Search Movie Review Archives

The fan boy’s ultimate edition, “Hellboy-Director’s Edition” restores a number of cut sequences (roughly about 15 minutes of additional footage) that was dropped to bring the movie in at a 2 hour running time. Some of this additional footage includes more explicit violence and fighting while some provide additional background on the characters (particularly on Rasputin’s return and how he changed after coming back). While it might be overkill for most folks folks who just enjoyed the movie, this three disc set does provided almost everything a fan would want about the making of the movie. ***

Hellboy (Ron Perlman) came over from the other-side when Rasputin (Karel Roden) tried to open the gate to an otherworld of evil giants. Rasputin at the behest of Hitler uses his abilities to open the portal in hopes that he will earn ultimate power by doing so while Hitler just wants to use Rasputin’s occult power to win the war. Rescued by Professor Broom (John Hurt) and raised as his son, Hellboy’s devilish looks and mysterious purpose in Rasputin’s plans come back to haunt them when Rasputin returns from the other side changed by his experience. With the help of FBI Agent John Myers (Rupert Evans), the gifted fire starter Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and the aquatic psychic Abe Sapien (Doug Jones with the voice of David Hyde Pierce), this quartet of heroes attempts to stop Rasputin before he brings about the end of the world. ---

This edition has all the extras the previous edition did and then some. The first disc is, essentially, exactly the same in terms of features as the first two disc edition. We get a longer version of the film (132 minutes ) restoring many minor plot points that nevertheless had additional detail to the film’s story. The Branching DVD comics drawn by creator Mike Mignola has all new expanded text not in the previous edition. There’s also a composer commentary with isolated music score. There’s also a new storyboard track with new images not available on the previous edition. Essentially, you could watch the storyboard of the movie vs. the movie and get a sense of the film. ***

Disc two begins with the same laid back introduction by actress Selma Blair. “Hellboy: The Seeds of Creation” the two and a half hour documentary on the making of the movie is included here. There’s also deleted scenes with optional commentary which also was on the previous edition. The character bios written by del Toro is augmented by animatics, multi-angle storyboard comparisons, trailers and TV spots, brief actor filmographies, poster explorations, and the weblink to merchandise. ***

Disc three kicks off with an introduction by actor Ron Perlman. We view the movie in the corner of the screen and view them making their comments. While it’s fun for the first few minutes it’s probably the least visually interesting of anything on here. We see the production workshops, make up tests (for Hellboy and it involves lighting the final design), we get the Director’s Notebook yet again (why? They probably forgot it was on the first disc), a featurette “A Quick Guide to Understanding Comics with Scott McCloud”, photo galleries, Mike Mignola’s pre-production art work, conceptual art galleries and comic book artist pin-ups. Oh, and there’s an paperback “excerpt” of Rasputin’s diary included in the set as well. All the discs are in the slim cases ---