Not being a fan of the Hellboy franchise I might be a bit bias here but I gave this animated effort a go and walked away rather unimpressed.First of all I was struck how childish it all was, this is closer to a Saturday morning cartoon than an anime or anything of Hellboys general demographic.Thankfully the full movie cast do in fact reprise their roles which certainly gets it points.The story however gets few, being an over convoluted tale of Japanese demons trapped within a samurai sword.The fanbase is clearly there, writing this in 2017 and people are still pining for a third movie.I'd say this is one for the Hellboy fans and the Hellboy fans alone.The Good: Original cast The Bad: Liz & Abe look weird Story simply isn't very good Weirdly "Kiddie" Things I Learnt From This Movie:Nothing, I just had it reconfirmed that I find Hellboy a bit of a bore

Cartoon TV movies are not uncommon in the world of popular characters. Several icons have had theatrical runs and then later on are moved to TV movies. Some stuck with live-action, while others turned to different methods. For Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy (2004), animation was the next route. For a few reasons, it's understandable to why this was the definitive choice. First and foremost, animation is cheaper than live- action. The second reason would be the demographic. If it's a cartoon, there's a good chance more children would end up seeing it. A third possible reason was to see if it would turn into a series. A perfect example of this would be the TV movie / Direct-to-DVD release of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000). After its success, the cartoon became a running TV series on the Disney Channel. It's interesting because this could have been like that but there are some things holding it back too.It's difficult to say what time this installment of Hellboy takes place. Since Dr. Broom (Hellboy's father) is not shown, it is assumed that it takes place after the first theatrical film. When a magical katana sword possesses the body of a Japanese Sword Historian, Hellboy, Liz and Abe Sapien are brought in. However, this doesn't exactly make it that much more exciting story wise. The story is about Hellboy taking on another spirit creature but it feels very detached from its predecessor. Just because it's not live-action doesn't mean the story can't continue from the events of the last movie. The back-story to the mystical katana sword is a bit cliché but not too dull to be bored with. The section of writing that suffers the most is the plot. Hellboy ends up being caught up in a mystical world where he has to find his way out and it takes up the majority of the movie. This is where it feels slow - even for a little over 70 minutes.Another problem in this feature is the animation itself. The flow of how the characters move isn't that smooth. The mouth work to the voice acting looks rather rigid as well. And what's with Hellboy's design? A huge upper torso and scrawny goat legs? I think that could be evened out a little more. An element that doesn't need any fixing however is the level that this cartoon sets itself at. Meaning, it's edgy. Not edgy enough to have curvaceous women in it, but it does have some disturbing images, close to heavy violence and several swears. This is good and all but it does bring into question if this film was made for children. If it was made for children, all the things mentioned prior should've been toned down. And if it was for adults, it should've been made like the HBO Spawn series. The action and creature designs are note worthy though. Dark and creepy cartoons are not as common among animation movies so that's a plus.For voice acting is definitely smart of the casting department to grab ahold of Ron Perlman and Selma Blair. Their voices can't be replaced. The same also should've gone for David Hyde Pierce who voiced Abe Sapien from the live-action run. Nothing on Doug Jones who was the physical representation of Abe, but Pierce has always been the voice of scientific sounding characters. Jones' voice as his own character doesn't accomplish that same feat. Phil LaMarr also has a few voice roles too. Listen for him. The score composed by Christopher Drake is well done. His tracks represent the scenes properly and he also maintains the establish recognizable theme Marco Beltrami had created from the first movie. That is commendable considering most composers either ignore or forget these key pieces. Its fun but not engaging enough like the original.It provides some of the same quality like the original with its returning cast of voices, edgy action, grotesque creatures and music, but its writing isn't as polished. The story elements aren't as captivating as they were from before.

i luckily(?) rented this movie, and tried to watch it but couldn't do this in chunks of any more than a few minutes at a time and did not make it to the end there were several reasons for this:-the voice overs were just absolutely rubbish. i could record a bunch of people off the street and get more inspired performances than these. in particular i hated the cliché Asian accents and apathetic tones -the animation itself was of a poor standard. totally flat and with no fluidity at all. just lots of bland colours -the story was very very poor with no focus at all -the movie is loud, loud and more loud -the DVD i watched had no subtitles? clearly the makers tried extremely hard to borrow from Asian animation, failed totally and then did not even have the decency to provide subtitles in at least Chinese or Japanese.. or in German, french or English for that matter if this is the standard of western animations I'll continue to look elsewhere because this is absolutely sub standard

Ron Perlman is awesome as Hellboy. This is a scientific fact; even the critics who disliked the 2004 live-action 'Hellboy' admitted that Perlman owned the screen. So, now we have the animated 'Sword of Storms', and it's a great first outing in what I hope will become a regular series.Beginning with a great action sequence where Hellboy (Perlman again), fish-man Abe Sapien (voice of Doug Jones), and pyrokinetic Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) fight a giant bat god and some Mayan zombies, the film rockets towards Japan, where a professor has become possessed by the demons Thunder and Lightning. The demons were trapped in the Sword of Storms, and Hellboy is transported to a mythological Japanese world when he picks up the sword. Now the big red guy must deal with floating heads, spider-women, kappas, and Thunder and Lightning themselves in a battle to (recite in unison) save the world.First things first: The animation itself is pretty sweet. The action is kinetic and exciting, and I loved just how odd some of the creatures Hellboy faced were. Seriously, how can you not like floating heads that demand to know where Hellboy has hidden their bodies? True, there are times where the character movements are a tad jerky, but it's splendid overall.The same goes for the voice acting. Perlman once more owns the movie as the voice of Hellboy, and his laid-back attitude to all the weirdness surronding him is hilarious. Doug Jones is very good as Abe Sapien; in the live-action film, an uncredited David Hyde-Pierce voiced Abe, and while Pierce did a good job, Jones brings an everyman likability to the role. I liked Peri Gilpin as Hellboy's friend Agent Kate Corrigan (I hope we see more of this character in the future) and the miscellaneous characters are voiced well. Selma Blair, on the other hand, does not fare so well as Liz; she seems bored, frankly, and bored is not the same as the laid-back attitudes of Perlman and Jones.Despite a fairly episodic plot, and the aforementioned lackluster Selma Blair, 'Sword of Storms' is extremely entertaining, and it gives me high hopes for the future.