Hellboy II: The Golden Army 3-Disc Review

Credits:

Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Writers:
Screenplay: Guillermo Del Toro
Story: Guillermo Del Toro and Mike Mignola
Based On: Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola, published by Dark Horse Comics
Cast:
Ron Perlman - Hellboy
Selma Blair - Liz Sherman
Doug Jones - Abe Sapien / The Chamberlain / The Angel of Death
James Dodd - Johann Krauss
Jeffrey Tambor - Tom Manning
John Alexander - Johann Krauss
Luke Goss - Prince Nuada
Anna Walton - Princess Nuala
Seth MacFarlane - Johann Krauss (voice)
John Hurt - Professor Trevor 'Broom' Bruttenholm

Story:

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army tells the story of the dying race of elves and one of their princes last ditch effort to turn the tides on the humans that have forced them underground and in hiding from the rest of the world. This once proud race is near extinct, and a if Prince Nuada has his way, he will unleash a soulless evil that will be used to destroy humanity and reclaim the land that was once theirs. Only Hellboy and the BPRD stand in their way, but Hellboy is having his own share of problems with a boss breathing down his neck to follow orders, a new field manager, a world that fears him, and a girl whom he can’t live without or seem to live with.

Movie Review:

Although the characters are Mignola’s the story is much more Del Toro’s this time around. Huge scenes combined with countless characters and a story right out of a fairy tale, Hellboy 2 takes the character from the first film and throws them into a huge tale of love, loss, revenge, and ultimately lots of action. Although it wasn’t a smash success like The Dark Knight, it is a fun comic book movie with some amazing visuals in the departments of creature effects, the huge sets, and an interesting cast of characters. While not my favorite comic book movie of the summer, I did enjoy Hellboy 2 and thought it again captured the spirit of the Hellboy comics.

DVD Special Features:

Disc One:

• Feature Commentary with Director Guillermo del Toro
• Feature Commentary with Cast Members Jeffrey Tambor, Selma Blair and Luke Goss
• Set Visits: Seven mini documentaries provide viewers with unlimited access to the Hellboy II: The Golden Army set.
• Troll Market Tour with Guillermo del Toro: Using sketches and backstage video, del Toro walks the audience through the creation of one of the film’s most distinctive sets, the legendary Troll Market.
• Animated Zinco Epilogue Comic
• Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary by Director Guillermo del Toro

Special Features Disc:

• Prologue: A special introduction to the DVD from director Guillermo del Toro.
• Pre-Production Vault:
  - Director’s Notebook: Exclusive interviews, image scans and text from Guillermo del Toro’s personal notebook.
  - Concept Art Gallery: Original designs and concepts for Hellboy II: The Golden Army’s costumes and sets.
• Hellboy: In Service Of The Demon: Over two hours of footage that takes fans into the creation of this film.
• Production Workshop: Professor Broom’s Puppet Theatre: A special look inside the opening sequence of the film including storyboards and animatics.
• Image Gallery Featuring Teaser Banners, One-Sheets and Poster Explorations
• DVD Rom: Hellboy II: The Golden Army Script

This is a fantastic DVD. One of the things I look for in a DVD purchase is the bells and whistles, and Hellboy 2 has a lot of them. There are many details that are paid attention to. One small thing is the deleted scenes menu, which portrayed each deleted scene as a confectionary from a candy dispensing machine. Another great detail is a sneak peek into Del Toro’s notebook, full of illustrations and extra footage about what he was thinking in the process of making the film.

The crown jewel is the making of featurette, a two hour epic that goes into every part of the production process. The section on the troll Wink was awesome and I was truly impressed with not only the bulk of the 130 lb. costume, but the detail that the “wow” mask could express. I loved that Del Toro doesn’t think CG body doubles is there yet, and tried hard to not use them. I completely agree and remember scenes from the first Spider-Man film where I could totally pick out the CG and what was a real actor. I love the old-school creature effects made with puppets and animatronics that were used throughout this film and Pan’s Labyrinth.

I truly appreciated just how much material was in the first disc of this DVD set and will be available on the single disc purchases as well. Most DVD’s nowadays only have some deleted scenes and maybe a commentary track. The single disc has two commentary tracks, deleted scenes with commentary, set visits with Del Toro, and a cool animated comic book that reveals the fate of some of classic Hellboy villains from the first film, and is maybe a setting up for the third tale.

The third disc, like The Incredible Hulk contains a digital copy for Mac and PC users. Like before, I thought it was neat, but not necessary. It wouldn’t tip me over in the scale from single disc to multiple disc purchase. The annoying thing with these is that you will need to input the secret code every time you want to put it on a computer. It may be wise to just write the code on the disc itself with a sharpie. I know I always loose bits of paper like that.

Conclusion:

If you are a fan of Hellboy 2, then I think you will love this DVD. There are so many things to discover that you can spend a whole day with the galleries, making of features, commentary, and tidbits throughout the DVD. Two of the stars not in the movie but come through in this DVD are Del Toro and Mignola themselves. You see these two together through many of the featurettes, from the creature creation process, to art design, and shooting itself. Mignola truly lucked out in aligning with Del Toro in the making of this film and I hope that the third film has this team-up as well.

Even though Hellboy 2 wasn't the best movie this summer, this is by far one of the best DVD's to come out of that crop of movies. The attention to detail really shows in the menus and hidden material throughout this DVD 3 Disc set.