By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

MARY Shelley’s Frankenstein meets… Annie?! This combination would be more suited for a Scary Movie sequel or an episode of the Twilight Zone, but it seemed perfectly normal in Malaria, a land dominated by evil scientists who also owned hunchback slaves called “Igors.”

One such Igor, the switch thrower of Dr. Glickenstein, is a scientist of his own, inventing Brain, a hardly intelligent brain in a jar and Scamper, an immortal but psychotic rabbit.

When Dr. Glickenstein accidentally dies from a failed experiment, Igor takes over the lab and pursues his dream to join the annual Evil Science Fair contest by creating Eva, a female monster who thinks the Fair is an audition for the play “Annie.” Having learned of Igor’s invention, Dr. Schadenfreude steals Eva to win the contest and finally, overthrow King Malbert.

The plots and revolving themes in the story — stepping on others to get ahead, deceit, brainwashing and essentially, doing evil to achieve goals — make it a film for adults.

Another disturbing thing is the continuous suicide attempts of Scamper. When I watched the film, I sat along with several kids in the row whom I noticed laughed less than the adults accompanying them. I wonder if they laughed at Eva’s diva attitude when she thought a paparazzi car is following her carriage.

As a 20-year-old moviegoer, I cannot say I did not enjoy the film. While admiring the 3D animation, I laughed along with the one-liners and the antics of the Mayor, Brain, Scamper and the invisible announcer. The film is loaded with good symbolisms to tackle its multi-faceted theme of whether to do good or evil.

The film is a reminder that despite the competition to get ahead, being good is never a hindrance to achieving dreams. The Malaria caste system in which hunchbacks are made servants show that any physical deformity should not be the yardstick to measuring people. It reflects how our society often overlooks a person’s good heart or intelligence, which is more beautiful than a symmetrical face and bloated ego.

Brain’s obsession with his name (mistakenly writing it as “Brian” on his jar) is a representation of how we can be so concerned about labels and forget who we really are as individuals. Another that like good-natured Eva, we have our own “evil bones” and the potential to be evil, but it is up to us to rise beyond that and do good.

The film is made for the young ones with lessons for the young once as well.