Weinstein's Igor Grabs More Big Names

Well, when it comes to animation, voice actors are definitely out, to the chagrin of some popular voice actors like Billy West. As the years go by, Hollywood actors have waltzed in and whisked up the juicy roles, one by one, successfully taking over the biggest piece of the pie. There were the days when professional voices were big; then some stars took on a few key roles; and now, even the last-billed characters seem to be getting famous voices. Continuing with this new tradition, the upcoming CG tale Igor has added two more big names to its cast.

To get up to speed about this tale that takes place on Malaria, you can check out the Cinematical timeline. The news started way back in July of 2005, and continued through October of 2006. Based on a short film, the feature will follow a mad scientist's assistant who wants to win at an Evil Science Fair. Christian Slater is the assistant Igor, John Cleese and Jeremy Piven both voice doctors, Steve Buscemi is a lab rat and Molly Shannon is the giant monster named Eva, that Igor invented to win big at the Fair. As for the new names... Of course, no fairytale landscape is complete without a King, so Jay Leno will voice Malaria's Machiavellian ruler, King Malbert. And for the complete opposite of surprise casting, Jennifer Coolidge will bring life to a village vixen named Gretchen (although it says Sybil in some news clips) -- the girlfriend of Dr. Schadenfreude (Piven). At the very least, in a world where "Philosopher" becomes "Sorcerer" and "Minimoy" becomes "Invisibles," I'm glad that Igor isn't afraid of a little schadenfreude.