"Igor" is an animated feature that keeps alive the old screwball tradition of the American comedy.

This horror movie parody is about a mad scientist's assistant named Igor (pronounced ee-gore and voiced by John Cusack), who takes over when his boss, Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese), kicks the Frankensteinian bucket. On his own, Igor invents a monster who just won't be monstrous: sweet, hulking, seam-faced Eva (Molly Shannon), who seems all wrong for a yearly evil-monster science fair that Igor desperately wants to win.

Director Tony Leondis and writer Chris McKenna created a movie deliberately pitched in an early Tim Burtonesque key, back when Burton made sporty little shorts such as "Vincent" and "Frankenweenie."

"Igor" is full of horrific, cutesy characters, cutting cross-talk, weird puppet-like animation and sharp-witted actors (Cusack, Cleese, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes and even Jay Leno).

This movie presents Igor as a nice, bright little guy who was forced into a life as a Dwight Frye-style assistant. After earning his "Yes, Master" degree at the local Gooniversity, he's forced into the evil creature science fair contest by his own ambition and the insane competitiveness of maniacal Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard) and his duplicitous femme fatale mistress Jaclyn (Jennifer Coolidge, who also voices Jaclyn's alter-ego, Heidi).

Igor has two helpmates, a couple of his own failed inventions called "Brian ("Brain" misspelled, and in this case, misapplied) and Scamper (a street-wise wabbit with a death wish), played snappily by Buscemi and Hayes.

Igor also has the huge and good-hearted would-be actress Eva (Shannon), who, though she may not be able to kill a fly, can sure kill that overdone showstopper song "Tomorrow" from her favorite show "Annie."

Much of the movie takes place in Dr., Glickenstein's shadowy castle and King Malbert's (Leno) stormy palace, surrounded by playful German expressionist doom and gloom.

"Igor" is pretty obvious and comes complete with the kind of ending you'd expect. But it is smart and funny, and adults don't have to cringe over it when accompanying children to the show. They might even consider attending it without kids, something you sure couldn't say about "Fly Me to the Moon" or "Space Chimps."

Even though "Igor" doesn't have an original song score, it has a brace of zippy archive songs by that manic scat-singer Louis Prima (joined once by his deadpan delish dish, Keely Smith).

That ought to be enough to brand any movie as a hip article.

"Igor"

Three stars