Igor (film)


Igor is a 2008 animated horror comedy film directed by Tony Leondis from a screenplay by Chris McKenna. Igor, developed and produced by Max Howard with the California-based Exodus Film Group, was the first feature-length animated film to be financed with private equity. The animation was completed at France's Sparx Animation Studios and a facility in Vietnam. It was distributed in the United States by MGM Distribution Co., by TFM Distribution in France and internationally by The Weinstein Company. It is MGM's first fully computer-animated film as well as the studio's first fully animated film in twelve years following 1996's All Dogs Go to Heaven 2.
Igor features the voices of John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, Jay Leno, Eddie Izzard, Jennifer Coolidge, Arsenio Hall, John Cleese, Molly Shannon and Christian Slater, with James Lipton in a live-action role. Conceived by McKenna as a twisting of evil scientist film tropes, Igor features Cusack as the titular Igor, who lives in the kingdom of Malaria where others of his kind serve as assistants to evil scientists. In trying to achieve his dream to become an evil scientist, Igor accidentally creates a sweet-natured female monster named Eva.
Igors first teaser trailer premiered at the 2008 New York Comic Con before being released online on May 7, 2008. Promoted with a video game, toys, books, comic books and fast-food tie-ins, Igor premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on September 13, 2008, before starting its American nationwide theatrical run five days later. The film received mixed reviews from film critics and grossed $30.7 million worldwide on a $25 million budget. Igor received an Annie Award nomination for Valérie Hadida's character design.

Plot

The once-peaceful kingdom of Malaria, driven into poverty by a never-ending storm, has saved itself through evil inventions: King Malbert encouraged the best and most wicked scientists to create doomsday devices and blackmail the rest of the world. Malaria has since become a dark and sinister land where evil reigns supreme; the leading mad scientists compete in the annual Evil Science Fair, assisted by hunchbacked second-class citizens known as "Igors".
One Igor aspires to become an evil scientist himself; his inventions include his friends Scamper, an immortal, yet suicidal rabbit, and Brain, an unintelligent brain in a jar. Igor must hide his scientific talents for fear of being sent to the "Igor Recycling Plant", especially from his master, the incompetent Dr. Glickenstein. Meanwhile, the popular Dr. Schadenfreude has won seventeen Evil Science Fairs by stealing the winning inventions from other scientists with the help of his shape-shifting girlfriend Jaclyn, and plots to use this year's invention to overthrow Malbert and rule Malaria himself.
Unbeknownst to Igor, Glickenstein's girlfriend "Heidi" is actually Jaclyn in disguise, attempting to steal the scientist's plans. Ignoring Igor's concerns, Glickenstein is killed when his latest invention malfunctions. King Malbert, threatened by Schadenfreude's popularity, visits in hopes that Glickenstein will defeat him at the Evil Science Fair, and Igor lies that his master is creating life, which Malbert declares would prove him the greatest evil scientist of all time. Igor decides to complete his own project for the Evil Science Fair: creating a monstrous being from various human remains.
With Brain and Scamper's help, Igor assembles a huge, indestructible monster, but the reanimated creature escapes. Sneaking into Glickenstein's castle, Schadenfreude discovers his rival is dead, and steals Igor's plans for a living monster, which he believes will be his key to taking the throne. Igor discovers the monster's "evil bone" was not activated, making her friendly and gentle, and accidentally names her Eva. His attempt to have her professionally brainwashed instead leaves her aspiring to become an actress.
Schadenfreude tries to steal Eva with a shrink ray, only to shrink himself and Jaclyn instead. Igor tells Eva that the Evil Science Fair is an audition, convincing her to act destructively. She suggests it may be better to be good than evil, and they bond as they prepare for her "performance". Schadenfreude attempts to persuade Igor to join him, revealing he knows about Glickenstein's death and the creation of Eva, and offers to make Igor the top evil scientist in Malaria if he gives him Eva to overthrow Malbert. Igor refuses, but Schadenfreude tricks Eva into leaving with him.
Discovering the truth, a furious Malbert sends Igor to the recycling plant to be destroyed, while Schadenfreude arrives at the Evil Science Fair with Eva. Rescued by Scamper and Brain, Igor realizes that Malbert's "Beacon of Evil" is actually the device creating Malaria's perpetually stormy weather. Malbert has been using the device to force his kingdom to extort 100 billion dollars from the world annually as he was dissatisfied with the meager income of the agricultural economy of Malaria. Schadenfreude manipulates Eva into striking him, activating her evil bone and turning her into a mindless killing machine. As Schadenfreude seizes the royal throne from Malbert, Eva defeats the Evil Science Fair's other creations in the Killiseum with a violent rendition of "Tomorrow".
Igor tries to reason with the enraged Eva while Brain and Scamper destroy the weather ray, returning sunny skies to Malaria and deactivating Eva's evil bone, reverting her to her sweet and gentle self. Igor reveals Malbert's deception to the crowd as he created the clouds to force his kingdom into extorting money from the rest of the world to enrich himself just before the king is crushed to death by his own device. Schadenfreude is humiliated and Jaclyn runs out of shape-shifting pills, revealing she is an Igor herself. Igor is named Malaria's new president, transforming the kingdom into a benevolent republic and turning the annual science fair into a musical showcase. Igor and Eva are officially in love, and he shows her his plans to build them a dog, as Malaria celebrates becoming a better and brighter place.

Voice cast

  • John Cusack as Igor, a short hunchback who aspires to be an evil scientist
  • Molly Shannon as Eva, the hideous, yet sweet monster Igor makes using human remains, who aspires to be an actress. She is mostly based on Frankenstein's Monster.
  • Steve Buscemi as Scamper, an immortal, sarcastic, deadly rabbit with suicidal tendencies
  • Sean Hayes as Brain, an unintelligent sentient with a human brain inside a jar. Scamper teases Brain by calling him "Brian", because he misspelled his jar. Eva later gives him a new label, with the word "Brain" spelled right.
  • Eddie Izzard as Dr. Frederick "Schadenfreude" Poeklemacher, a fraudulent, flamboyant rival scientist who takes credit for other evil scientists' inventions in hopes of becoming king of Malaria
  • Jennifer Coolidge as Jaclyn / Heidi, Dr. Schadenfreude's shapeshifting girlfriend who helps him steal other scientists' inventions by wooing other scientists with her shapeshifting pills. It is later revealed her true form is a female Igor. Her names are a pun on Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
  • Jay Leno as King Malbert, the tyrannical ruler of Malaria who turned their main export from crops to mad science after the storm cloud—which he is later revealed to have created—came
  • John Cleese as Dr. Glickenstein, a tedious-minded and incompetent mad scientist with a prosthetic arm and Igor's former master; he is shown to have issues from his deceased mother and is said to not be very smart, as he once created an "evil lasagna" that failed to kill anyone.
  • Arsenio Hall as Carl Cristall, an invisible talk show host who does not wear pants. He is based on The Invisible Man.
  • Paul Vogt as Buzz Offmann, the business owner of the Brain Wash spa. He has the body of a fly, a reference to The Fly.
  • Christian Slater as Dr. Schadenfreude's Igor
  • James Lipton as himself
  • Jess Harnell as Announcer, Royal Guard #2

    Production

Development

While attending the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, Chris McKenna's interest in Transylvania-inspired settings caused him to conceive an evil scientist film like Frankenstein that has all of its common tropes twisted; the hunchback is smart instead of dumb, the scientist's creation is friendly instead of monstrous, the evil scientist is not intelligent, and the jar brain is stupid. In the 2000s, the increasing amount of cheap technology led smaller, independent companies to produce films in the animation industry; one of them was Exodus, where its film Igor was the first feature-length animation to be budgeted entirely with private equity. McKenna pitched his idea to the California-based Exodus Film Group as a three-paper treatment, instead of as a presentation of drawings and concept art usual for pitching animated features; the company accepted and instructed investors worldwide to finance the film. According to Exodus president John D. Eraklis, "We chose it because it was the most original concept that we had come across in years and Chris McKenna is a brilliant writer."
The Exodus project was first announced on September 7, 2004, with the involvements of McKenna, executive producer Max Howard, and 50 to 75 animators from the studio ElectroAge revealed. Exodus was developing the film as part of a $50 million fund that also included The Hero of Color City and Amarillo Armadillo; Igor made up a chunk of the fund, being budgeted at $30 million. The original plan was to produce a short film, titled Igor: Unholy Frijoles, that would get the producers comfortable with making a feature-length film and serve as a launch for a longer version of Igor to be released in 2007. The seven-minute short was also going to premiere in festivals before being distributed.
In a November 2005 interview, Howard announced that the rigging and voice recording for the short was completed and that storyboards were nearly finished for the animation to start soon; he also shared about the film's content, "This is a slightly edgier picture we're dealing with. We're taking a tongue-in-cheek look at the horror genre, in particular, Frankenstein stories but taken from Igor's point of view. There's sort of an underclass were you're born an Igor and you can only aspire to be an Igor, but, of course, he has greater aspirations than that. It's not supposed to be scary, but there's a gross-out value, which we hope kids will really enjoy. We're not making a soft, preschool property either." In early 2006, in addition to making ways into festivals, DVDs of Igor: Unholy Frijoles were being sold by Exodus to those who invested a minimum of $30,000 in the feature film's budget; in documents, Exodus enticed investors by citing a 2004 Dove Foundation study regarding the superior amount of profitability of G-rated films over R-rated motion pictures.
On September 22, 2006, it was revealed Tony Leondis would direct the feature. He got onboard due to sharing McKenna's interest in horror films and sardonic sense of humor, in addition to being into film noir and German Expressionism works; Leondis helped the writer in developing the setting's backstory, a more complicated process than McKenna predicted that required collaboration from not just the director but also the actors and producers. Leondis explained, "My goal was to take familiar monster motifs and rearrange them in a surprisingly fun way to evoke the memories that people have of classic monster movies. Something familiar enough to connect to, but at the same time fresh and unexpected so that it became a fun ride—and maybe makes them think a little along the way."