morrison-dylan-fan With Easter coming up I started looking for an animated title that a pal would enjoy watching over the holiday.Seeing clips of the latest superhero flicks,I remembered hearing about an animated Hellboy movie from a few years ago,which led to me picking up the sword of stone.The plot:Reading an ancient scroll, Professor Sakai unleashes a number of demon spirits.Learning that the demons are after a mythical sword, Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense agents Hellboy, Kate Corrigan and Russell Thorne locate the sword.Shortly after picking up the sword,Hellboy vanishes into another dimension.Finding himself in a new dimension,Hellboy decides that he must untangle the myths entwined round the sword.View on the film:Making his (feature) animation debut,co-writer/(along with Matt Wayne & Mike Mignola) director Tad Stones gives the title a stylish,rough edge,Anima- inspired appearance,with the pulpy colours linking the film to its comic-book roots.For the screenplay,the writers stray into creepy horror,as flying heads and vengeful ghosts splat the screen.Taking a road movie approach,the writers disappointingly make the film feel a slow-paced,due to Hellboy being placed on an obstacle course which lacks any threatening atmosphere.Taking on the voice after playing him in the live action takes, Ron Perlman gives a wonderful performance as Hellboy,thanks to Perlman hitting Hellboy's action roar with a deadpan dry with,as Hellboy discovers a new sword in the stones.

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com 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.

ZekeRage911 I'm a fan of Hellboy. I'll get that out of the way first. But the Live Action movie was painful. So I wasn't surprised when I liked Sword of Storms better, but it was still sorely lacking.While I like that Hellboy got to swear occasionally, and I love the dialog, a lot of this movie seemed to fail to live up to the award-winning style and substance of Hellboy as a comic book. For one thing, the animation was a little childish to me. It seemed too much like they were watering down the Hellboy world to make it appealing to kids. Unfortunately, they then include a lot of blood and some swearing to make it inappropriate for kids. The dialog seemed very forced in some places, like the voice actors were just reading lines and not interested in the characters at all.Some of the little "episodes" that Hellboy goes through, though, are enjoyable. The scene where he faces the disembodied heads is almost straight out of the comic books, and the real highlight of this otherwise disappointing tale. What really damaged this movie for me, though, was the clumsy attempt at characterization. Liz Sherman woes about being pyknotic, the psychic guy is thoroughly annoying, and the big bad demons at the end are more reminiscent of stereotypical anime theme villains than actual threats to the world. While I applaud the attempt, this one just didn't work for me. I do hope they work a little harder on the next ones and really develop the potential they have here.

seltzer I was looking forward to this, and yet was still surprised to see it on TV so soon. I love the Hellboy comics and associated spin offs. I thought the movie was great, too. This cartoon version did a great job of bringing the feel of the comic to life, and as a bonus, Ron Perlman and Selma Blair from the movie version do the vocal work of their characters, respectively Hellboy and Liz Sherman. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that Doug Jones, who played Abe Sapien in the film but did not get to voice his character, which was done nicely by David Hyde Pierce, actually provides the voice for Abe Sapien here, and does a great job, too. The story is good, and much like the comic, focuses on the paranormal aspects of myth and folktale, in this case involving a Japanese sword. The animation was great, reminding me both of the comic art by Mike Mignola and the Batman, Superman, and Justice League animated series. I was very entertained. If you like either the comics or the movie, you should check it out, and if you like stories involving the paranormal a la the X-Files, you may very well love Hellboy, who brings a neat twist to investigating the paranormal.