Review of Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron

Introduction

You don`t get movies anymore in Hollywood; instead you get franchises. You can`t have a successful summer blockbuster without merchandising, junket tours and spin-offs, and certain movies take over the season, with their ubiquity able to drive a consumer to distraction. Star Wars is to blame for this of course, with each film accompanied by cartoons, computer games, novels, toys, breakfast cereals and pyjamas. Occasionally that means that the final product is diluted. The Chronicles of Riddick and The Matrix sequels were all films that required that you watch the animations and buy the computer games to fill in the plot holes, rendering as thin as gauze films that were already weak. Hellboy on the other hand appears to have got the spin-off balance right. I still haven`t seen the original movie, but rather than create a kid friendly weekend `toon, the creators have opted to aim for the original audience with a series of feature length animations, keeping most of the original cast. Whereas creating an effects heavy superhero movie would stray towards 9 figure budgets, animation doesn`t suffer under the same burden. And with creator Mike Mignola working on the stories, you can be sure that the final animations will be aimed straight at the fan base. I have already reviewed Sword Of Storms for the site. This is the second Hellboy animation, Blood & Iron.

Those pesky Nazis were always meddling with the occult, and in the dying days of the Second World War, they managed to call forth a demon child, with a stone fist for a right hand. Before they could put their nefarious plan into action, the allied invasion took place, and the good guys got their hands on Hellboy. Raised by his rescuers, he is eventually recruited into the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence, where he battles the forces of the occult in an effort to keep the world safe and sound. With him in the fight are Abe Sapien, an amphibious humanoid and Liz Sherman, a human pyrotechnic, among others.

The BPRD have a heavy caseload on their hands, a sea monster in Canada, a monastery of bones in Tibet, and a haunted house in New York. The house is the latest purchase of businessman Oliver Trumbold, who wants it as a tourist attraction. Having the BPRD authenticate the ghosts would be a smart advertising gimmick. It`s a PR stunt, but a stunt that Professor Broom has a hunch about. It`s a useful hunch too, that takes the BPRD`s best agents, Hellboy, Abe Sapien and Liz Sherman with the Professor to New York. And sure enough, the mansion is infested with woeful spirits. These ghosts have all got one thing in common, they`re victims of Erzsebet Ondrushko. In 1939, a young Professor Broom travelled to Transylvania to deal with a vampire menace in a mission that went tragically wrong, even though Erzsebet was slain. But tonight, moves are afoot to resurrect this deadly vampire, and this time she`s brought her Goddess along for the battle.

Video

It`s a clear, sharp and colourful 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer that very nicely blends traditional 2D and 3D CGI. It`s good fluid animation that works well with the action sequences. It`s also quite a gothic production in comparison to the first animation, and the darker scenes all come across with excellent clarity. There is some of the typical digital banding associated with modern animation, and once again I feel that the character designs are a little too simplistic, but by and large this is a good transfer.

Audio

You have a choice between DD 5.1 and DD 2.0 English, although there are no subtitles. This is something of a problem, as music or effects muffle some of the dialogue. It is a punchy soundtrack otherwise, with good use of surrounds. The action sequences get appropriate placement of effects. This film also has an awful, and given its length, unnecessary layer change.

Features

We`re not too bad for extras on this disc, although it`s nowhere near as impressive as the first film.

The disc`s menu design is typical of Manga Entertainment, but it is presented by Manga`s parent company, Starz Media. You can find several trailers for other Manga products like Ghost In The Shell and Naruto. There are also teasers for Stan Lee`s Mosaic and Condor.

There is an audio commentary with this disc, with contributions from Tad Stones, Mike Mignola and Victor Cook. They talk about the movie, the background to the story, the differences between this and the first film, and how the character of Professor Broom differs. It`s a nice informative commentary, and they are pretty critical about the film.

Iron Shoes: The Animated Debut lasts 4 minutes. In it Mike Mignola introduces the first Hellboy animation, a brief test piece that tells a mini story.

Penannggalan: An E-Comic Exclusive From Mike Mignola is just that. He introduces an eight-page comic book that you can navigate through with your remote, and offers yet another Hellboy story to enjoy. The image scrolls around the comic pages so you get a good look at the panels, and hopefully enough time to read the text.

Reversal Of Fortune: Professor Broom`s Story lasts 21 minutes, but don`t get excited. In the film there is a reverse flashback sequence a la Memento. This featurette introduced by Tad Stones allows you to see the flashbacks in chronological order. That`s about 2 minutes of introduction, and the rest is just those sequences from the movie reedited together.

Tales From The Tomb: A Look Behind Blood & Iron last 13 minutes and is your typical making of featurette, with plenty of contribution from the crew, with some film clips and behind the scenes footage.

Conclusion

This second Hellboy animation actually ups the ante from the first one. The same characters return, along with the dry wit and nice action set pieces. It is still on the juvenile side of things in terms of target audience, and the 15 rating may just be pushing it a bit. It`s got the action, the good versus evil plot, the violence and mild profanity that may justify the higher rating, but in terms of emotional depth and character complexity, it remains in a lighter frame of mind. That said, I enjoyed it more than the first film as it had a stronger, more coherent storyline. Where the first film was disjointed and esoteric, Blood & Iron keeps a more focused approach, is faster paced, and holds the attention throughout.

It`s a pretty straightforward vampire story, with Broom cast in the Van Helsing role. The device of the reverse flashback is put to good use here, breaking up the main storyline and adding emotional resonance to the proceedings. Rather than just having a good versus evil battle with fists flying and fangs biting, the characters get some motivation that gives the film much needed depth. It makes up for the lack of emotional development of the main cast, who follow the `must remain unaltered` rule of US serial animation.

Blood & Iron is stronger than the first film, and certainly more enjoyable, but it`s rated beyond its target audience. It`d be fine if you were a fifteen year old in touch with your inner thirteen year old. It`s nice animated action entertainment with just a bit of an edge. Stick around after the end credits though, for a brief teaser of the next Hellboy film, Shadow Of The Claw, although apparently the title has already been changed.