Igor Fails to Charm, Entertain

igor

Computer animated movies used to be a feast for the eyes. An amazing combination of technological wizardry and creative artistry. Somewhere between Toy Story and Igor these two concepts began to get muddled and lose their luster.

CG movies started to be havens for kid-like toons but adult and contemporary jokes and references. Dreamworks’ Shrek and its sequels utilized this to full effect, while Pixar’s films tended toward more awe-inspiring animation.

2008_igor_001

And then comes Igor. Sounds like an interesting idea. The story of a lowly hunchbacked assistant to an evil mad scientist who aspires to better things. Could be musical. Could be a comedy. Couldn’t be much worse.

What Igor lacks is any sense of what it truly is. Is it a rip-off of Tim Burton’s stop-motion fare like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, and the upcoming Coraline? Or is it trying to be a hip and macabre version of the Shrek movies? It’s hard to tell.

Even with the dozens of actors supplying their talents to voice the film’s characters, the result is still an uneven and sporadic comedy. I found it hard to find a reason why kids would enjoy it, let alone adults.

Why is it PG? It’s dark. It deals with death, destruction, evil, and doom. You know, all the things kids’ films should contain. But while our hero Igor tries to out-evil his boss, the whole story and its many pieces become one large mess.

Animation-wise, it’s decent. Can’t complain. There are some great effects and some great character animation. If you want to be in the field of computer animation, I can recommend it for that specific reason, but nothing more.

With no special features of any quality (what does that tell you?), the overall experience was disappointing.

Igor earns a C-. Animation good. Rest of movie, bad.

Igor
MGM/20th Century Fox
Starring John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, John Cleese, Eddie Izzard, and Jay Leno
Rated PG for for some thematic elements, scary images, action and mild language.
Running Time = 87 minutes

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