Igor (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Igor

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Tony Leondis
Produced by John D. Eraklis
Max Howard
Matthew J. Parker
Darius A. Kamali
Written by Chris McKenna
Additional Screenplay Material by
John Hoffman
Dimitri Toscas
Tony Leondis
Story by Chris McKenna
Starring John Cusack
Molly Shannon
Steve Buscemi
Sean Hayes
Jennifer Coolidge
Eddie Izzard
Jay Leno
Arsenio Hall
Christian Slater
John Cleese
Music by Patrick Doyle
Cinematography Dominique Monfery
Editing by Hervé Schneid
Studio Exodus Film Group
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • September 19, 2008 (2008-09-19)
Running time 86 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $25 million[1]
Box office $30,599,801[1]

Igor is a 2008 American computer animated family-comedy film about the stock character of the same name around the grotesque with his dreams of winning first place at the Evil Science Fair. The film was released on September 19, 2008 by MGM and features the voices of John Cusack, Molly Shannon, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, Jennifer Coolidge, Arsenio Hall, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno, Christian Slater and John Cleese.

Plot

The kingdom of Malaria's agriculture-based economy is devastated when all crops are killed by a mysterious rain. Its evil King Malbert then blackmails the rest of the world to pay the town not to unleash the various doomsday devices invented by its Evil Scientists. They in turn are assisted by Igors, while the kingdom's annual Evil Science Fair showcases the scientists' latest weapons. One Igor, however, who serves the somewhat dull-minded Doctor Glickenstein, is a talented inventor who aspires to be an Evil Scientist himself. Among his inventions are his friends "Scamper," a re-animated, immortal rabbit with a death wish, and "Brain," a dim-witted human brain transplanted into a life support jar.

When one of Glickenstein's inventions malfunctions and explodes, taking Glickenstein with it, Igor sees his chance. With Brain and Scamper's help, he assembles a huge, monstrous being from human remains. When he brings her to life, however, he discovers that the "Evil Bone" he gave her was not activated, making her gentle, affectionate, and feminine. Igor tries to convince her that she is evil, inadvertently naming her "Eva", while an attempt to brainwash her into becoming evil turns her into an aspiring actress instead. Igor decides to exhibit Eva at the science fair anyway, telling her that the fair is an "Annie" audition.

Igor's nemesis Dr. Schadenfreude learns of Eva's existence and attempts to steal her, but when that fails, he exposes Igor to King Malbert, who sends Igor to an "Igor Recycling Plant." Schadenfreude activates Eva's Evil Bone and unleashes her into the Science Fair, where she destroys all the other Evil Inventions. Scamper and Brain help Igor escape from the recycling plant. They then learn that Malbert had deliberately killed Malaria's crops with a weather modification ray so he could implement his "Evil Inventions" plan, thereby keeping himself in power. Rushing into the arena, Igor reasons with Eva to deactivate her Evil Bone and allowing her to regain her normal personality, while Scamper and Brain deactivate the weather ray which falls and squashes Malbert. Schadenfreude attempts to take power but the citizens revolt upon learning of Malbert's deception. With Malbert gone, Malaria regains its former pastoral character. The monarchy has been dissolved and Malaria becomes a republic, with Igor as President. Schadenfreude is relegated to a pickle salesman, while the annual Science Fair is now an annual musical theater showcase.

Cast

Production

This is the first animated feature film produced by Exodus Film Group, the CG animation was created by French studio Sparx*.[2] Work on Sparx’s CG feature Igor was split between the studio’s Paris and Vietnam facilities. The Damas proprietary software was used to manage the digital assets and the production workflows of both sites, in an interconnected manner. Distribution has always been held by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures — The Weinstein Company originally developed this film but later sold their share of the rights to MGM, thus becoming an MGM presentation.[3] Chris McKenna made his first film's story and writings.

Casting

Producer Max Howard explained how they came to attract so many A-list actors into the cast of this relatively obscure studio: "We sent them the script... Steve Buscemi signed on very early, and he's an 'actor's actor.' Then others signed on... it just took off that way".[4] Jeremy Piven was originally cast as Doctor Schadenfreude, but Eddie Izzard replaced him[citation needed] and James Lipton appears as himself during a television viewing.

Reception

Igor has received generally mixed reviews by critics; it currently holds a 36% rating with the consensus "With an animation style that apes Tim Burton, and a slew of cultural references that aren't clear enough to reach the crowds, Igor's patched together antics make it hard to see who the film is trying to please."[5] The review aggretator, Metacritic classified the film has having received "mixed or average reviews".[6] John Anderson of Newsday stated that "Not all the jokes work, but most do, and the overall tenor of Igor is goofily funny -- probably a bit sophisticated for kids but certainly good-natured". Claudia Puig of USA Today awarded the film with two-and-a-half stars, writing: "This story of a world of mad scientists and their Igor lab assistants has some inspired lunacy as it spoofs classic horror films, though sometimes the jokes grow belabored". Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune took his child to a screening and asked him to criticize the film, reporting that he "had a fairly good time".

Box office

The film opened #4 with $7,803,347, behind Lakeview Terrace, Burn After Reading, and My Best Friend's Girl.[7] As of December 23, 2008, the film has grossed $19,429,791 in the United States and Canada and $8,172,638 in foreign countries totaling $27,602,429 worldwide.[8] In the UK, the film opened on 32 screens with a gross of £56,177, for a screen average of £1,756, and placing it at 20 in the box office chart. The mainstream release opened on 17 October, at 418 screens, and made £981,750 with a screen average of £2,348. This placed it at No. 3 for that weekend. The UK total gross is £1,110,859.[citation needed]

Home media

The film's DVD/Blu-ray release on January 3, 2009 though Fox Home Entertainment ranked 4th in its opening weekend at the DVD sales chart, making $3,509,704 off 175,000 DVD units. As per the latest figures, 596,146 DVD units have been sold, translating to $11,739,919 in revenue.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Igor at Box Office Mojo
  2. ↑ "Exodus Prods. Enlists French Sparx on Igor". Animation World Magazine. Animation World Network. 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2008-08-26. 
  3. ↑ "The Weinstein Company Acquires Igor". MovieWeb. 2007-05-23. Retrieved 2008-08-26. 
  4. ↑ "Animation World Network article on the film". 
  5. ↑ Igor at Rotten Tomatoes
  6. ↑ "Igor (2008):Reviews". Metacritic. 
  7. ↑ "Box Office Weekend Gross from 9/17 to 9/19". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-09-19. 
  8. ↑ "Igor (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-12-25. 
  9. ↑ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2008/IGOR-DVD.php

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.