By: debbie lynn elias
What do you get when you mix a little hunchback wannabe scientist with soulful eyes and a heart of gold named Igor, a Frankenstonian laboratory collaged with pop culture and homage to scientific monster mania of yore, an evil monster who only wants to be an actress (go figure!), a few evil genius scientists with some good and not-so-good inventions, a land called Malaria, the vision and exuberance of director Anthony Leondis, witty freshness and heart of writer Chris McKenna, eye popping artistic wizardry of Olivier Besson, and voicing talents of John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, Jennifer Coolidge, Eddie Izzard, John Cleese, Jay Leno and Molly Shannon to name a few? There can only be one answer. IGOR – a perfectly charming web of evil enchantment that will delight children of all ages as well as the child in each of us. Truly the first “holiday” film of the season, be it Halloween or Christmas, I can see my 77 year old father enjoying this film as much as any of my four nephews from age 4 to 15! Move over Disney and Pixar, because there’s a new guy in town. A guy named IGOR.
The Kingdom of Malaria showcases evil, in fact, it thrives on evil. Once a land of happiness, cheer and sunshine days, strange clouds moved over the land plunging Malaria into darkness, causing crops to fail and citizens to despair. (Sound familiar folks?) To save its ailing economy and way of life, Evil became a business bringing prosperity to the King (dom) and capitalizing on the annual Evil Science Fair where evil scientists compete for the title of who can create the most evil invention of them all. For years, the untalented Dr. Schadenfreude has been the winner but only due to his stealing ideas from other scientists, among them, Dr. Glickenstein. But this year, with the help of his assistant Igor, Glickenstein vows to win.
Importantly, every scientist has an Igor because in the land of Malaria if you are born with a hump on your back you are automatically an Igor, going to Igor University, earning your Yes Master degree and then spending your life working for an evil scientist. But Dr. Glickenstein’s Igor is different from the others as he knows he is a scientist. In his heart, he knows. For years Igor has been working on his own inventions, among them Brain, a brain in a jar who may be anything but brainy, and Scamper, the anti-Thumper who can’t be killed and who can’t say anything nice about anyone. Unfortunately, Dr. Glickenstein just dismisses Igor’s ideas and Igor, this year leading to dire results for the Doctor, but giving Igor the opening he needs to create the greatest monster of them all and finally become a true scientist. But, as to be expected, something goes awry with Igor’s creation and the evil monster is anything but evil. The monster turns out to be a monstress named Eva who only wants to be – – – an actress! AAAHHHH!
With twists and turns galore, with his trusty inventions Brain and Scamper by his side, Igor faces the horror of Dr. Schadenfreude and his henchwoman Jacyln and the impending loss of Eva and the science fair, but more importantly, he uncovers a diabolic plot in Malaria that threatens to destroy their entire world, a plot that only a true hero, or a true scientist with a heart, can stop.
Written by Chris McKenna and directed by Tony Leondis, one of the brains behind the animated Lilo & Stitch: Stitch Has a Glitch” and “Home on the Range”, both knew that to make this animated confection of evil charm work, they would need a great cast of talented actors to do the voicing. According to Leondis, “I wanted to cast really interesting characters and performers, actors. Not just names. It’s great that we got both but I wanted people who knew how to turn a line and make interesting choices because a lot of the humor is offbeat and character driven like that.” And what a cast he got, starting with my fave of the film, John Cusack.
Cusack not only narrates, but is our hero, Igor. His narration is impeccable. He should start doing kids books on tape. He is invigorating, entertaining, enthusiastic and makes even just the words sound fun even were there no pictures in front of us. As good as he is with this work, he can read me a bedtime story any day of the week.
I had a vision the entire film of kids sitting on a floor cross-legged for story time, chins in their hands, mouths agape, looking at John with rapt attention. And then as Igor, he is a charmer. John has this innate talent for being able to convey emotion just through his voice. You don’t need to see him to know what he is feeling or what the character is feeling. Very touching were the scenes with Eva when he was realizing his love and caring for her. He was at his Lloyd Dobbler best! There is no one who could evoke the emotion of Igor or set the tone of the film better than John.
Although McKenna already “had a great version of the script ready” when it came to Leondis, these two brainstormed and “We wrote the part for Sean [Hayes]. We wrote the part for Molly [Shannon]. We wrote the part for Jennifer Coolidge [Jaclyn] and we’re praying that they would say yes. We do think in our heads. We start to come up with a character. You take a little from this and a little from this. And you bring the truth to the situation of what they’re going through and what their real situation is.” Luckily, all the principals said “yes” to this project giving us Steve Buscemi who is absolutely killer as Scamper as is Sean Hayes as Brain. These two are hilarious and their vocal personas play so well off of each other. Molly Shannon’s Eva surprised the heck out of me. I’ve never heard her so sweetly “sedate” before. And Jennifer Coolidge…..with every syllable uttered you could just picture her sultry self. And I believe her character’s animation was the closest to her physical personas we associate with her as an actress.
But let’s take the voicing up another notch and we’ve got John Cleese (who had me laughing hysterically) and Eddie Izzard as our leading evil scientists, Glickenstein and Schadenfreude, and Jay Leno as the King of Malaria. Simply outstanding.
But without a well devised script and enlivening animation, no matter how talented your voice actors, the film would not have the appeal that it does. And thanks to the fertile imaginations of Chris McKenna and Tony Leondis, IGOR packs a wallop starting with the genesis of the story. The story is fresh with an exquisite sweetness to it. And it really spurs the imagination! Incorporating some pop culture with true monster movie lore (evil, Frankenstein and let’s face it, even a little Rocky Horror at times) and some very irreverent tongue-in-cheek comedy (blind orphans!!! gotta love it!) and you’ve got something for everything. There is no banality anywhere in the script, the story or the characters. McKenna even builds tension in a few scenes that will have kids on the edge of their seat….will the monster get built? Will Igor discover what’s a top the “evil beam”? I can hear the little voices gasp now! And the action is just superlative! John Cusack, a big fan of old Boris Karloff, Claude Raines movies and Mel Brooks “Frankenstein” agrees, opining, “The script was real great.”
According to McKenna, “ I was thinking about doing something with evil scientists. I just love that world. What if you had a whole land that every mountaintop had the stereotypical mad scientist, evil scientist, working away in a castle laboratory. I started thinking, would they all have a hunchback lab assistant? Would they all have an Igor? Then I started thinking, that’s the story. Where do these Igor’s come from? What if you had this land where if you are born with a hunch on your back you are immediately named Igor and you are forced to be a lab assistant? I wanted to do a riff on the world of Frankenstein and upend it.”
But then let’s toss in the animation under Leondis’ steady hand. The CGI animation is perfect for this film. Not smooth slick Disneyesque animation, but more Warner Bros. Road Runner cartoon with a tinge of anime and Rankin Bass stop motion appeal providing a rough hewn edge that is masterful with monsters and evil scientists! Leondis, a huge fan of Rankin Bass (those folks that brought us the beloved “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”), knew that he “really wanted this world to be collaged. I collaged time periods. It’s a little in the Duquensian world. There’s turn of the century. There’s a little 60’s in there. The Brain Wash is a car wash from the 50’s. I wanted it to feel like we were creating something new and its own universe; it exists in its own universe. I knew we had to have very clear shapes for the characters and very non-human like characters because the more human they are, the more you can see the imperfections. I love the Rankin Bass look. All those beautifully designed characters and puppets. I wanted you to feel. I wanted you to feel the texture. I wanted you to feel like they were toys moving around.” Believe me, Leondis more than makes you feel and then some.
Paying particular attention to the background storyboarding, Leondis called on Art Director Olivier Besson for his expert eye. “I had in my head a lot of what I wanted. I bought all these books and things and gave it to Olivier and said, a little of this, a little of this, and a world is somewhere in here. We had two months to find the style of the film. All through production we were doing all of the background. We were all just doing a little of everything so that made it exciting. It has a singular vision because there were very few people on the project.” The attention to detail is meticulous.
Sean Hayes “thought it was amazing that Chris and Tony and everybody involved created a new kind of tone and world and feeling that we haven’t seen before and I think that’s amazing that Exodus did that. It was exciting to be part of something new. The sharp edges of the drawings and the kind of darkness of it but still kid-friendly and the eccentricity of it. I loved all of that. It’s clever and witty.”
As if the story, the voices, the action, the animation aren’t enough, Leondis went above and beyond with his use of music selecting Louis Prima standards. “I wanted something that was timeless. I grew up with big band music and Louis [Prima] is funny but his songs are about something. I thought he was a great internal voice for Igor.”
What is there not to love about IGOR? I can’t think of a thing. IGOR is golden. We’re talking a Best Animated Picture Oscar nomination here. Pure lovable evil enchantment that, like Scamper, will never die!
Igor – John Cusack Eva – Molly Shannon Brain – Sean Hayes Scamper – Steve Buscemi Jaclyn – Jennifer Coolidge
Directed by Tony Leondis. Written by Chris McKenna. Rated PG. (87 min)
