Igor (film - 2008)
This will be the first in a series of media reviews that I will post as I am stuck on pregnancy-related bed rest. I am operating on a **** scale. Enjoy...
Igor (film 2008) **
So, there are those instances when a truly great animated film comes out. The kids love it. The parents love it. Everyone in the world must go see it and buy the kid's meal and the toys and the shampoo and so on and so forth. In these instances, cynical film producers frequently (okay, almost always) see nothing but dollar signs, and they quickly arrange for at least three straight-to-DVD sequels to be made within the following year. These sequels are sad, pathetic imitations of the originals. They replace their great voice talent with some random dudes who walked in off the street but will work for donuts. They replace their awesome writers with the teenage niece of the producer, whose most impressive writing credit is scribbling Robert Pattinson's name in hearts all over her Algebra notebook. The once-interesting characters become two-dimensional cheap halloween costume versions of themselves, and they make buttloads of money, because kids demand everything that contains any reference to the original film, and parents can't say "no" to something that might keep their kids occupied and happyish for 90 minutes. We know this scenario.
The sad thing about Igor is that they forgot to make the 1st movie. Sure, they pulled together some potentially interesting characters and a plot that could at least get me excited for the length of a trailer. They recruited some excellent people to create voices for the characters, including the likes of Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Molly Shannon, and my dear longtime crush John Cusak, but then, they just gave up. The plot is weak and pointless. The characters fall flat under the weight of poor development. It's a sad tale of lost potential. Someone could have made a truly interesting, inspiring film with some of this raw material. Sadly, nobody did.
Igor (film 2008) **
So, there are those instances when a truly great animated film comes out. The kids love it. The parents love it. Everyone in the world must go see it and buy the kid's meal and the toys and the shampoo and so on and so forth. In these instances, cynical film producers frequently (okay, almost always) see nothing but dollar signs, and they quickly arrange for at least three straight-to-DVD sequels to be made within the following year. These sequels are sad, pathetic imitations of the originals. They replace their great voice talent with some random dudes who walked in off the street but will work for donuts. They replace their awesome writers with the teenage niece of the producer, whose most impressive writing credit is scribbling Robert Pattinson's name in hearts all over her Algebra notebook. The once-interesting characters become two-dimensional cheap halloween costume versions of themselves, and they make buttloads of money, because kids demand everything that contains any reference to the original film, and parents can't say "no" to something that might keep their kids occupied and happyish for 90 minutes. We know this scenario.
The sad thing about Igor is that they forgot to make the 1st movie. Sure, they pulled together some potentially interesting characters and a plot that could at least get me excited for the length of a trailer. They recruited some excellent people to create voices for the characters, including the likes of Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Molly Shannon, and my dear longtime crush John Cusak, but then, they just gave up. The plot is weak and pointless. The characters fall flat under the weight of poor development. It's a sad tale of lost potential. Someone could have made a truly interesting, inspiring film with some of this raw material. Sadly, nobody did.