Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron

• Directed by Tad Stones and Victor Cook
• March 10, 2007

Blood and Iron Voice Cast

• Hellboy-Ron Perlman
• Abe Sapien-Doug Jones
• Liz Sherman-Selma Blair
• Trevor Bruttenholm-John Hurt
• Sydney Leach, Anna’s Fiancé-Rob Paulsen
• Kate Corrigan-Peri Gilpin
• Tom Manning-Jim Cummings
• Father Lupescu, Young Trevor Bruttenholm-James Arnold Taylor
• Oliver Trumbolt-J. Grant Albrecht
• Hecate-Cree Summer
• Erzebet Ondrushko-Kath Soucie
• Harpy-Hag #1-Dee Dee Rescher
• Harpy-Hag #2, Anna-Grey DeLisle

The investigation of a simple haunting has connections to the past of Hellboy’s mentor as well as larger implications.

Hellboy: Blood and Iron is a little more character driven than the previous animated Hellboy offering. And rather than focusing on the Hellboy character, the focus is on his mentor Trevor Bruttenholm. It is this film that makes me think that there could have been an animated series continuation of the original Hellboy movies. I have read these were in the continuity of those films but certain elements in the films seem to go against that idea.

When I say “animated series” I am thinking something like The Real Ghostbusters that fits in nicely with the films that inspired it but was not necessarily in the continuity of those films. These two animated stories embodied perfectly the original live action films. Truthfully I am not sure if these films were meant as pilots for a proposed series or not but they do show that the Hellboy concept could have been translated nicely to animation. Perhaps better than a film could. But I am getting off topic…

The story here centers on a vampire named Erzebet Ondrushko and it is treated like a predator. She has magical tricks to lure in her victims and grow her power and wants to become the high priestess of a mythological deity called Hecate. Hecate on the other hand is using this vampire to get victims to increase its power. A little more sophisticated plot then one might expect.

For inspiration the films villain seems to be drawn from Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed who is a real-life figure that reportedly engaged in bathing in human blood in order to preserve her beauty. It is a rather disturbing historical nugget that they pick up and run with here.

This is an animated supernatural film with elements of horror mixed in with superhero style action. While I admit to not being too familiar with the Hellboy comic book universe from what I do know about it seems to be used very well here.

Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, and Selma Blair return as Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and Liz Sherman respectively. This time around they are joined by John Hurt reprising his role as Trevor Bruttenholm. Peri Gilpin reprises her voice role as Kate Corrigan from the last film.

These are people doing a job. They care about the outcome but unlike other comic books such as Spider-Man or Superman or any number of others these are not heroic individuals with great power who found themselves called to do heroic things without a paycheck. One thing or another lead them to work for the BPRB and use what abilities they had to stop evil and make a living.

The characters in here are probably a little more relatable than most despite their appearances. Despite one being a demon or being a fish person or being pyrokinetic they are a lot more like you and me than your general comic book character. This helps get you past the more fantastical elements in the film.

The art style of the characters is a Saturday morning version of the art of Mike Mignola. His work is good, but it would not translate well to animation. They did a good job of making something that is reminiscent of it yet usable in animation and accessible to a viewing audience.

My only gripe about this film-and it is the same one I had about the last animated film-is that it does not connect in any solid way to the original live action Hellboy films. It appears to be a more direct adaption of what came from the comics. We get the film cast returning to the roles, but we do not get a direct continuation of those films. Or in this case it does not appear to be an animated prequel.

Tad Stone is an animation veteran, but he is not a name I would connect to something more serious like this. I am familiar with his name because of his connection to the classic Darkwing Duck series which is perhaps one of the best superhero spoofs out there. It is not a mockery of the superhero genre but more a loving jab at the lone dark and brooding superhero. Anyway…

Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron is a great animated Hellboy film. It has action and humor and a solid character driven story. I say watch it!

Hellboy Animated: Iron Shoes

• Directed by Victor Cook
• March 10, 2007

Iron Shoes Voice Cast

• Hellboy-Ron Perlman
• Iron Shoes-Dan Castellaneta

Hellboy is sent to deal with a ghost that haunts a castle and kills travelers passing by.

The above summary is all that occurs in this short. Other than Hellboy‘s delivery of the creature to the priest that hired him there is not much to this. It is essentially a nice scene but there is no real story. My guess is they had some extra money lying around and somebody decided that this was a good thing to animate.

There is not even much action. Hellboy walks up to the castle, you hear some narration which turns out to be Iron Shoes talking, a rock falls down some steps, and then Hellboy catches the creature around the neck and takes it to a church where Hellboy tosses Iron Shoes inside and it shatters to rock.

The animation is good but there is no story. This is a disc extra and I am not big on disc extras. It is very rare I watch any of them because most of them are just extended commercials for something you have already decided to watch or the creators praising their own work. This was something that to me promised to be an additional story but there is no story here.

If you come across Hellboy Animated: Iron Shoes I say skip it. It adds nothing to your Hellboy experience.