If Tim Burton made children’s cartoons, the end result would probably look a lot like Igor.
The darkly animated film takes place in the city of Malaria, where evil scientists rule the land and lowly creatures with hunchbacks, thought to be the less intelligent species, become their lab assistant known as Igors.
Voiced by John Cusack, the protagonist is one such Igor, who just so happens to be extremely intelligent and a evil scientist wannabe. His big break comes when his employer, Dr Glickenstien (John Cleese ) blows himself up during an experiment, and Igor steps in to make a creation of his own for the annual Evil Scientists Fair.
Much to his dismay, however, his creation, Eva (Molly Shannon ), something of a female version of Frankenstein’s monster, does not seem to be working correctly and instead of being an evil being, she is actually more of a gentle giant.
When a attempted brainwash goes terribly wrong he ends up not only with a sweet and calm giant, but one who believes she is a kind-hearted Hollywood actress
Add to this that another evil scientist, Dr Schandenfreude, is trying to snatch Eva and claim her as his own, and you have completed, in a type of off-kilter way, the perfect formula for a children’s film. A good guy, a bad guy, and of course, potential for romance.
Albeit it is a little more mature than your standard kid flick (for example Steve Buscemi’s character Scamper is a cynical, suicidal, rabbit ), parents could be rightly concerned about some of the content disturbing young children. That said, very few of the little ones around me in the theatre seemed to take too much notice and continued laughing jovially throughout the film.
While it is no Pixar film (although it does bare a striking resemblance to a more dark and dangerous Monsters Inc ), it is enjoyable enough and entertaining enough to make your movie-going experience a pleasurable one, especially (judging by the reactions of some of the patrons around me ) if you are under the age of 10.
