Igor (PG, 2008)

common sense media says

Mad-scientist comedy is fine for younger kids.


parents & educators say
  • 36% say sexual content is an issue
  • 27% say violence is an issue

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that, like most animated films, ads for this movie have been targeting the 5-and-up set on television. You don't have to worry about any age-inappropriate language, sexuality, or commercialism, but there are a few episodes of mild peril and cartoonish violence: Evil scientists' monstrous creations fight each other and at one point lose control and threaten the inhabitants of Malaria (the kingdom where the movie takes place). The musical Annie is featured prominently, so don't be surprised if kids want to see it afterward.

Positive messages: The movie's message is that just because people think you're a monster doesn't mean you to have meet their low expectations -- and that we can all choose to rise above and be good.
Violence & scariness: Monsters wreak havoc, mostly against other monsters. The rest of the world is threatened by a yearly onslaught of monsters. An immortal suicidal rabbit seriously injures himself, knowing he can't die. An evil scientist is crushed, and another one dies in an explosion.
Sexy stuff: A buxom woman flirts with evil scientists; two characters fall in love.
Language: Mild insults: "idiot," "stupid," "failure," etc.
Drinking, drugs, & smoking: Not applicable.

More on Igor

What to talk about

Talk to your kids
Families can talk about the movie's messages. Why is it so out of the ordinary for Igor to want to be a scientist? How do others' expectations affect the way we behave and the way we see ourselves? Families can also discuss how this film fits into the monster-movie genre. What does it have in common with movies about Frankenstein and the hunchback of Notre Dame? How is it different? Kids: If you could create a "monster," what would it be like?

What's the story?

What's the story?
In the dark, gloomy kingdom of Malaria, evil scientists have free rein to create monstrous inventions with the help of hunchbacked servants who are all called Igor. The central Igor (voiced by John Cusack) secretly wants to be a scientist, so when his misguided master (John Cleese) dies in a lab explosion, Igor brings to life a towering female monster, Eva (Molly Shannon). But instead of being vicious, she's convinced -- thanks to a brain-washing mix up -- that she's an aspiring actress.

Is it any good?

Is it any good?
 
IGOR borrows its animation style from Tim Burton and its story from Young Frankenstein, but even with such classic inspiration, it's only OK. At least the voice actors are top-notch -- the supporting cast includes Steve Buscemi as the voice of Igor's suicidal-but-invincible rabbit creation Scamper; Sean Hayes as Brain, a dim-witted brain in a jar; and Eddie Izzard as the hilariously named celebrity scientist Dr. Schadenfreude.

Kids will certainly be entertained, especially by the antics of the two sidekicks responsible for most of the laughs. The story is so simple that even very young kids will be able to follow along, and Eva is surprisingly touching as she practices "Tomorrow" and dresses up like Gloria Swanson. Igor -- like many other recent animated movies -- may fall short of the Pixar standard for greatness, but it's good enough for most little monsters.

Movie themes & details

Movie Details
Studio: MGM/UA
Director: Anthony Leondis
Cast: John Cusack, Molly Shannon, Steve Buscemi
Genre: Family and Kids
Run time: 93 minutes
Theatrical release: September 18, 2008
DVD release: January 20, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG
MPAA explanation: some thematic elements, scary images, action and mild language.
Watch our review

This review was written by Sandie Angulo Chen
 
 

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What parents & educators say

9
Based on 11 parent & educator reviews:
  • 36% say sexual content is an issue
  • 27% say violence is an issue

Most useful reviews by all members

wildson8
kid, 11 years old
 
Suprised by Common Sense Review
We turned this movie off about half way through and had a talk about what we'd seen so far with our sever year-old son. After the talk, we decided not to watch the rest. By the half-way point, hunchbacks had been verbally and physically abused, and one had apparently been killed and stuffed for failure to perform. A women was told she could be thrown back to the gutter where she'd been found, and otherwise verbally cut down. And characters were told to make time for a little torture everyday... while being shown a poster of a cat being hung. The "antics of the two sidekicks" (CSM review) includes one of them, who is immortal, repeatedly and violently killing himself, then coming back to life to try again. Appropriate for age 6 and up? Even if there is a good moral at the end, it cannot make up for someone thinking this movie is for children. Or humans. Common Sense Media, we use your reviews faithfully... please re-watch this movie then re-read your review.

 
This was a horrible movie for little ones! Even my husband and I were turned off by the sexual scenes and violence, especially at the end of the movie. There was much more than just "flirting;" there were racy scenes with more leg and cleavage shown than I would allow my kids to see on a real person, and the character is too realistic looking to let it pass. The violence is sad and demeaning, and my boys (who love The Lord of the Rings & Braveheart), were scared by the ending Annie scenes. None of them asked to see Annie after this movie. This is not only a bad remake of a good story (Hunchback), it's one of the worst "kids" movies I've seen in a long time.

jack august
kid, 12 years old
 
boring
i was kind of exited to see this movie but when i went to see it i thought it was a rip off it was not funny at all even my six year old brother didnt really like it on the adds it said that it was the number 1 family commedie of the year and i wouldnt suggest it to a 3 year old.

4kidshater
teen, 14 years old
 
This is an ok movie, but it doesn't live up to Pixar in any way possible. It does have it's moments, but is not a classic. I say rent it

 
Horrible movie - all three of my children thought it wasn't even worth watching and were bothered by the language and the excessive cleavage. If it were funny or cute enough to override these issues, maybe I could give it a higher rating, but it was really horrible!

luksan
adult
 
Horrified
I was so disgusted with this movie. Luckily I had told my son we would watch half tonight and half tomorrow night. I will find a way to avoid watching the rest. My son is 6 and will be 7 in March. He is very bright though and understood many of the horrible concepts in this film. The main being that evil was good and nice bad. Maybe the idea would change later on but we'd watched half of the movie and that is a long time to be bombarded with ideas of evil being good. Also the character that repeatedly tries to kill himself had my son asking about suicide. And I can't imagine how many impressionable children watching poison being drunk and thought that looked like fun. This character shoots himself in the head only to come back, drinks poison, explodes himself etc. Disgusting! And then there is the talk of murder as being a nice thing to do. The nice invention is put inside a room with eyes held open to watch a woman screamming and terrified as though she is learning to be mean. All these concepts were only in the first 15 minutes! Unbelievable that this was geared toward 6 year old children, as my son watched discovery kids there were tons of commercials for it. If there are any other parents that feel the same way about it please write. I want to warn as many parents as I can to avoid this movie. Go and see Bolt or Hotel for dogs or some other good movie instead!

wendysnindy
parent of and 8 , 11 , 14 year old
 
TERRIBLE
we took 5 kids, ages range from 6 to 11 to see this movie. It was terrible. only one child wanted to stay to the end to see it. It doesn't reveal an actual moral to the story until the end and be that time the violence and story line both had me ready to walk out. This movie treated the "Igor's" with violence. they were hit and slapped and put to death for having a thought. The same was true for the women in the story. We had a serious discussion on the ride home about appropriate behaviors and actions. HORRIBLE MOVIE

l_selbach
educator and parent of and 5 , 7 , 9 year old
 
I was so upset by this movie we left the theater ($1 summer movies) with my four kids, ages 3, 5, 6, and 7. There was violence towards Igor, language (stupid, idiot, calling a woman a wench). There was sexual content involving hitting an Igor, then making out, then the lady referring to the man as "daddy". We stayed for about 20 minutes of the movie before leaving and saw more than enough to know this is not a movie I would ever allow my child under 12 to watch. Not at all in the same as Monsters Inc. etc...

MomOf2Girls
parent of 2 and 5 year old
 
AWFUL!!!
This movie was absoutly horrible. It IS NOT suitable for children period. We rented this movie last night and turned it off. I am very dissapointed. Some of the violent things in the first part of the movie my 3yr old didnt pick up on, thankfully... but when one of the characters head gets a hole blown in it from opening a mothers day card... I draw the line. The makers of this movie should be ashamed for gearing this toward children.

Matan
kid, 10 years old
 
thriller
weird movie

Reviewer X1
teen, 16 years old
 
"Let me break the mold by saying, Not Terrible."
I really liked this this movie. Any violence it had was purely Juvenile. There was only one swearword in the whole film, "Da== it!" And there was nothing sexual. The flirting was very tame, and two characters fall in love in every movie. All in all, I thought it was a good comedy for kids. The only problem might have been the animation. It was done by some French Studio...

 
So forgive my gothy ways....
Pshh!! I LOVED THIS MOVIE!! I fricken laughed so hard at that terrible cynical bunny!!!! You people are so quiant and happy it kind of makes me sick. Also, John Cussack is one of THE BEST actors I've ever known. I sold him my heart in 1408, and then Martian Child, so of course I'm giving it a good rating. I don't believe in censorship.

tjstar
teen, 14 years old
 
I was about to sleep through this movie
Half-way through the movie, I was ready to fall asleep. It was REALLY boring and confusing. Like I had no clue what was going on. Terrible.

Alora
teen, 17 years old
 
Am I the only one who enjoyed this?
I found this movie charming and very entertaining. Even being fourteen, I still love animated movies. Though I have to admit, the characters looked a bit Tim Burton-esk. But I though it was more of a nod to him than trying to rip off his artistic style. Well, anyways, I thought the humor was clever and the art, though not Pixar, bright enough to capture a child's attention. I thought the part where he was explaining what happened when 'Igors' thought, and he turned around and opens a bottle with a old Igor's head very amusing. But I have to say, this movie requires a bit of a dark sense of humor, which I happen to have. The only thing I found annoying was Eva's tiny arm. It was rather distracting. But if you're looking for a deep meaning, than I suppose it says to be yourself, and to let others be themselves and like them because of that. The only thing that was a bit offensive was the Blind Orphans bit at the end, but it would really fly over a kids head. The violence was so mild, that I'm surprised people were even really commenting on it. I think five and up is fine.

spidermonkey
teen, 16 years old
 
better than i thought
i think this movie was pretty good it can be a bit scary for kids under 5 i think and at one scene its a bit gory i recomend it 5+

 
Terrible movie but ok for your 7 and over kids if they insist
Terrible movie!!! Just a really boring movie with bad animation. Not very scary, no bad language, nothing to worry about for most kids 7 and older. But really no reason to waste time or money on watching this one.

nduns
adult
 
Why do so many people hate this movie?
I'm sorry, but I found this movie a lot more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be and fail to see what's so horrible about it. The characters do, indeed, look Tim Burtin-ish, but I like that and I think it's more of an homage than a ripoff, kinda like how Kung Fu Panda was an homage to Samurai Jack. The story, while simple, was also more original than most of today's stuff and this is possibly the first movie animated by Sparx to ever make me laugh out loud. Seriously, this movie's not all that bad, and the dark themes are a nice change of pace from what kid's movies give us these days.

 
Big Turn Off
I tried watching this movie on Disney channel and let me tell you I was shocked. There is a character whose breasts look like two pointy cones (traffic ones) on her chest. She argues with a male character (who she is involved with) and things shift to a racy tone when he grabs her and then her right leg and hikes it up next to him (if you have ever seen a tango, the man will do this move and grab the woman's thigh and pull up it against him). That scene was so inappropriate. Not to mention what the man says after they fight, saying he should just throw her to the gutter where he found her. I was completely turned off. And in my opinion a suicidal bunny truly is not all that funny.

 
The thing about Igor is that while it does have some questionable elements, it's all in good fun. Yes, the jokes can become a bit grisly at times. Yes, the animation is not in the traditional CG fare. However, underlying it all is a great message about being true to yourself and how you don't have to follow the crowd just because others say you have to be a certain way. Isn't that what kids should be learning? How they don't have to act a certain way to fit in? Just remember that one man's trash is another's tresure.

Poison Ivey
teen, 17 years old
 
Igor changed the world
+++++CONTAINS SPOILERS beware!+++++ one of my favorite movies. Igor did change the world. Although the movie has a dark tone overall, it has a positive message all through the film. Igor is kind and resourceful, even though he wishes to be protrayed as evil. Good always concoures bad, and in the end. Igor stands out from the crowd and is able to stand up for what is right. And any of the sexual content you think is bad, well, none of the younger kids would understand it, because the characters and funny and corlorful and appealing (to a child) Kissing? Not a big deal. It's in 75% of movies anyway, including childrens films. DONT READ THIS REVIEW UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE.

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ON: Content is appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child, some content may not be right for some kids
OFF: Not age appropriate for kids this age