Igor, a computer animation that riffs on the tale of Frankenstein and his creation, plunders thematic and visual motifs from the body of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The story takes place within a domain whose inhabitants make a living by being creatively evil. Populated by mad scientists and their loyal hunchbacked side-kicks (all of whom are called Igor) the kingdom of Malaria is designed with marginally fewer baroque curlicues but shares more than a little of the essence of Burton’s Hallowe’en Town.

The Igor at the heart of the film dares to dream big – he thinks he can make it as an evil scientist. He certainly can do no worse than his boss, whose most recent invention was an evil lasagne. Igor gets his chance at evil immortality and creates a grotesque monster. But when a Clockwork Orange-style brainwash backfires, the monster starts to believe that she is an actress.

The film is not without merit – there’s a macabre cruelty that is pure Grimm – but you do feel that, with it’s knowing one-liners and classic movie references, Igor is trying terribly hard to amuse an adult audience, possibly at the expense of children it should be entertaining.

PG, 87 minutes

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