Customer Reviews

Hellboy: Blood and Iron

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thank you, Revolution Studios and Cartoon Network, for this. In the wake of HELLBOY: SWORD OF STORMS comes this second nifty animated film featuring Hellboy, the resilient and irreverent demon-turned-paranormal investigator. I just saw HELLBOY: BLOOD AND IRON on the Cartoon Network's Toonami block and, in my opinion, it's better than SWORD OF STORMS, more brooding, more pulse pounding, and, yes, even more action-oriented. Hellboy creator and BLOOD AND IRON co-writer Mike Mignola himself, in an interview with IGN Comics, says that it's an improvement over the first as SWORD OF STORMS proved to be a learning process for him and the Hellboy animators. Certainly, we as the viewing audience reap the benefits of a stronger and more focused narrative. The story elements are lifted in a mishmashed manner from the second Hellboy comic book mini-series, WAKE THE DEVIL, to create a new tale. To quote Mignola: "It's not an adaptation so much as it is a re-imagining of the story."

Here come the SPOILERS:

This time out, Hellboy again partners up with fellow B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) agents Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien as they venture to the New York Hamptons to help the aged and nightmare-wracked Professor Bruttenholm (nicknamed Professor "Broom") investigate the calamitous resurrection of Erzsebet Ondrushko, a depraved vampiress who had bathed in her victims' blood to maintain youth and beauty and whom Professor Broom himself had slain back in 1939 (as seen in a lengthy flashback). As per usual, as dire events unfold (and as we discover that Erzsebet is the high priestess of a powerful and malevolent entity), the jeopardy and the stakes escalate until, at the end, Hellboy is again up to his neck battling a formidable serpentine goddess.

As mentioned, HELLBOY: BLOOD AND IRON is the second animated foray into Mike Mignola's dark vision of the grotesque, the fantastic,and the occult. With its TV-14 rating, this certainly isn't intended for the younger kids. It contains enough violence and certain scenes of supernatural terror. The movie unveils several very nice action sequences featuring our favorite B.P.R.D. folks, the highlight of which is the epic brawl staged at the climax. The creatures of Japanese folklore from SWORD OF STORMS are jettisoned here in favor of foes more in line with Mignola's Dark Horse comic book version of Hellboy: skull-faced specters, demonic wolves, a lycanthrope, denizens of Greek mythology, and Hecate, the Queen of Witches herself. Hecate has the added agenda of desiring to place Hellboy back on his proper path of destiny, which in turn will bring about the end of the world for man.

There. That's it for the SPOILERS.

Ron Perlman, as usual, is consistently good as the irascible voice of the titular character ("Oh, crap!"). Selma Blair (Liz), Doug Jones (Abe), Peri Gilpin (Prof. Kate Corrigan), and John Hurt (Prof. Broom) are back to lend feature film cred to this project as they again convincingly flesh out their characters.

The look of the film, in terms of its shadowy moods, is typical Mike Mignola. The animation itself is more than adequate and is even occasionally reminiscent of Mignola's artistic style. There's even a certain kinetic flair to be enjoyed in the vicious skirmishes between B.P.R.D. and its supernatural dance partners. It's hard enough not to be sucked in by the allure of the barrel-chested, spindly legged, not-to-be-trifled-with Hellboy and his gothic milieu. Add in the nicely rendered animation and the appealing voice cast and what you have is a screenful of good times. Do yourself a favor and check out this film. You might even unearth the name of the place which offers the best pastries on earth.

Go Hellboy!

"Hellboy: Blood and Iron" lives up to the reputation of the comic book franchise. While investigating a haunted mansion in the Hamptons, Hellboy and his fellow agents of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense are joined by the Bureau's founder Prof. Trevor Broom to hunt down an evil female vampire whom the professor destroyed 60 years ago. Hellboy and his crew will battle an onslaught of ghosts, werewolves and other supernatural foes to stop the vampire from unleashing the wrath of the deadly goddess Hecate upon the world. "Hellboy: Blood and Iron" is the latest action-packed animated installment from comic book creator Mike Mignola and award-winning director Guillermo Del Toro. "Blood and Iron" shows some improvements over "Sword of Storms". The animated adventure contains a well structured plot, stylized animation and cool action sequences. "Hellboy: Blood and Iron" also features the fine voice talents of Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Peri Gilpin and John Hurt.

If you already purchased "Sword of Storms', then don't miss out on "Hellboy: Blood and Iron". The animated comic book adventure is presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format. The DVD has a rich and detailed video transfer that really shows off the animation. The 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is pretty good. Its supplemental extras include an extensive audio commentary with Mike Mignola and production crew, 4 behind-the-scenes featurettes (Reversal of Fortune, Tales from the Tomb, Iron Shoes & The Pennanggalan) and trailers of other animated titles. The interactive menus look great. Overall, "Hellboy: Blood and Iron" scores a "B".

Nice movie. The story telling was quite deep, inlcuding the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. The voice acting is quite effective and the animation is loss for words!

With the latest Hellboy movie just hit UK cinemas, to gear up for it, I watched Blood & Iron. Although it's more a prequel, as it still features Professor Broom, voiced by John Hurt. (Thankfully, for fans of John Hurt, he appears in a flashback in Hellboy II.)

The whole myths and legends featured in the animated movies are excellent, and I look forward to seeing more of them. The creatures are amazing, and come to life on the screen. I prefer the live action movies, but the animated ones are always worthwhile watching, and I'm sure there are bound to be more of them. There are a lot of Hellboy comics out there, with lots of ideas to hit Hellboy fans.

The story centres around the Hellboy team, and Erzebet Ondrushko, a female vampire, who in order to stay young and beautiful, bathed in the bloods of innocents to stay young. The elderly Professor Broom decides he must investigate it himself, without revealing too much to his team. Someone is attempting to bring her back - that's never a good sign. Hellboy, Liz and Abe are more worried about his welfare than the return of a vampire. They face ghosts, a ghostly wolf pack, witches, a giant werewolf, and the famous Erzebet herself.

The destiny card is played, a card that is also played in Golden Army, when he battles Queen of Witches, goddess Hecate. She wants him to embrace his true destiny, a destiny that includes the destruction of man kind. This 'destiny' must be a strong feature in the comics as well, and it makes me curious to find out what is actually supposed to happen.

The humour is very dry, as it is in the films, and although Liz's character still annoys me as she did in Sword of Storms (she seems to have a nose piercing, although I think it's just the way her nose is drawn), it still brings a few smiles to faces.

Overall, nothing can really compare to the live action movies, but I did prefer Sword of Storms, with the Japanese mythology, to this. It's still good to watch, and emerse yourself in everything Hellboy.

Blood and Iron, the second direct-to-DVD release of the animated Hellboy, improves upon the first for me. The first was not bad, but this one just had more of what I wanted. First of all, Prof. Broom plays a large part in this one, and the flashback sequences they show of him were pretty cool. Kate from the first movie shows up only briefly but Broom's presence more than makes up for that.

Plus the haunted mansion in this is the perfect location to throw this team in. There's vampires, werewolves, ghosts and witches. What more could you ask for? There's a good amount of action and usually the humour works although sometimes it seems like it tries too hard.

The flashbacks are what help elevate this effort as well, playing them backward ala Memento (which the creators admit they got the idea from, so I'll let it slide). The features on this set aren't as in depth as the last movie but better than nothing at all. Plus there's also the mini comic that it comes with. A good movie for Hellboy and comic book animation fans alike.

I'm a big fan of the movie Hellboy, which is the only reason that I watched the animated Blood And Iron. However, I'm not a fan of cartoons. So, naturally I wasn't blown away by this. Sure, it had some good humor, and the animation was topnotch. It's just that it had a kiddie feel to it that kept me from really getting into it.

This is Great! I was really surprised by these animated films with all the actors from the film! its really good with excellent voice talent of abe sapian, and of course hellboy *ron perlman* and the animations are excellent and clean as a razor. sound quality is also excellent (played this with my dolby surround running and wow!) I Really enjoyed this one more then Sword of Storms, because of the gothic aspects *they are fighting a Vampire* and of course hellboy's patented "oh crap" line that seems to always be dropped in at the perfect moment! I cracked up several times watching this. If you are a fan of all things Hellboy the do your self a favor and go buy this. afterward rent sword of storms to make sure you want that one.

Animation: animatrix/Dark Fury style artwork always a plus with me 5 star

Graphical quality: again 5 star not a glitch in it.

Sound: Scary good!!!! 5 STAR!!!

extras: some and really not that interesting. 3 star
aside from dull extras this film is worth every cent and its over an hour long vs dark fury *chronicles of riddick* is only 35 minutes! its a very good deal I was really surprised!

Buy Blood and Iron Here
Hellboy - Blood and Iron (Animated)

'Hellboy' is an anime' comic book jumping to life. Sparring between good and evil, the titled hero (Ron Perlman) is a demon fighting against the agents of hell on earth. He joins forces with what could be called the comic strip version of 'Ghostbusters' or 'Scooby Doo'. The anime' venue, which sometimes lacks the flow of most animated adventures, looks entirely appropriate with it's Gothic look and feel. Images of wolves with glowing eyes, lady vampires, snakes, and ghosts jump out to challenge our heros after an associate professor "Broom" has let a vampire lady come to life. Complete with a score that rises and falls with the action, 'Hellboy--Blood and Iron' takes all the old horror stories and recreates it with a frightening splendor. While it won't make most teenagers lose any sleep, it does an effective job of telling its story while generating a morbid, creepy interest.

Overall, 'Hellboy-Blood and Iron' does much to impress without an overkill. With a good story and dialogue, Victor Cook and Tad Stones do effective things with Mike Mignola's comic-novel series. (The extras have interesting explanations about how they assembled this movie.)

I liked Sword of Storms because it seemed more like the comic and less like the movie (even though they had the movie actors do the voices). I liked how Hellboy seemed less of a "big child" and more of a aged sort of "got it together" type of hero.
The little things like Abe not wearing a breathing apparatus and Kate Corrigan made me really happy.
The new movie Blood and Iron only ventures futher into the comic world, even using some of the direct dialogue from the comic. The animation is really well done as well as the voice acting. The movie even seemed like a Mike Mignola Hellboy issue, which I liked a lot.

The DVD extras are pretty cool as well. Behind the scenes features and it even has a Hellboy E-comic. It also includes the short IRON SHOES which is frame for frame of the comic story of the same title. It was really cool to see that animated.

As I was watching this movie I realized it was definitely NOT for kids. Some of the images in the movie would probably scar little kids for life.

According to legend, Elizabeth Báthory tortured and killed hundreds of girls, so she could bathe in their blood and be young forever.

That medieval version of an urban myth serves as the root of "Hellboy: Blood and Iron," the second animated spinoff of Guillermo del Toro's hit movies. This particular movie is loosely based on one of Mike Mignola's original stories, but also gets crammed with plenty of gore, bleak humor, harpies and a very nasty undead vampire.

Back in 1939, Professor Broom led an expedition into the castle of Erzsebet Ondrushko, a horrendous vampire who was abducting young girls so she could bathe in their blood. By trickery and luck, Broom managed to kill her.

Cut to present day: the BPRD is asked to investigate a haunted mansion, and Professor Broom insists that Liz, Hellboy, Abe and himself go on the mission. Though the hype-happy owner is only interested in using the investigation to make money, the place is really haunted -- bluish ghosts drift around, statues weep, and a witches' magic circle is on the floor.

It soon becomes obvious that a pair of harpy-witches are trying to resurrect Erzsebet, with the help of the lamia-goddess Hecate. And with Abe captured by the hags, Liz and Broom are in a race against time to stop the vampire's resurrection -- and even if they succeed, there's still the malignant Hecate, whom Hellboy must somehow stop.
There's also a little extra movie tacked on: "Iron Shoes," a simple tale about Hellboy encountering a nasty little hobgoblin who tries to kill people with... well, you can guess. It lasts no longer than a couple minutes, but it's a nice little direct-from-Mignola moment.

Despite being entitled "Hellboy: Blood and Iron," this animated movie is really much more about Professor Broom, the kindly old "father" and mentor of the titular character. Not only does it have his first mission (flashed back backwards, in Christopher Nolan style), but he takes the biggest and most striking part of the entire movie.

As for the movie, it picks bits and pieces from Mignola's second graphic novel, and weaves them together with an original story. There are some striking subplots, such as the fate of a young priest whose faith crumbles under pressure, as well as some sweet moments between Hellboy and his aged "father." Not to mention solid dialogue ("You grew up so fast. Before I knew it, you were too big to spank." "Not to mention the tail got in the way."

The entire thing is drenched in shadows, dark forests, vampiric monsters, and big vats of blood in shadowy, half-ruined places, and has some lovely action-packed fights for Abe and Hellboy -- including Hellboy duking it out with "Iron Maiden" Hecate. This is no kids' movie -- the whole story is drenched with blood, some brief nudity and a charming scene where the hags try to vivisect poor Abe.

Professor Broom is really the star here, and though he's old and fragile physically he shows that his ability to fight evil hasn't vanished. Ron Perlman's Hellboy is perfect (rough, kindly, sarcastic) and Doug Jones gives a nice intellectual slant to the action-fishman Abe. The only voice actor that's really a problem is Cree Summer as Hecate -- she sounds more like a whiny aunt than an ancient evil goddess.

"Hellboy: Blood and Iron" is a solid Hellboy spinoff movie, and serves as a window into the past of the underused Professor. Definitely a good buy... but not a cartoon for kids.