Igor (2008)
Where’s Dwight Frye When You Need Him?
Zombos Says: Fair
The most clever artifice in Igor is the name of the country the title character lives and works in—Malaria. That is as clever as it gets in Anthony Leondis’s animated movie about a mad scientist’s assistant who wants more out of life; to create it, mostly, like any self-respecting mad scientist craves to do.
Missing from this fairy tale of endlessly dark and stormy days, laboratories in high towers crackling with electricity and maniacal laughter, and evil scientists churning out evil devices, is the defining touches that Dwight Frye brought to the role of Fritz–not Igor–the hunched back assistant in Frankenstein. Absent, too, are the refining touches that Bela Lugosi brought to Ygor–pronounced E-gor–the hunched back, broken neck lunatic and part-time assistant in Son of Frankenstein. Not even a hint of Marty Feldman’s hilarious Igor–pronounced Eye-gore–another energetic, rather persnickety laboratory assistant in Young Frankenstein sparks life into this surprisingly lifeless nuts and bolts story by Chris McKenna.
Surprising because given the rich cinematic history of monsters and madmen this film should have drawn upon, we are instead given yet another reworking of what has become a clichéd theme in animated movies geared toward the younger set: disillusioned male yearns to break the mold and become something he is told he cannot be. Toss in misfit–but funny–sidekicks, add a dramatic failure or two, then end with boy making everyone see the life-altering truth he triumphantly uncovers as he achieves his dream. Along the way, make sure to depict female characters in conniving, devious, helpless, clueless, romantic, or otherwise secondary roles. Unless, of course, this is a Walt Disney movie; then just switch male and female roles: everything else still holds (at least before Pixar, anyway).
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Igor (2008)
Where’s Dwight Frye When You Need Him?Read More »