Hellboy partakes in another adventure, this time in animated form. Based on the comics and Guillermo Del Toro’s film adaptation, the stars of Hellboy the movie return to cast their voices to their animated counterparts including Selma Blair and of course Ron Perlman.

The Sword of Storms follows the folklore tale of a forbidden love between a samurai and a woman he has fallen in love with. The woman has been promised to two demonic dragons who possess the power to destroy the land, but when the promise is broken, the samurai and demonic dragons come face to face in battle.

In the present time a professor discovers a scroll that embodies this story, however, it is possessed by the evil spirits and so the battle begins again as the spirits of the dead and the demons take possession of individuals, including Hellboy, in order to fight once more.

I have to say I liked Hellboy’s animated feature for the most part. The animation isn’t bad, but it isn’t great. It’s a made for TV animation that’s available on DVD which goes to show how much money is likely to have been spent on the production, even with the original cast in tow. If you’ve seen recent animated features from the likes of The Batman, or even if you catch an animated episode of new series, the animation is slightly better than that mentioned, but only just. It’s clean, crisp visuals, but there’s a distinct lack of detail.

The plot itself is quite interesting, if a little clichéd, with the whole mysticism and pseudo-folklore legend of Japan. The characters are involving, if lacking in depth, but you get to like them as the feature goes on. For kids with words like “crap” and “dumbass” it’s perhaps up to the adult as to whether you want younger children to pick up these words and spout them at school. I’d be wary of letting youngsters see this as being acceptable language, and I don’t think there was any need for it in the feature.

Having liked it for the most part, there were parts of it I didn’t like. The story itself, though interesting, tends to drag on from time to time. I felt bored at moments, and wanted to turn the feature off, but carried on regardless just so I could complete it. Still, some parts were long and more laborious than others, and those parts will not entice children, especially if they’re falling asleep during the showing.

There’s also a lot of action in the movie, I know, it’s to be expected after all it is based on Hellboy and the action is where it is at. However, I did feel as though the action often got repetitive and boring after a while. This was particularly true of the battles towards the end of the animation, where scene after scene looks like a case of repeat animation, even though it isn’t, but you feel as though you’ve seen the same action sequences throughout and you simply want less of it.

In regards to the quality of the production, it’s pretty good overall I gues for a feature length animated film. This isn’t Pixar movie, a Disney feature, or another beautiful piece of work from Miyazaki, it does do the job, however, and voice acting is solid throughout.

With some tighter direction, I think Hellboy could have been quite an interesting animated feature, and one that would have entertained well. As I have stated, I liked it for the most part, but it seems the direction and sometimes the script seemed lost in places, filling time with uninteresting plot developments or yet another action sequence.

I enjoyed Hellboy up to a point, but had the focus been better, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more. For children it may interest them, I’m not sure, because if I found some bits boring (and I am a child at heart) then it’s likely that children would find those moments of long dialogue and repetition to also find it a tad dull.

Overall, I would say Hellboy was a good first attempt as an animated adaptation, offering action and story for seventy-eight minutes of your time. It also provides an introduction to who Hellboy is at the beginning so you know where Hellboy stems from. The music is also worth a mention as it adds to the atmosphere of the movie, and is done to a decent standard as far as made-for-tv animation goes.

Verdict: At moments it is like hell, boy, but often it entertains rather than bores.