A decent horror comedy concept goes off on a Hollywood tangent – literally – in the animated “Igor.”
In a storm-cloud-covered kingdom where mad scientists compete to make the most infernal inventions, a hunchbacked assistant (they’re all called Igor, but this extra-intelligent one is voiced by John Cusack) longs to create the greatest monster of them all.
But instead of turning out something evil, he stitches together Eva (Molly Shannon), a giant, lopsided lady Frankenstein with a confounding heart of gold. A screw-up at the brainwashing spa morphs her personality into that of a pretentious aspiring actress, but she still won’t hurt a fly.
Skulduggery and way too many “Annie” rehearsals ensue.
Animated in a limited, waxy-haired way by the French studio Spark, “Igor” has a few interesting design elements, but for the most part looks like it’s trying to digitally imitate “The Nightmare Before Christmas” without capturing any of Tim Burton’s distinct, bizarro brio.
Jokes are hit and miss; Igor’s previous experiments/sidekicks – Scamper the immortal road-kill rabbit (Steve Buscemi) and Brain the stupid brain-in-a-jar (Sean Hayes) – are the funniest characters. John Cleese, Eddie Izzard, Jennifer Coolidge, Jay Leno and Arsenio Hall all try to bring scary hilarity to the show, but you can hear them trying.
Tony Leondis, who’s done some direct-to-DVD Disney sequels, directed. “Igor” was written by “American Dad!” veteran Chris McKenna.
