Hellboy: Sword of Storms Review

Live action translates perfectly into animation in this feature-length Hellboy adventure. What makes it even better is that the main cast return to do the voices and Marco Beltrami's main theme is used. A lot of animated spin-offs in the past have proved to be just as good when taken seriously by the makers (Animatrix, Spider-Man) but, in my opinion, Hellboy: Sword of Storms was good enough for a theatrical release. A small one, like Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.

The story has HB, Liz and Abe go to Japan where a local historian has gone missing and a priceless exhibit damaged. While at the scene, HB wanders off, following a strange Fox and ends up trapped somewhere in time. Liz and Abe have no idea where he is but have their own problems to deal with as the weather takes a turn for the worse.

Stuck in ancient Japan, HB must deal with a bunch of vampires, demons and monsters in an effort to get home. Easier said than done.

I liked the movie, but felt it lacked something. Still, it made me interested in the character, even though I have yet to buy a single Hellboy comic book. After watching this however, I can't wait to get some more of HB. The animation style follows that of the comic pretty closely and the color pallet ranges from very bright and very colorful to moody and atmospheric. It's very impressive and highly detailed. Don't expect 'saturday morning' style animation here.

If you are seriously into Hellboy or even if you are just a casual fan of the movie then you totally have to get this. I eagerly await Hellboy: Blood and Iron, due out this summer. In the meantime, I reckon I ought to get me some Hellboy comic-books.

The DVD features a brilliant 1.78:1 anamorphic picture, Dolby 5.1 sound and a decent amount of extras.

Hellboy: Sword of Storms is the titular character's first-ever animated adventure. While investigating an ancient Japanese sword, Hellboy is sucked into a mystical world and is forced to do battle with monsters and demons before he can return home. And if he makes it home, he must face two ancient gods ready to destroy the world. But hey, nothing's ever easy.

Fans of Mike Mignola's comics or the recent Hellboy movie will love this adventure. True it doesn't use Mignola's distinctive art style, but it maintains a look that is distinctively 'Hellboy' while at the same time being much easier to animate. Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, and Doug Jones return to voice their movie roles, and seasoned vets Peri Gilpin, John Hurt, and Phil LaMarr carry the supporting characters. Perlman again proves he is the only choice for Hellboy, and his deadpan delivery is amusing in itself as well as emphasizing some of Hellboy's actions.

This dvd is fully loaded. Lots of featurettes, audio commentary, and footage taken from the panel at the San Diego comic-con. With the first release, Hellboy blows away all previous DTV efforts from Disney, Marvel, and Warner Bros.

I recommend this to anyone in search of a good comic book story with sharp writing and good animation. Truly fills the gap left open by the departure of Justice League Unlimited, and is far better than the recent Marvel efforts.

I love Hellboy and Mike Mignola's work in general so I was pretty excited to check out Hellboy Animated. I knew going in that the people behind the film were going with a different look and feel from the comics, as requested by Mignola. This didn't bother me because they had great designers like Sean "Cheeks" Galloway working on the project bringing a sharp new look to the characters. Sadly, the animation sucked the life out of the design work and really bored me. It was stiff and looked like a Saturday-morning cartoon. I think a character as cool as Hellboy deserves a better looking animated incarnation than this.

The voice acting was very good, once again only weakened by the animation.

The extras were actually my favorite part of the DVD. There are some nice features on how Mike Mignola created Hellboy and discussions with Sean Galloway on re-designing the characters for animation, among other things.

All in all, I think it's worth checking out but it could have been much better.

I know the fan community is going to foam at the mouth over this, but I'm not really a fan of Hellboy. I picked this up because Tad Stones said I would like it.

Tad Stones is the supervising producer, and is also responsible for the story and screenplay together with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, and also directed together with Phil Weinstein. I trust Tad's recommendation because I'm familiar with some of his other work, although given his far-reaching responsibility for the finished product, I expected his opinion to be slightly biased.

So dealing with this without any pre-conceived notions about what Hellboy "should" look like, I have to admit that I thought Tad Stones and company did a pretty decent job of it.

The storyline is pretty "stock", the main protagonist must embark on a mystical quest. Along the way he runs into an assortment of nasty things that don't want him to complete said quest, and therefore try to do him in.

The animation is well-done for the current crop of made-for-television animation, where the key drawings are done in house and the film is then shipped overseas for the "in-between" work. Production values therefore aren't up to Disney/Pixar standards, but are quite high nonetheless, with the exception of a couple of continuity errors here and there that I noticed.

There are some unintentionally amusing moments with American artists trying to render mythical creatures from Japanese folklore. They try hard, but can't quite pull it off. It still makes for an entertaining device, and to be honest only people very familiar with Japanese folklore will notice the inconsistencies.

The vocal cast is passionate about the work and turns in a fine performance. They convey the tone of each moment without being overwhelming, and it's a fine blending of visual and aural imagery.

The real reason why you should pick this up, especially if you're a fan of animation in general, is the lovely crop of extras that come on the DVD. A series of presentations about Mignola's original artwork and the trouble of translating it for the medium, the character designs, and the voice work give one a real insight into the capabilities and limitations of mainstream animation as it exists today. There's a lot of behind-the scenes material here, unusual for an animated feature, that compels you to pay some attention to the "men (and women) behind the curtain". Current-day animation hardly holds a candle to the classical animation of the forties and fifties, animation's "Golden Age", and it's instructive to see why.

To sum up - Good for a first effort by Tad Stones and his team, a few rough spots which I imagine will be dealt with in future releases, and a really nice set of extras that give great insight to the state of the animation industry today.