Movie review: "Igor" (2008)

The gist: In the permanently cloud-darkened land of Malaria, the economy is based on inventing terrifying creatures, then blackmailing the rest of the world so they pay you not to unleash 'em. Consequently, evil scientists are like rock stars, and each has an identical hunchbacked, slurring assistant to handle the menial tasks like throwing switches. But one of these downtrodden Igors has had a gutful and builds a scary monster of his own.

Selling points: Stitch together various existing horror/sci-fi concepts and show biz cliches ("Annie"?), zap it with a bolt of creative lightning and – THAKOOM! – an original fairytale is brought to life. You know what's really spooky, but? How much the male inhabitants of Malaria sound like famous funny buggers John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall...

It's kinda like: The adorably gruesome style of animation is closest to Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) and "Corpse Bride" (2005). Timbo wasn't involved with this flick, however, so let's file it under "flattering imitation". And it'd be remiss not to send a shout out to MC Mary Shelley, whose 1818 club anthem "Frankenstein" has been inspiring funky remixes ever since.

Final word: Evil...in a good way.

[Australian cinema release date: January 8, 2009]