The Weinstein Company showed off an exclusive, just for New York Comic-Con, world-wide premiere of the trailer for Igor, the story of an evil mad scientist’s sidekick who tries to become an evil mad scientist of his own.
Directed by former Disney animator Tony Leondis and written by “American Dad!” writer Chris McKenna, Igor follows the story of the average Joe Igor who tries to break out of the sidekick mold. Igor competes in the annual “Evil Scientist Fair,” something that has never been done by an Igor. For the fair, Igor creates life through the perfect evil monster. The only problem is that this perfect evil monster, Eva, is not evil at all and in fact inspires to be an actress.
From the start of production, McKenna tossed around the idea of classic evil scientists. From there, he came upon Igor and got to thinking, “What if every mad scientist had an Igor?” “What if” one particular Igor decided to break free of the mold, stray away from pulling switches all day and graduating with a “Yes, Master” degree? Thus, this Igor would become more than what life has planned out.
Igor is a CG film, something that the director Leondis loves. Being a monster movie, CG allows for “great camera sweeps” and is able to show off the great landscapes found in classical monster movies. Having the production team work in Paris, Leondis found this crew to be a “little more open minded” to the look and feel of the characters and the overall tone of the film. Being a Weinstein Company movie, the team of Leondis and McKenna felt that they are able to break away from the typical Disney/Dreamworks animated “family film” and do something that is a bit darker. This should create a unique movie going experience for the audience. It can be argued that McKenna’s “American Dad!” TV show not only has off-beat smart humor for adults but fart jokes for the kids as well.
From the start of the New York Comic-Con’s Igor panel, you can really see the passion both McKenna and Leondis have for their characters and the film as a whole. They seem to be heavily influenced by “Looney Tunes” characters and adventures. The film stars John Cusack as our hero Igor. Steve Buscemi plays the character of Scamper, Igor’s rabbit sidekick whom McKenna promises to be “Bugs Bunny in reverse.” (From the trailer, Scamper promises to be my favorite!) Sean Hayes plays Igor’s other failed creation who becomes an assistant named “Brain.” Eddie Izzard plays the super rock star status scientist Dr. Schadenfreude. Jennifer Coolidge, John Cleese, Molly Shannon, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall and James Lipton all lend their voices in what looks to be an incredibly fun film. Also noted from the panel discussion, composer Peter Doyle has been given the task of creating a dark yet fun score to go along with the images on screen.
As a chance to get the fan base involved, Leondis talked about the “Be An Igor” contest where one lucky winner will get the chance to lend their voice for the roll of one of Igor’s fellow hunchbacks. More information can be found at BeAnIgor.com.
The story of Igor and his monster is one that has not been told in the animated kids genre. From the trailer and panel, the characters appear to be funny, dark, subvert and memorable. Igor is set to pull the switch this September 19th.
