Directed by Tony Leondis. Voices of John Cusack, Eddie Izzard, Molly Shannon, John Cleese, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, Jay Leno PG cert, gen release, 86 min

ARRIVING IN time for the trick- or-treat season, Igor is a laboured computer-animated spin on Frankenstein that certainly does not qualify as a treat.

The setting is the kingdom of Malaria, which has been plunged into permanent darkness. King Malbert (Jay Leno) organises an annual competition among the land's 13 evil scientists and threatens to inflict the winning invention on the world unless he is paid exorbitant sums.

Igor (John Cusack) is the downtrodden, hunchbacked assistant to the arrogant Dr Glickenstein (John Cleese), an inventor who falls prey to his own devices. Igor seizes on this opportunity to win the evil scientist award, even though reigning champion Dr Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard) is intent on taking the title for the 18th consecutive year.

Five days before the contest, Igor creates a living being he names Eva. The problem is that there's nothing evil about Eva (Molly Shannon). She entertains children at the Home of Blind Orphans, and will not hurt a fly, not even when ordered to do so by Igor. Children in the audience, however, are likely to be restless because the movie is so pointlessly over-plotted.

For accompanying adults, Igor provides some mild amusement after a remote control error transforms Eva into a starstruck actress who indulges in a wildly over-the-top rendition of the Annie anthem, Tomorrow. The outsized Eva resembles an animated Monty Python creation, and the movie aspires to the dark look and humour of a Tim Burton picture.

Dream on, because Igor sorely lacks the wit and visual imagination of a Burton or a Python production.