Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms (2006)

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Cartoon TV movies are not uncommon in the world of popular characters. Several icons have had theatrical runs and then later on are moved to TV movies. Some stuck with live-action, while others turned to different methods. For Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy (2004), animation was the next route. For a few reasons, it's understandable to why this was the definitive choice. First and foremost, animation is cheaper than live- action. The second reason would be the demographic. If it's a cartoon, there's a good chance more children would end up seeing it. A third possible reason was to see if it would turn into a series. A perfect example of this would be the TV movie / Direct-to-DVD release of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000). After its success, the cartoon became a running TV series on the Disney Channel. It's interesting because this could have been like that but there are some things holding it back too.It's difficult to say what time this installment of Hellboy takes place. Since Dr. Broom (Hellboy's father) is not shown, it is assumed that it takes place after the first theatrical film. When a magical katana sword possesses the body of a Japanese Sword Historian, Hellboy, Liz and Abe Sapien are brought in. However, this doesn't exactly make it that much more exciting story wise. The story is about Hellboy taking on another spirit creature but it feels very detached from its predecessor. Just because it's not live-action doesn't mean the story can't continue from the events of the last movie. The back-story to the mystical katana sword is a bit cliché but not too dull to be bored with. The section of writing that suffers the most is the plot. Hellboy ends up being caught up in a mystical world where he has to find his way out and it takes up the majority of the movie. This is where it feels slow - even for a little over 70 minutes.Another problem in this feature is the animation itself. The flow of how the characters move isn't that smooth. The mouth work to the voice acting looks rather rigid as well. And what's with Hellboy's design? A huge upper torso and scrawny goat legs? I think that could be evened out a little more. An element that doesn't need any fixing however is the level that this cartoon sets itself at. Meaning, it's edgy. Not edgy enough to have curvaceous women in it, but it does have some disturbing images, close to heavy violence and several swears. This is good and all but it does bring into question if this film was made for children. If it was made for children, all the things mentioned prior should've been toned down. And if it was for adults, it should've been made like the HBO Spawn series. The action and creature designs are note worthy though. Dark and creepy cartoons are not as common among animation movies so that's a plus.For voice acting is definitely smart of the casting department to grab ahold of Ron Perlman and Selma Blair. Their voices can't be replaced. The same also should've gone for David Hyde Pierce who voiced Abe Sapien from the live-action run. Nothing on Doug Jones who was the physical representation of Abe, but Pierce has always been the voice of scientific sounding characters. Jones' voice as his own character doesn't accomplish that same feat. Phil LaMarr also has a few voice roles too. Listen for him. The score composed by Christopher Drake is well done. His tracks represent the scenes properly and he also maintains the establish recognizable theme Marco Beltrami had created from the first movie. That is commendable considering most composers either ignore or forget these key pieces. Its fun but not engaging enough like the original.It provides some of the same quality like the original with its returning cast of voices, edgy action, grotesque creatures and music, but its writing isn't as polished. The story elements aren't as captivating as they were from before.

Not a fan of this animation style, the proportions between the character were way off from the movie and the voice acting was terrible. It was a nice touch to use some of the same voice actors from the films, but when the actors don't give a great performance in live action what makes them think there voice work will be better. I really wanted to like this animated movie because I had heard it was closer to the comic books (which I have never read) and I have felt the movie was missing a little something and maybe that was it's distance from the comic books. But if this is really a better representation of the comic books then I'll just stick to the live action movies.

Hellboy: Sword of Storms is in the quality of animation no more or less the standard one might see on the average program on Adult Swim (Cartoon Network, of course). Which means it's always eye-catching, if only on a kind of wacky 2-D level that is left in the dust in these days of cinema going the way of CGI. What makes Sword of Storms significant, if only in parts, is that Mignola, Del-Toro and company start to introduce a lot more surreal imagery than was seen in the first theatrical feature. Hellboy gets swept up this time in a pretty convoluted (or just seems that way, turns out it's actually painfully simplistic in terms of the Japanese folklore played out as drama), with monsters and demons all under the control of a sword that if broken spells doom for the Earth. As usual he does his job well at whacking around creatures like a big turtle/lizard creature, and at the start even tackles a big beast that, until Liz- as kind of a running un-funny gag- blazes fire all over the place till the job's done- but that's not all.This time the supernatural is accentuated in the world of what is a cross between Noh theater and, well, the average Hellboy comic-book. It doesn't matter either way how much the writers and producers researched Japanese history and creatures and such (though I'm sure they did their share). What matters is how effective it all is, and in the end Hellboy is also a dark comedy- how is it to see Hellboy, after spending an uncomfortable night with some unpleasant Japanese fellows, to awake to find that they're heads have been disconnected from their bodies, and are attacking him viciously! It's even better, of course, to see the fate of the heads, pleading Hellboy to tell where their bodies lay. I also liked the little asides with the talking fox, the old lady, and of course the big-ass demons, who allow one or two quips from Hellboy as he has to tackle them any way possible. On top of the fighting heads, there's a crazy possessed researcher, which in and of itself could make an interesting issue in the comics.Only the conventions of the story (the psychic has been seen in countless permutations of the annoying side character who's only there for moments of sudden exposition for another side character who isn't as annoying; plus the ending with the Japanese ghosts going through a redemption moment) drag the film really downward. Aside from that, it's from cartoony viewing, and it should appeal to anyone who's somewhat a fan, and mandatory for fans of the books; lord knows there's only so many times we can see Hellboy in the whirlwind of samurai dreams.

The latest incarnation of the Mike Mignola's once underground, now seemingly omnipresent and unstoppable, comic book masterpiece, 'Hellboy', now comes into the world of animation. The first of the several planned animated films, 'The Sword of Storms' takes Hellboy and drops him in a fantasy world of Japanese folklore. The voice acting is excellent. Ron Perlman has now become the de facto voice of Hellboy, and if this ever becomes an animated series, his presence will be crucial for its success. More surprisingly, considering her usually rather flat and whiny voice, Selma Blair delivers a finely nuanced performance. The best of all however, is Doug Jones. Seemingly perennially cursed by his background as a mime, the man has been seen in several great films in recent years but never heard. He has a pleasant, deep-ish voice, which entirely suits Abe Sapien. David Hyde Pierce acquitted himself well in Hellboy but will not be missed in the sequel. Hopefully Mr Jones' fine performance here will encourage studio execs to leave him be as the voice of the Silver Surfer. The character designs are deliberately different from Mignola's and in my opinion, that is a smart decision. Hellboy himself remains relatively faithful to the original concept, but shown in a more stylised form, reminiscent of Bruce Timm's drawings. For the most part, this works, apart from an occasional slip where Hellboy's face takes on an exaggerated facial expression, lapsing into caricature. Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman and a few of the supporting characters are more radically redesigned and remind of the current pseudo-manga style of 'The Batman' or 'Jackie Chan Adventures'. Personally, I am not a great fan of this particular approach, but I acknowledge it is popular and in context, effective. Mike Mignola's original drawing style is not completely ignored and is most clearly evoked in the design of Hellboy's various skeletal and monstrous opponents. There are also some attempts to emulate the comic's use of shadows (most notably in the "Heads" sequence). There are however, some problems. The animation itself is very hit and miss, and apart from the already mentioned weird facial expressions, there are occasional strange and unnatural movements from the characters. Some scenes feature noticeably poorer animation quality than the overall film. They appear jerky and cheap and look as though they were completed in a rush. The plot itself is not overly engaging. Although a story about cursed ancient lovers shows promise, it is severely underdeveloped, in favour of some nonsense about Thunder Gods and Dragons. The majority of the actual film shows Hellboy wandering around Wonderland (or something), fighting assorted monsters. Some of these action sequences are great fun but it all gets repetitive so that the overall effect is episodic and only occasionally compelling (I'm going to mention "Heads" again here – that segment is excellent). The other half of the film deals with Abe and Liz, but they are not given much to do, and their action sequences are nowhere near as interesting as Hellboy's. There is some attempt to deal with Liz's distrust of her powers but it largely falls flat, especially compared to the comics and film. However, the fact that there is some characterisation at all, as well as the presence of some rather mature themes and some unflinching violence mark this as more than just a kids-only film. Hopefully, the creators are just hitting their stride, and some of the wrinkles will be ironed out by the next instalment.