DVD review
Directed by Phil Weinstein, Tad Stones
Starring Ron Perlman (voice), Selma Blair (voice), Doug Jones (voice), Peri Gilpin (voice), John Hurt (voice)
Release date 5 March 2007

A magical sword sends Hellboy into another dimension, while Liz and Abe Sapien get stranded on a rock with only a shrieking sea monster for company…

For anyone trembling in anticipation over next year’s Hellboy 2, this could be your lucky day. Sword of Storms is no cut-price stop gap between films, but a full-length animated outing for the cantankerous red demon and his pals.

It's lovingly put together and features most of the original voice cast (though, interestingly, it’s Doug Jones voicing Abe instead of David Hyde Pierce). At its heart are a series of fantastically realised set pieces that include a co-ordinated attack by a possessed umbrella and a pair of slippers, and, most impressively, Hellboy coming face to face with a band of disembodied heads with flashlights for eyes.

This emphasis on constant action could make Sword of Storms slightly wearing at times, but it is backed up by the same attention to character that we saw in the live action feature. The returning voice cast maintain the same great spark that they shared in the movie, with the added bonus of Frasier’s Peri Gilpin as level-headed folklore expert Professor Kate Corrigan.

With the high production values matched by a witty and inventive script, Sword of Storms is almost as much fun as Guillermo del Toro’s movie and sets the standard for animated features of this kind.

The DVD comes packed with a copious amount of extras, including a commentary from a voluble Mike Mignola, Tad Stones and Phil Weinstein; a revealing making-of (particularly interesting is Selma Blair’s admission that she struggled to make her voice “less flat” for animation); and a documentary on what inspired Mignola to create Hellboy in the first place. You even get a free 32-page comic! Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
Fast-paced and fun, Sword of Storms shows that Mignola’s cranky creation works just as well animated as he does in live action.