Hellboy: 
Sword of Storms
(Anchor Bay Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(2006)
review by Head Cheeze

Hellboy is back!! Errr…sort of. In the animated film, Hellboy: Sword of Storms, we get a somewhat softer (although not completely kid-friendly) version of the hulking red avenger, in an adventure that’s more Scooby Doo than Pan’s Labyrinth.

In Sword of Storms, a Japanese historian unleashes ancient demons bent on destroying a fabled weapon that prevents them from crossing over into our dimension. Hellboy (voiced by Ron Perlman) is sent to investigate, and finds himself transported into this demon world, and entrusted with returning the sword to safety. Meanwhile, Hellboy’s trusty sidekicks, Liz (Selma Blair) and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones, who played Sapien in the original film, although the character was voiced by David Hyde Pierce) try to bring their friend back from the other side…at least while there’s still another side to bring him back to!

While Hellboy: Sword of Storms isn’t as dark and “gooey” as its live-action predecessor, it’s surprisingly well-written, funny, and rather exciting. I’m not a huge fan of animated films, especially those aimed at younger audiences, but, with Guillermo Del Toro and Mike Mignola lording over the animated Hellboy adventures, fans can rest assured that this is by no means a throwaway series or chintzy effort to market the character to kids. Besides, given the level of cartoonish violence and the occasional mild curse word (Hellboy repeatedly says “Crap” and “Screw this!” which, while not exactly profane, probably aren’t things you want your 10 year old saying in school – even though you know they say much worse), I think the target audience here are the same folks who made the film a modest hit, and the series serves as a nice bridge between movies.

The look of the film/series is sort of a hybrid between Mignola’s shadow-heavy comics and the omnipresent anime stylings that currently dominate the industry. While the animation won’t make the folks at Disney shake in their boots, it ranks up there with some of the better OVA series I’ve seen, and the fact that much of the original cast are here providing the voices for their respective characters really classes things up. Being an animated feature, Sword of Storms is also able to fully explore the limits of its ambitious and mythology-laden storyline; something live-action films can’t do (at least, not without buckets of money).

Anchor Bay serves up Sword of Storms in a really nice special edition set that sports a bunch of featurettes, a commentary featuring Mike Mignola, and a 32 page color comic book exclusive to the DVD.

While an animated Hellboy may not entirely satiate fans hungry for the grittier action of Del Toro’s 2004 film, Sword of Storms is smart, funny, and exciting enough to tide older fans over until 2008’s Golden Army, while it grooms younger audiences for the next movie. Definitely worth checking out!