Igor

Not every film needs a romantic subplot.

I'll repeat that, for the many people who may have missed it. Not every film needs a romantic subplot.

That's something a lot of filmmakers seem to have trouble with. Well, I promise you, directors, writers and producers of the world - the earth will not stop turning if the male and female lead of your movie don't end up together at the end. You will not - well, for the most part - lose ticket sales without a big romance. And no, it's not necessary to have everyone pair off in order to create a touching ending.

I'll repeat that, too; it's not necessary.

It is especially not necessary in a film like, recent Exodus Productions creation, Igor.




Igor is about a city of Mad Scientists, all competing to create the most evil invention in order to win the evil science fair, and be the most evil. Or something. Evil.

The word evil is thrown about like a brand name in this movie, as you might have guessed. To be quite honest, that made me cringe every single time. Evil is not a brand name; it's not even a simple concept, except to the very young. It's an opinion.

To be fair, this film is animated, and is (in the UK) a PG. This would, theoretically, enable one to forgive the abuse of the word 'evil', since those two facts indicate that the film is indeed intended for a young audience. However, to understand the underlying humour of the film, it helps if you are familiar with the hammer horror tradition of the slurring Igor lisping "yeth marther!" in reply to a loud cry of "pull the switch!". And one might get even more out of it if one is familiar with Terry Pratchett's tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the Igors native to the Discworld (a large family who pass on spare body parts like other families do old clothes, and have a number of traditions). I may not be giving them enough credit here, but I'm not certain the eight to twelve year olds I picture as a 'PG' audience will get as much out of those parts of the movie as older viewers.

Scamper the bunny (voiced by Steve Buscemi), one of Igor's inventions, is also fairly adult in style. He's an immortal, depressed rabbit - leading him to attempt to commit suicide every other minute, in a variety of ways. That dark, bleak humour is amusing, but maybe not for the more delicate types. Fans of The Book of Bunny Suicides will be happy, though.

I did enjoy the film, I won't deny that. Some elements of it - such as Scamper - wouldn't be entirely out of place in something like Tim Burton's cult classic The Nightmare Before Christmas, while others will appeal to children. But, these two parts don't gel particularly well. The film seems confused as to who its audience is, meaning that, in many ways, it's too juvenile for adults while many jokes will probably sail over a young audience's head.

But anyway, back to my first point. A romantic subplot was not necessary for this film. The essential message of friendship, loyalty, truth to oneself and choices would be equally well served with a simple friendly relationship - instead of complicating the movie with a romance between an Igor and his creation. That's rather Freudian. Especially when one considers the jokes, around Igor's paternal feelings for Eva - early on in the film, he remarks that he feels like a father sending a child off to her first day of school (to learn to kill people).

So, to reiterate;

Romantic subplot; not necessary.

Romantic subplot, in fact, pretty damn creepy.

However, it is probably worth taking a look at the wiki articles for Discworld Igors and Hammer Horror.

Bartelmy