Got my CG Fix Last Night

After failing miserably to gather some friends to watch Monsters vs Aliens last night I decided to get my CG fix anyways and popped in Igor from last year. The flick isn’t bad, I mean it doesn’t fail at everything, but its what I would call a tweener-flick – not quite good, but not ass-backwards terrible either. Kind of the movie equivalent to the guy in your office who you wouldn’t consider a “friend,” but you wouldn’t kick him down a flight of stairs either.

Igor plays on the unsuspecting hero theme, but does so in a very Tim Burton-esque way. I haven’t done any research on this, but after watching just 5 minutes of this flick I could tell right away that if Burton had his hand in a 3D animation company, the guys who made this film would submit a resume. The tone is very childish, but not immature. You can tell there are points in the flick where the creators are trying to tap into the Shrek / Incredibles theme where kids like the shapes and funny voices and the adults enjoy the double entendres and clever dialogue – the only problem is that there aren’t that many.

It also follows a pretty standard story structure which helps with animated films. Protagonist rises from the ranks hoping to become a hero but makes bad decisions along the way – he eventually realizes his mistakes, makes amends and still becomes the hero in the end. Simple, yet effective I guess – just not very unique. There is one point in the flick that is quite entertaining and I’ll spoil it for you right now (HA!)

James Lipton (the old guy who does interviews on Inside The Actors Studio) is actually the catalyst to the entire dramatic change.

Igor’s cast looks like everyone who made it as far as call-backs for Monsters vs Aliens. John Cusack, Molly Shannon, Steve Buscemi, ect. As actors they’re all pretty good, but they don’t bring the star power to their voices the way other celebrities do.

Igor isn’t a movie I would go an rent but if you know a guy who knows a guy, who’s cousin is like… a computer guy you c0uld ask him to get one of those nifty downloads going and watch it off of a file.  I’m just saying…