Just a hunch...

Ahh, celebrity voiced animation. Ever since Robin Williams graced our screens with his unforgettable performance as the Genie in Aladdin in 1992, every animated movie has to have a celebrity cast.

And so to Igor, the first animated movie from Exodus Productions with the voices of John Cusack, Steve Buscemi and Eddie Izzard. Igor is a hunchback, a race of creatures whose only purpose in life is to serve mad scientists in the land of Malaria, a country which lives shrouded in perpetual storm clouds and bases its economy on the production of evil inventions. Of course, this particular Igor wishes to defy his place in society and become an inventor himself. Assisted by a suicidal rabbit that can't die (Steve Buscemi) and a less than brainy brain-in-a-jar, Brain (Will and Grace's Sean Hayes), he creates Eva (Molly Shannon), a lumbering female monster that unfortunately has no capacity for evil.

Igor is pretty standard fare. You know exactly what's going to happen the moment you settle into your seat – you know Igor will eventually win through, you know that everyone will realise that being evil isn't the right choice and you know he will thwart Dr. Schadenfreude's (Eddie Izzard) evil plan.

The concept of a race of Igors is hardly original - Terry Pratchett has used Igors in his Discworld series since 1998 which are strikingly similar and a lot of the set design seems to have been directly lifted from Tim Burton's head. The jokes are rather predictable and are telegraphed way in advance. That said, there are some amusing moments (mainly coming from Steve Buscemi's sarcastically dark Scamper, “Yeah, like this is the first time I've gnawed my own feet off”) and the characters are charming and never irritating.

Igor's fun and surprisingly dark in places (dancing blind orphans anyone?). It's not re-inventing the wheel and it doesn't have anything close to the polish that Pixar have been coming up with of late, but it's harmless fun that all the family can enjoy.