Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms (2006)

Hellboy travels to Japan to fight an ancient demon.

Directors:

Phil Weinstein, Tad Stones

Writers:

Mike Mignola (based on characters created by), Mike Mignola (story by)

Stars:

Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Ron Perlman	...	Hellboy (voice)
Selma Blair	...	Liz Sherman (voice)
Doug Jones	...	Abe Sapien (voice)
Peri Gilpin	...	Professor Kate Corrigan (voice)
Dee Bradley Baker	...	Lightning / Kappa / Pilot (voice)
Kim Mai Guest	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Michael Hagiwara	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Yuriana Kim	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Clyde Kusatsu	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Phil LaMarr	...	Bureau Member / Pilot / Additional Voices (voice)
Liza Del Mundo	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Paul Nakauchi	...	Additional Voices (voice)
James Sie	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Mitchell Whitfield	...	Russell Thorne (voice)
Gwendoline Yeo	...	Kitsune (voice)

Storyline

A professor of folklore opens a forbidden scroll and becomes possessed by the ancient Japanese demons of Thunder and Lightning, who seek to return and dominate our world. The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense sends Hellboy and a team of agents to investigate, but when Hellboy picks up a samurai sword, he literally disappears into a weird wonderland of Japanese legends, ghosts and monsters. Meanwhile, BPRD agents Kate Corrigan and Russell Thorne are on the trail of the possessed professor to bring Hellboy back.

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Plot Keywords:

skeletal remains | reflection in a pair of glasses | samurai | samurai sword | japan | 

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

The name that the old man is carving into a cucumber is "Murakami". Director Tad Stones says that this is a shout out to his friend, fellow animator Glen Murakami

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Goofs

After Hellboy defeats the Heads in the forest, the professor crushes the head figurine and it turns to ashes. When they cut back to the scene of the professor, he is shown knocking the heads off the scroll.

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Quotes

Thunder: Do you feel them? Our brothers are calling.
Lightning: Then we should wake them and bring an end to this puny world of men.
[a chunk of stone flies in and strikes Lightning]
Hellboy: Think again, dumbass, 'cause now I'm pissed.
Thunder: And you destroyed it. Hah. Stupid ugly monkey demon.
Hellboy: Me ugly?

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Connections

Referenced in Troldspejlet: Episode #40.3 (2008)

User Reviews

Mixed results: promising, but slightly frustrating

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.

Details

Official Sites:

IDT Entertainment [United States] Production Blog

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 October 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Film Roman Productions, IDT Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1