| “ | Thank you, Thank you! You're too kind! And I'm not. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Schadenfreude |
Dr. Schadenfreude (real name: Frederick Poeklemacher) is the secondary antagonist of the 2008 rendered 3D film by MGM, Igor. He is an evil scientist who wants to overthrow his enemy (and partner while they built the tower who creates evil clouds), King Malbert and rule all of Malaria. Despite being an evil scientist, he has never really invented anything, and constantly steals inventions from other scientists and passes them off as his own. He also has her vain girlfriend named Jaclyn, who can change into different people by having a certain pill.
He was voiced by Eddie Izzard, who also played Sir Miles Axlerod in Disney/Pixar's Cars 2.
Role in the film
When we first see Dr. Schadenfreude, he is playing the Phantom of the Opera theme on an organ. He is visited by the civilians of Malaria, a land covered with dark storm clouds. As his girlfriend, Jaclyn, is giving a toast to him, he is interrupted by King Malbert, Schadenfreude's enemy and the evil king of Malaria. The king begins insulting him and humiliates him in front of the crowd. In his laboratory, he is still grieving over the king's humiliating insults, saying that he'll never get the respect the king gets. Eventually, his girlfriend Jaclyn, begins insulting him too, revealing that his entire laboratory is fake like him. He threatens to throw her back into the gutter he found her in, and the two begin fighting in a peculiar way, by each one furiously slapping Dr. Schadenfreude's assistant, Igor (this happens twice in the film). The fight then turns into love talk, and as Dr. Schadenfreude shoves Jaclyn into the fake equipment, he vows to unleash his new invention on the king and overthrow him.
He sends Jaclyn, now changed into the girlfriend of Dr. Glickenstein, Heidi, to retrieve his evil plans, but after she fails, he decides to break into Glickenstein's castle personally. Little did he know that Glickenstein was dead from an explosion accidentally caused by himself. He goes to the castle, only to find a great big hole in the wall. Jaclyn wonders what did this and Dr. Schadenfreude finds plans for a monster that's already been created by the main protagonist of the film, Igor (not Dr. Schadenfreude's Igor). Jaclyn insults Dr. Schadenfreude yet again by mocking that not only every other evil scientist is smarter than him, but an Igor as well. Dr. Schadenfreude gets an idea and plots to use this monster to kill the king.
He attempts to use a shrink ray on the monster, with Jaclyn sarcastically commenting that it's a genius way to steal a monster. Dr. Schadenfreude snarls back at her and attempts to use it. The monster (whose named herself Eva) is with Igor in a carriage driving home after a mistake regarding the monster behaving like an actress rather than a killer, which Igor meant her to be. Dr. Schadenfreude and Igor eventually engage in a car chase with Dr. Schadenfreude trying to shoot the monster with no luck. Dr. Schadenfreude manages to fire on Eva, but her indestructible body reflects it back into him, thus shrinking Dr. Schadenfreude, Jaclyn and his Igor.
Later on, Dr. Schadenfreude uses Jaclyn (once again disguised as Heidi) to bring Igor to Schadenfreude's castle. Heidi successfully does this by teleporting Igor to Dr. Schadenfreude with a trick card, and Dr. Schadenfreude tries to negotiate with Igor. Dr. Schadenfreude says that he'll give Igor stardom and fame for the monster to use in the evil science fair that arrives the next day. Igor has always wanted to be respected, but he can't bring himself to give Eva to Schadenfreude, as Igor grows attached to her throughout the movie. Igor tries to leave but Dr. Schadenfreude threatens to shoot him. It's then that Igor fights back against Dr. Schadenfreude. Dr. Schadenfreude corners Igor, but Igor uses on of Dr. Schadenfreude's crazy straws to shoot a pebble at Dr. Schadenfreude's forehead. This causes Dr. Schadenfreude to lose balance and falls into his pool, which Igor closes, trapping Dr. Schadenfreude and his Igor inside. Jaclyn later on finds the two in there and tells Dr. Schadenfreude what she found out about Eva, whom she had berated earlier on. Upon hearing this, Dr. Schadenfreude devises a new plan.
Dr. Schadenfreude and Jaclyn (once again as Heidi) sneak into the castle. Heidi rudely distracts Igor outside whilst Dr. Schadenfreude talks with Eva. He tells her Igor doesn't care about her and that she was built merely to be a weapon. Eva refuses to believe this, saying that Igor cares deeply for her, but Dr. Schadenfreude opens the curtains and reveals to Eva, Igor being kissed by Heidi (this was just a distraction and Igor never wanted to be kissed in the first place). Dr. Schadenfreude tells her that Igor had someone else in mind for Eva's "role" (as she believed that the evil science fair that Igor wanted her to compete in was just a stage play of Annie, which Igor went along with). He eventually persuaded her to come along with him.
At the evil science fair the next day, Dr. Schadenfreude is having Eva get dressed. Eva steps out dressed as the title character of the "play", Annie. Having learnt earlier that Eva was deeply caring person who could never bring herself to hurt anyone (a result of her "evil bone" which Igor had planted into her when she was being created, mistakenly not being activated), Dr. Schadenfreude tries to get her to commit a bad act that would activate her evil bone. Eva refuses to do anything bad, and Dr. Schadenfreude begins greatly berating her, getting Eva sadder each moment. As Dr. Schadenfreude begins to rudely shove her and continues to insult her, she hits Dr. Schadenfreude with a powerful strike, knocking him against the wall. As a result of this, her evil bone is finally activated and she goes from a sweet and caring person to a murderous and monstrous creation she was meant to be from the start. Dr. Schadenfreude raises his head and proclaims "We've.. got.. Annie".
As the evil science fair commences and the competing scientists release the evil inventions, Eva steps out as well, wearing her red dress and curly wig. The audience laughs at this and Schadenfreude, but he ignores it. And as the monsters begin fighting each other, Eva begins singing Annie's main song, Tomorrow. Eva sings this in a loud voice as he successfully and effortlessly destroys all the inventions without a single scratch on her. With Dr. Schadenfreude having won, he walks up towards the king's box and insults the king. King Malbert is extremely furious and argumentative at him and Dr. Schadenfreude literally overthrows him by kicking him out of the box and onto the side of the arena. As the king's guards try to arrest Schadenfreude, Jaclyn defends him and Dr. Schadenfreude threatens to use Eva on them if they didn't obey him. The guards panic, back away and bow. Igor finally arrives to help Eva. He enters the arena, which the now villainous Eva is now attempting to bring down, frightening the audience. Igor stops her from doing it by saying that he was wrong to try to make her evil and that it is much better to be a good person than an evil one. The speech ultimately reforms Eva to the good person that she was before. However, Dr. Schadenfreude shows no concern to this, and declares himself the new king of Malaria now that King Malbert has died. Eva stomps her foot really hard onto the ground, causing Dr. Schadenfreude to fall out of his box and headfirst into a dumpster. Jaclyn declares herself single again once this happens.
With the arena becoming a new theater which is what seems to be a few months later, and with Igor as the new president, Dr. Schadenfreude is forced to sell pickles to the audience, living up to his original name.
Personality
Dr. Schadenfreude is a greedy, evil, cunning, obnoxious, manipulative, flamboyant, ruthless, cruel, and sadistic scientist who resorts to cheating to win the yearly evil science fairs. He is very egotistical, vituperative, and materialistic, so he steals from other mad scientists. He is also very orgiastic, lustful, salacious, provocative, idiosyncratic, individualistic, parsimonious, hedonistic, concupiscent, licentious, and lecherous towards Eva, as he is having Eva getting dressed. He is also extremely caring, tolerant, solicitous, compassionate, sympathetic, and protective, as he falls in love with his vain girlfriend, Jaclyn. One of his most repugnant and standoffish plans is when he infrequently wins the evil science fair, so he can overthrow King Malbert. Despite his loathsome, diabolical, and acrimonious nature, Dr. Schadenfreude is shown to be very kind, polite, charming, benevolent, enthusiastic, straightforward, praiseworthy, dependable, trustworthy, and overjoyed, so he is forced to sell pickles to the audience.
Gallery
Trivia
- In fact, his name "Schadenfreude" actually means sadism, a nod to the film's relatively dark atmosphere.