Hellboy: Blood & Iron Animated
HELLBOY: BLOOD & IRON
I haven’t read all of the Hellboy books, but have gotten through several and I have also seen the film, which I liked very much. That said, I’m not sure if this is a continuity tale or not. There is a flash back and tie in to the past presented here that could conceivably make it fit the timelines for all you Hellboy regulars out there. The animation is decent, but it is weird seeing Hellboy and Abe rendered in the same style as Buzz Lightyear.
The story takes place on Long Island in a Haunted Mansion that has just been bought by a wealthy publicity hound that wants to turn the place into a Haunted Attraction. He also happens to be best friends with the government official who funds the BRPD. So in a highly unlikely event, they send Hellboy, Abe, Liz and also the Professor to clear “the ghosts.” Turns out to be a whole lot more, as the ghosts are the tormented spirit of a Vampire that dated back to the Professor’s first ever case, pre-Hellboy. She has also brought along one of the Gods of Darkness, Hecate, who wants to suck Hellboy back into the pit. Because this is animated, Guillermo Del Toro (writer/direct of the film), Mike Mignola (creater of Hellboy) and Tad Stones (Buzz Lightyear of Star Command) can do things they probably couldn’t I nthe movie, but because it was for television and kids indirectly, they had to pull some of the really over the top concepts, especially when you are talk demons and vampires. The direction they took was very strong and at no point did you feel gypped on the outcome. Fans of the comic books should definitely enjoy this.
Bonus features: To start, there is a comic book inside the packaging called “The Yearning”. It is the same animation style as the show, so it is a nice tie in. There is an excellent audio commentary. There are two behind the scenes featurettes, an interesting spin on the story that reverses the Memento style quality of “Blood and Iron” and runs it sequentially and lastly there is the animated debut of Hellboy called “Iron Shoes”. The disc is packed full of goodies.
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It begins to demand the ability to study man, and private access to one of it's own user terminals. Most of all, it wants to know when it will be allowed outside of it's "box". Dr. Harris thinks the machine has developed sense of humor, but soon he won't be laughing. 
an inspiration for this film. True to his word, “The Gravedancers” is an awesome throwback to the way ghost stories used to play out. It's almost scary that it took so long for someone to get this genre right again. 
takes it's time, it's waits. Before you ever see a ghost in “The Gravedancers”
you've already felt their presence. Pipes that rattle, cats that won't go into the house, strange noises, music coming from an empty room. This stuff all still works when it's done well, and it helps build up tension and suspense so that the first time you see one of the malevolent spirits in full-form it's truly unexpected and very scary. Each ghost is a little something different: An insanely jealous female spirit, a old man who's attacks mimic something out of “The Entity”, and a ghost that's get a little too happy when playing with matches. Each of these spirits attack and haunt in their own way. The effects in the film are largely practical, and the ghost effects are accomplished with a mix of makeup and puppetry, and very effective. Nice to see that kind of thing. “The Gravedancers” does go a little off towards the end when Harris, Allison and Kira have holed up in the home of some paranormal investigators. Not that it gets bad, I towards the end the ghosts just went a little beyond what I felt the could really be capable of.
