Hellboy Faces Japanese Demons in Hellboy Animated - Sword of Storms
Written: May 21 '08 (Updated Oct 08 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Entertaining animated movie. Interesting plot.
Cons: Style of the animation will not appeal to everyone.
The Bottom Line: Hellboy Animated - Sword of Storms was an entertaining animated movie that gave a slightly different look to the characters.
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| dragonfire88's Full Review: Hellboy Animated - Sword of Swords |
I had not heard of the characters in Hellboy before seeing the movie. I really enjoyed it and found the characters to be very interesting. I recently picked up Hellboy Animated - Sword of Storms, an animated movie featuring the characters from Hellboy.
Hellboy, Liz, and Abe Sapien had just finished dealing with a unique situation when Hellboy was sent with Kate to Japan to investigate the disappearance of a folklore professor. They didn't know it at that point, but the professor had been possessed by Thunder and Lightening, ancient Japanese demons. The situation got worse when Hellboy was sent to another dimension by a cursed samurai sword. He had to deal with ghosts, floating heads, and other strange things while Liz and Abe, along with other B.P.R.D. tried to figure out what was going on and how to get Hellboy back.
Hellboy Animated - Sword of Stones was based on the Hellboy comics by Mike Mignola. I haven’t read any of the comics, so I don’t know what might have been changed for this movie. Basically all I know about the characters I learned from the 2004 live action movie. I did feel like the characters and situations fit in with how the characters had been set up in that movie. Mignola was involved in the development of this movie and served as one of the producers along with Guillermo Del Toro, the director of the live action movie.
I thought that the plot of Hellboy Animated - Sword of Stones was interesting and entertaining. There were a few different things going on that eventually all connected. Even with having a few different things going on, the plot wasn’t overly complicated or hard to follow. What was going on with Hellboy in the other dimension received the most attention and was the main focus of the movie. A folklore story from Japan played an important part in what was going on. I have no idea if the story connected to Thunder and Lightening was a real Japanese folklore story or not.
Hellboy, Liz, and Abe had to face several unusual things over the course of Hellboy Animated - Sword of Storms. From what I know about the world of Hellboy, that seems normal. Hellboy had to deal with some very odd situations in the other dimension, including some supernatural elements. I thought that those elements worked well and helped to make the plot more interesting. There was a little bit of mystery with what was going on and I really wasn’t sure exactly how things were going to work out. Hellboy did end up fighting several creatures over the course of the movie. Liz and Abe also had to do a bit of fighting that seemed to mostly involve her using her power. The various fights did add some action and minor violence that really wasn’t that graphic. The movie first aired on Cartoon Network, so it couldn’t be as graphic as some other straight to DVD animated superhero movies have been.
The animation in Hellboy Animated - Sword of Storms had a look that won’t appeal to everyone. The backgrounds were bright and colorful in certain scenes and more drab looking in others depending on what was going on. A few of the backgrounds looked more detailed, but they still all had a flat and static appearance. There were several different colors and shading options used at times, like giving characters a red cast if they were near fire. I have seen a few Hellboy comics even though I haven’t read them, and the characters were recognizable, but they did have different looks. The animation was fine, but it certainly wasn’t as good as Pixar.
Hellboy, Liz, and Abe were use to working together and they had a good relationship. I thought that the characters were much like they had been in the live action movie. Liz was still having some issues with controlling her power. The relationship between her and Hellboy wasn’t explored or really even mentioned in this movie. Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair, and Doug Jones provided the voices for their characters. Jones performed as Abe in the live action version, but the voice was done by David Hyde Pierce instead. Kate, who was voiced by Peri Gilpin, was a new character who also worked for the B.P.R.D. She really wasn’t developed, but she wasn’t in enough of the movie for that to matter.
Voice Talent
Selma Blair - Liz Sherman
Peri Gilpin - Kate
Doug Jones - Abe Sapien
Ron Pearlman - Hellboy
Directed by Phil Weinstein and Tad Stones
DVD Information
Hellboy Animated - Sword of Storms was released on DVD not that long after it first aired on Cartoon Network. I recently picked up the DVD. My copy has the widescreen version of the movie. I’m not sure if there is a full screen version available as well or not. There are several extras on the DVD. To Hell and Back - How Mike Mignola Created Hellboy had Mick Mignola talking about how he had worked at Marvel and DC before going to Dark Horse to create Hellboy. He did talk about his development of the character. Some clips from the live action movie were included as well as some people involved in the movie talking about it.
A New Breed - Creating the New Hellboy talked about how Mignola stipulated that the characters had to have a different look for the animated projects. It was explained how they went about finding that new look. A View From the Top - The “Heads” Sequence showed how one scene was created. This extra actually had a spoiler warning and mentioned how this part of the plot had been pulled from one of the comics. Keepers of Hellboy - A Comic Con 2006 Panel Discussion featured several of the men involved in making this movie talking about the process. I thought it was very interesting. I haven’t taken the time to watch Hellboy Goes East: A Revealing Look at Many of the Inspirations Backstories and Secrets of Hellboy: Sword of Storms yet, so I’m not sure what information it shares. There was also a commentary with some of the makers of the movie that I haven’t listened to and some DVD-ROM content.
I really enjoyed Hellboy Animated - Sword of Storms. The story was interesting and gave a different look to the characters of Hellboy. Fans of the characters may also enjoy this movie.
This review is part of elvisdo’s 2008 Funny Pages Write-Off.
Hellboy ~ Hellboy II: The Golden Army ~ Hellboy Animated - Sword of Storms ~ Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron ~
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Recommended:
Yes
Viewing Format: DVD
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