Igor DVD 2008Igor is a mediocre kid ‘toon take on the beloved Frankenstein sidekick, made a little more interesting by funny voice work from John Cusack as the title hunchback and Steve Buscemi’s splendidly sarcastic delivery as an immortal rabbit who doesn’t want to live.

In the kingdom of Malaria, Igors like Cusack go to Igor school to become assistants to the constantly cloud-shrouded land’s evil scientists. Only this Igor wants to be a scientist himself.

It all reminded me of 2005’s underrated Hoodwinked, a crude CGI take on Little Red Riding Hood that compensated for its visual shortcomings with surprisingly witty writing and an ace voice cast. Igor looks better, for sure, but it’s predictable and lacks that flick’s cleverness.

The voice work here is comparable, though. Besides Cusack and Buscemi, Sean Hayes struck my funny bone more than once as an idiot brain in a jar and Eddie Izzard is hilarious as the most evil of the evil scientists who’s out to steal Cusack’s invention. John Cleese and Jay Leno also contribute.

Said invention, by the way, is a large, Frankenstein monster-like woman (Molly Shannon) named Eva, and whenever Cusack says her name, he sounds suspiciously like a certain binocular-eyed robot from a recent, and better, CGI flick.

Animation/Comedy

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 1/20/09