Igor - A poor Tim Burton imitation

What's it about: There's a place called Malaria that breeds mad, evil scientists. Most of these scientists have deformed, misshapen assistants known commonly as Igors.

A once-agricultural populace, the people of Malaria now eagerly await the annual Evil Scientist's Fair to show off their instruments of evil.

Of course, as in all civilizations, there's a deeply entrenched class divide and however much one of the hunchbacked Igors (Cusack, to be precise) wants to invent something it takes his master Dr Glickenstein's (Cleese) death for him to put his grand plan into action. World domination? That can wait... the Fair gets higher priority.u00a0

WHAT'S HOT: It helps to have A-List actors voice your main characters, but it also has to be backed by solid dialogues and very funny lines. Which this film delivers in spurts.

WHAT'S NOT: There's only so far good animation can take you and this one doesn't rank among Hollywood's best, so that oughta hurt.

Leondis tries his bestest to make it as Burtonesque as possible even to the point of having the ugliest bunch of sidekicks. Scamper may be voiced by Buscemi but his Scamper looks eerily similar to Ren (of Ren and Stimpy). What's with that?

WHAT TO DO: There's no evil here, has a hint of Disney someplace and doffs its hat to Tim Burton. This one seems like a mad scientist's invention. Try it out at your own risk.

Igor
''
Dir: Tony Leondis
Cast: John Cusack, Jay Leno, John Cleese