DVD Review: Hellboy Animated: Sword Of Storms

DVD Review: Hellboy Animated: Sword Of Storms (Phil Weinstein, Tad Stones, 2006, USA).

Hellboy is not the most beloved of the comic book properties, not nearly as big as such titles as Spider-Man, Batman or Superman, but he is treated better than most. A labour of love for both writer/creator Mike Mignola and director Guillermo del Toro, the film was both a critical and commercial success and a sequel is currently in production. To stem the tide, we have this (and its sequel, Blood And Iron).
Hellboy (Ron Perlman), Liz Shermann (Selmar Blair) and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) are sent to Japan to investigate the disappearance of a professor. The professornhad recently come into posession of the Sword Of Storms, something Hellboy finds and as soon as he does, he is transported into the mythological world of the Sword's origin. Liz and Abe try to find Hellboy while he tries to find a way out of this world before our world is consumed by the sword's power.
This animated feature captures the tone of the original film to the letter and is all the better for it. The dry humour, the fantastical elements, the relationships between the charcaters and all the other elements are transferred perfectly. This is due in no samll part to the prescence of Mignola scripting, del Toro executive producing, and the original players coming back (Jones played Sapien in the film, he just didn't voice him). This in itself is a joy. Unforutnately, other aspects are weaker.
The story is rather convoluted and is not really that engaging. While the creatures Hellboy faces are interesting, the reasons behind what is happening do not fit quite right, even into the world of Hellboy. This does feel like a stopgap inbetween films and yet the mood of the piece and the humour do shine through. It is also, not the longest film in the world. At around 80 minutes, it would have been nice to have some more action with Hellboy, Liz and Abe together. Also, what happens with Abe and Liz at one point seems rather random as the fil does not hint t anything between the two. The action in the film is very 12 rated, this is not for small children. Some of the foes are scay and the posession sequences are fairly intense. Basically, if your kid handled the movie you should be fine. All the cast are good though Jones sounds like he could try and make a bit more effort to replicate the Abe of the original movie. Hellboy is a joy and Liz brings the right amount of conflict to her ole which was seen in the film.
While I cannot recommend this to anyone who has not seen Hellboy, it is a very enetertaining way to spend an afternoon and I am very interested in seeing where Blood And Iron takes us.

Video & Audio: Fine, nothing amazing but perfectly adequate. DD 5.1 seems unecessary.

Didn't watch extras.

Good rent folks.