Igor is a 2008 American computer animated fantasy comedy film about the stock character Igor who dreams of winning first place at the Evil Science Fair. Produced by Exodus Film Group and animated by Sparx Animation Studios, the film was released on September 19, 2008 by MGM.
It was directed by Tony Leondis, produced by John D. Eraklis, Max Howard, Matthew J. Parker, Darius A. Kamali, and written by Chris McKenna, John Hoffman and Dimitri Toscas, with music by Patrick Doyle. The film features the voices of John Cusack, Molly Shannon, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, Jennifer Coolidge, Arsenio Hall, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno, Christian Slater and John Cleese.
Plot
The kingdom of Malaria's environment is devastated by a mysterious storm. Its king, Malbert, then blackmails the rest of the world to pay the town not to unleash the various doomsday devices invented by its Evil Scientists. They in turn are assisted by Igors, while the kingdom's annual Evil Science Fair showcases the scientists' latest weapons. One Igor, however, who serves the somewhat tedious-minded Doctor Glickenstein, is a talented inventor who aspires to be an Evil Scientist himself. Among his inventions are his friends "Scamper," a re-animated, immortal rabbit with a death wish and "Brain," a unintelligent human brain transplanted into a life support jar.
When the malfunctioning invention explodes and decimates Glickenstein, Igor sees his chance. With Brain and Scamper's help, he assembles a huge, monstrous being from human remains. When he brings her to life, however, he discovers that the "Evil Bone" he gave her was not activated, making her kind, friendly and feminine. Igor tries to convince her that she is evil, inadvertently naming her "Eva", while an attempt to brainwash her into becoming evil turns her into an aspiring actress instead. Igor decides to exhibit Eva at the science fair anyway, telling her that the fair is an "Annie" audition.
Igor's nemesis Dr. Schadenfreude learns of Eva's existence and attempts to steal her, but when that fails, he exposes Igor to King Malbert, who sends Igor to an "Igor Recycling Plant." Schadenfreude activates Eva's Evil Bone and unleashes her into the Science Fair, where she destroys all of the Evil Inventions. Scamper and Brain help Igor escape from the recycling plant and they learn that Malbert had deliberately killed Malaria's crops with a weather ray that made storm clouds so he could implement his "Evil Inventions" plan, thereby keeping himself in power. Rushing into the arena, Igor reasons with Eva to deactivate her Evil Bone and allowing her to regain her sweet personality, while Scamper and Brain deactivate the weather ray which falls and crushes Malbert to death. Schadenfreude attempts to take power but the citizens revolt upon learning of Malbert's deception. The monarchy has been dissolved and Malaria normally becomes a republic, with Igor as president. Schadenfreude is relegated to a pickle salesman, while the annual Science Fair is now an annual musical theater showcase.
Cast
- John Cusack as Igor
- Molly Shannon as Eva
- Steve Buscemi as Scamper
- Sean Hayes as Brain
- Jennifer Coolidge as Jaclyn / Heidi
- Eddie Izzard as Dr. Schadenfreude
- Jay Leno as King Malbert
- Arsenio Hall as Carl Cristall
- Christian Slater as Schadenfreude's Igor
- John Cleese as Dr. Glickenstein
- Paul Vogt as Buzz Offmann
- James Lipton as Himself
Production
It is the first animated feature film produced by Exodus Film Group and the French CGI animation studio, Sparx*. The film was split between the studio’s Paris and Vietnam facilities. The Damas proprietary software was used to manage the digital assets and the production workflows of both sites, in an interconnected manner. Distribution has always been held by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures â€" The Weinstein Company originally developed this film but later sold their share of the rights to MGM, thus becoming an MGM presentation. Chris McKenna made his first film's story and writings.
Casting
Producer Max Howard explained how they came to attract so many A-list actors into the cast of this relatively obscure studio: "We sent them the script... Steve Buscemi signed on very early, and he's an 'actor's actor.' Then others signed on... it just took off that way". Jeremy Piven was originally cast as Doctor Schadenfreude, but Eddie Izzard replaced him and James Lipton appears as himself during a television viewing.
Reception
Igor has received generally mixed reviews by critics; it currently holds a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus: "With an animation style that apes Tim Burton, and a slew of cultural references that aren't clear enough to reach the crowds, Igorâ€â€Š'​s patched together antics make it hard to see who the film is trying to please." The review aggretator, Metacritic classified the film as having received "mixed or average reviews". John Anderson of Newsday stated that "Not all the jokes work, but most do, and the overall tenor of Igor is goofily funny -- probably a bit sophisticated for kids but certainly good-natured". Claudia Puig of USA Today awarded the film with two-and-a-half stars, writing: "This story of a world of mad scientists and their Igor lab assistants has some inspired lunacy as it spoofs classic horror films, though sometimes the jokes grow belabored". Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune took his child to a screening and asked him to criticize the film, reporting that he "had a fairly good time".
Box office
The film opened #4 with $7,803,347, behind Lakeview Terrace, Burn After Reading, and My Best Friend's Girl. As of January 22, 2009, the film has grossed $19,528,602 in the United States and Canada and $11,218,902 in foreign countries totaling $30,747,504 worldwide. In the UK, the film opened on 32 screens with a gross of £56,177, for a screen average of £1,756, and placing it at No. 20 in the box office chart. The mainstream release opened on 17 October, at 418 screens, and made £981,750 with a screen average of £2,348. This placed it at No. 3 for that weekend. The UK total gross is £1,110,859.
Home media
The film's DVD/Blu-ray release on January 3, 2009 though 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment ranked 4th in its opening weekend at the DVD sales chart, making $3,509,704 off 175,000 DVD units. As per the latest figures, 596,146 DVD units have been sold, translating to $11,739,919 in revenue.
Soundtrack
- Pennies from Heaven - Louis Prima
- Jump Jive n' Wail - Louis Prima
- Baby, Won't You Please Come Home - Louis Prima
- Beep! Beep! - Louis Prima
- The Bigger The Figure - Louis Prima & His Orchestra with Keely Smith
- The Twist - Hank Ballard
- I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash
- Pocketful of Sunshine - Natasha Bedingfield
- Tomorrow - Molly Shannon
See also
- List of animated feature films
References
External links
- Official website
- Igor at the Internet Movie Database
- Igor at AllMovie
- Igor at Box Office Mojo
- Igor at Rotten Tomatoes
- Igor at Metacritic