Igor (2008)

CREATING A MONSTER John Cusak voices the hunchbacked protagonist in Igor

Set in a steampunk fantasy world that owes as much to Tim Burton and the Quay Brothers as to James Whale's Frankenstein (1931), this cheeky CG fable tells the story of a hunchbacked lab assistant (voiced by Cusack) whose dream of mad-scientist stardom hits a snag when his monstrous creation (Shannon) turns out to be a big softie who prefers show tunes to screams of terror. The visuals are a kick; the groan-inducing dialogue isn't. Igor tries to spoof Mary Shelley just as Shrek did the Brothers Grimm, but something tells us this movie's charmless hero won't make an ogre-size impression on kid audiences. Call it a hunch. C