| “ | Thank you, Thank you! You're too kind! And I'm not. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Schadenfreude |
Schadenfreude with his girlfriend and evil partner, Jaclyn.
Frederick Poeklemacher aka Dr. Schadenfreude is the Secondly antagonist of the 2008 rendered 3D film, 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's never really invented anything, and constantly steals inventions from other scientists and passes them off as his own. He has a girlfriend named Heidi, who can change into different people by having a certain pill.
Schadenfreude is a flamboyant, cruel and sadistic scientist who resorts to cheating to win the yearly evil science fairs. In fact, his name, Schadenfreude, actually means sadism, a nod to the films relatively dark atmosphere.
He is voiced by Eddie Izzard, who also voiced another villain, Miles Axlerod in Cars.
History
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 interuppted 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 slapping Schadenfreude's assistant Igor (this happens twice in the film). The fight then turns into love talk, and as 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 Schadenfreude finds plans for a monster that's already been created by the main protagonist of the film, Igor (not Schadenfreude's Igor). Jaclyn insults Schadenfreude yet again by mocking that not only every other evil scientist is smarter than him, but an Igor as well. 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. 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. Schadenfreude and Igor eventually engage in a car chase wih Schadenfreude trying to shoot the monster with no luck. Schadenfreude manages to fire on Eva, but her indestructable body reflects it back into him, thus shrinking Schadenfreude, Jaclyn and his Igor.
Later on, Schadenfreude uses Jaclyn, once again disguised as Heidi, to bring Igor to Schadenfreude's castle. Heidi successfully does this by teleporting Igor to Schadenfreude with a trick card, and Schadenfreude tries to negotiate with Igor. 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 Schadenfreude threatens to shoot him. It's then that Igor fights back against Schadenfreude. Schadenfreude corners Igor, but Igor uses on of Schadenfreude's crazy straws to shoot a pebble at Schadenfreude's forehead. This causes Schadenfreude to lose balance and falls into his pool, which Igor closes, trapping Schadenfreude and his Igor inside. Jaclyn later on finds the two in there and tells Schadenfreude what she found out about Eva, whom she had berated earlier on. Upon hearing this, Schadenfreude devises a new plan.
Schadenfreude and Jaclyn, once again as Heidi, sneak into the castle. Heidi distracts Igor outsidem whilst Schadenfreude talks with Eva. He tells her Igor dosen'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 Schadenfreude opes 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). 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, 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), Schadenfreude tries to get her to commit a bad act that would activate her evil bone. Eva refuses to do anything bad, and Schadenfreude begins greatly berating her, getting Eva sadder each moment. As Schadenfreude begins to rudely shove her and continues to insult her, she hits 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 monsterous creation she was meant to be from the start. Schadenfreude raises his head and proclaims "We've.. got.. Annie".
As the evil science fair commences and the competiting 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 eachother, 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 Schadenfreude having won, he walks up towards the king's box and insults the king. King Malbert is furious at him and 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 Schadenfreude threatens to use Eva on them if they didn't obey him. The guards panickly 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's much better to be a good person than an evil one. The speech ultimately reforms Eva to the good person she was before. Schadenfreude however, 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 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 theatre which is what seems to be a few months later, and with Igor as the new president, Schadenfreude is forced to sell pickles to the audience, living up to his original name.