Hellboy: Sword of Storms

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Hellboy: Sword of Storms
Directed by	Phil Weinstein Tad Stones
Produced by	Tad Stones
Written by	Mike Mignola Tad Stones
Starring	Ron Perlman Selma Blair Doug Jones Peri Gilpin
Release date(s)	2006
Running time	77 min.
Language	English
Followed by	Hellboy: Blood and Iron
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Hellboy: Sword of Storms is the first of the Hellboy animated series based on Mike Mignola's popular comic book series Hellboy and the live-action film of the same name. It was released in 2006. The second animated straight-to-DVD film, Hellboy: Blood and Iron, was released on 17 March 2007.

The film was produced by Starz Media's Film Roman and Revolution Pictures and co-produced, co-written, and directed by animation veteran Tad Stones. Stones is perhaps best-known as the creator of the popular Disney Afternoon series Darkwing Duck. He worked with Mignola on developing Atlantis: The Lost Empire into an animated series. ^[1]

1 Plot
2 Cast
- 2.1 Additional Voices
3 Broadcast dates
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot

A Japanese professor of folklore named Professor Sakai opens a forbidden scroll and becomes possessed by the ancient Japanese demons of Thunder and Lightning, who seek to return and summon their brothers, the Dragons, to dominate the human world.

The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is brought in after Sakai attacks one of his associates. Hellboy and a team of agents (including Kate Corrigan) investigate the possessed man's rampage, but when Hellboy picks up a mysterious, discarded samurai sword, he literally disappears into a weird wonderland of Japanese mythology. On his quest to return to our world, he encounters many monsters (yōkai), including the kappa, a giant oni, a kitsune, rokurokubi, a tsuchigumo spider-woman, and three restless ghosts. Hellboy also meets a group of nukekubi in a segment of the film that is adapted virtually verbatim from the comic book story, Heads.

In dual side plots, BPRD agents Corrigan and Russell Thorne (a psychic) follow the trail of the possessed professor, while Abe and Liz are stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Ron Perlman	Hellboy
Selma Blair	Liz Sherman
Doug Jones	Abe Sapien
Peri Gilpin	Professor Kate Corrigan

[edit] Additional Voices

Dee Bradley Baker
Keith Ferguson
Clyde Kusatsu
Phil LaMarr
James Sie
Mitchell Whitfield
Gwendoline Yeo

[edit] Broadcast dates

Sword of Storms made its US television debut on October 28, 2006 on Cartoon Network's Toonami Saturday action block (and aired again on December 30, 2006) and was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment on February 6, 2007.

[edit] Reception

The reaction to the film was generally positive.[1][2][3] It scored an 8.7 from IGN,[4] although a critic for JoBlo.com gave the film one star out of five. The special features, however, which include several commentaries and documentaries about the making of the film, were roundly praised. [5] The voiceover work from returning cast members Perlman, Blair, and Jones was well-reviewed, as well as new addition Peri Gilpin as Kate. [6]