Igor

You don’t have to be mad to work in the land of Malaria but it helps.
 
Every year, King Malbert (Jay Leno) holds an Evil Science Fair to see which of his resident evil scientists can come up with the most despicable invention. The winner is used to blackmail the rest of the world, thus keeping the Malarian economy afloat.
 
Like all hunchbacks under Malbert’s rule, young Igor (Cusack) earned his Yes-Master’s degree at Igor School and now works as a dogsbody to one such crackpot, Dr Glicktenstein (Cleese).
 
But when his inept master finally blows himself up, Igor is ready to bring life to his own magnum opus.
 
He is assisted by two of his previous creations: Scamper (Buscemi), a suicidal yet ironically immortal rabbit, and Brain, the thickest brain ever to be put in a jar (voiced by Sean Hayes - the one from Will & Grace who’s not Will or Grace).
 
However, the hulking colossus to rise after the switch is thrown is not Evil but ‘Eva’ ( Shannon ), a sensitive soul who merely turns into a drama queen after Igor tries to brainwash the niceness out of her.

Slowly, Igor realises that evil is not necessarily a good thing.
 
But having won seventeen consecutive Evil Invention awards by stealing other people's ideas, the fiendish Dr Schadenfreude (Izzard) wastes no time in hatching a plot to snatch Eva and take the next fair – and the throne – by storm.
 
The Shrek-savvy generation will appreciate the film's self-awareness - “Why am I panting? I don’t have lungs”, mutters Brain - and the cleverness of having an evil-doer called Schadenfreude whose accomplice goes by the alter-egos Jaclyn and Heidi (Jennifer Coolidge).
 
Listen carefully and you might make out former popstrel Myleene Class as a mad scientist while Arsenio Hall rounds out the cast as an invisible talk-show host – apt, as he hasn’t been seen by British moviegoers since Coming To America in 1988.
 
The animation is suitably gothic, though the soundtrack has several numbers by swing legend Louis Prima (King Louis to Jungle Book fans) to lighten the mood when things get too creepy.

Elliott Noble