| If you’re in the mood for the animated adventures of inhuman government agents battling supernatural forces, preferably based on the comics of Mike Mignola, you’re in luck. Two such DVDs came out on the same day (February 6). Apart from the obvious similarities though, they couldn’t be more different.
In Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms (2006), Mignola’s gruff, but pure-hearted demon is magically transported to feudal Japan, where he faces a dizzying variety of weird creatures taken from Japanese folklore. While his fellow BPRD operatives struggle to deal with a mounting cataclysm in the here and now, Hellboy searches for the means to return to the present day while fighting monsters with his characteristic aplomb. If you ever wanted to see the big red guy journeying along a windswept hill with a katana, here’s your chance.
Ron Perlman voices the title character and is joined by Selma Blair and John Hurt, all reprising their roles from the live action 2004 Hellboy movie. This is also the first time fans will get to hear actor Doug Jones as the fishlike BPRD operative Abe Sapien, as his character’s voice was re-dubbed by an uncredited David Hyde Pierce in the previous film. Guillermo Del Toro didn’t direct Sword of Storms, but he appears in the bonus features a number of times, credited as a "consulting producer," giving the proceedings a distinct reunion-style atmosphere. The team will also appear in the upcoming direct-to-DVD sequel, Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron (2007). A trailer for the latter appears on this disc.
Sword of Storms is a pretty good movie, but the padded and repetitive plotline is a bit wearisome. It’s basically a bunch of short Japanese ghost stories, with Hellboy cast as the wandering hero. The artwork ditches Mignola’s idiosyncratic style for the same standard cartoon look we’ve been getting from the animation sweatshops in Korea for the past 14 years or so. In fact, both the artwork and overall tone are very reminiscent of Disney’s Gargoyles, a fine animated series that was considered very dark, mature and cutting-edge… back in 1994.
As a fan of the live-action movie, perhaps I’ve got unreasonable expectations. Is a truly innovative and brilliant cartoon based on Mignola’s work too much to ask for?
Absolutely not, as it turns out. Witness Exhibit "B" – The Amazing Screw-On Head (2006). This is what I’m talking about.
The year is 1862, and America is threatened not only by civil war, but by supernatural forces so weird that they must never be revealed to the American public. Emperor Zombie has acquired a turnip of unimaginable eldritch power, and plans to use it to enslave humanity. Who can President Abraham Lincoln rely on in this time of strife? Who else but…The Amazing Screw-On Head!
As his name suggests, Screw-On Head is a detachable metal noggin, threaded like a screw so that he can be installed in a variety of robot bodies. As Lincoln’s most trusted secret agent, it’s up to him to defeat Emperor Zombie and his bizarre entourage that includes a Lovecraftian demigod, the hero’s vampire ex-girlfriend and a chimp with a machine gun.
This one’s played for laughs and flat-out weirdness and succeeds spectacularly on both fronts. Everything works beautifully – the bombastic dialogue, the frantic pace, the unique artistic style (modelled extremely closely on Mignola’s original art) and the wacky steampunk technology. When Screw-On Head communicates with the president, he addresses a talking portrait of Lincoln, complete with a built-in mechanism that makes the mouth and eyes move. When he needs to travel to distant lands, he climbs into a giant artillery shell and gets shot into Marrakech. It’s all antique spy-tech at its finest.
Paul Giamatti is fantastic as the voice of Screw-On Head, revealing that in addition to his other talents he has a flair for voicing hypocritical, self-righteous robot heads. Molly Shannon similarly impresses as Patience the Vampire, whose romantic past with Screw-On Head led to immortality and heartbreak in an extremely brief flashback. Still, the biggest nod must go to David Hyde Pierce as Emperor Zombie, quite possibly the most entertaining villain I’ve seen in years. Words can’t describe the effect of seeing a flyblown cadaver speaking with the rich erudition of Frasier’s Dr. Niles Crane, so you’ll just have to see it for yourself; he’s the most cheerful and jubilant walking corpse since a decaying Griffin Dunne got all the best lines in An American Werewolf in London (1981).
The only reason to balk at purchasing The Amazing Screw-On Head on DVD is the running time. As a pilot for a potential TV series (not picked up, as of yet) the show only has a running time of 22 minutes. That’s pretty short for a DVD, compared to Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms’s 77 minutes and many Mignola fans might understandably consider the latter a better buy. However, if you’re a connoisseur of the bizarre, you’re likely to watch Screw-On Head more than ten times, possibly even showing it to everyone you know; while Sword of Storms will probably have you checking your watch the first and only time you give it a spin. Plus, the more interest there is in The Amazing Screw-On Head, the more likely it will be made into a complete series. So get out there and show your support! |
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