Fair. But his creation, Eva (Molly Shannon), is just a big-hearted behemoth when he fails to activate her evil bone.
Igor fails to stimulate the funny bone as well. A regenerated Frankenstein tale requires a smart, fresh script. All of the hyper shtick and busy banter lands with a resounding clang, like so many discarded neck bolts on the laboratory floor. And young audiences will likely be puzzled by the Method actor-speak, as Eva accidentally gets brainwashed (a nod to A Clockwork Orange) to be an aspiring thespian, obsessed with her instrument and sense-memory journals. Um, OK.
Fortunately, vibrantly animated sequences and high-wattage vocal performances add a few jolts. Shannon shines as the gentle, insecure creature. Eddie Izzard amps up the evil as rival scientist Dr. Schadenfreude. And Jennifer Coolidge lends her kooky accents and mush-mouth flirtatiousness to Schadenfreude's nefarious girlfriend.
Despite such flashes, this monster mishmash is less than a graveyard smash. Check out Burton's short Frankenweenie instead, which gets the full-length treatment next year.
The 180—a Second Opinion: For Annie haters, it's cathartic to see an enraged monster in a red orphan outfit causing massive chaos and destruction while shrieking "Tomorrow." Many of us have the same impulse when hearing that song.