Starz Home Entertainment has released information on what will be included in the June 12 DVD release of the feature-length adventure Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron. The movie aired on Cartoon Network in March and was generally well received by fans of Mike Mignola’s comic-book creation.
With Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron, supervising producer and director Tad Stones (Buzz Lightyear of Star Command) says they set out to make the kind of horror film that legendary British studio Hammer Films would have made if it wasn’t restricted to modest budgets. The atmospheric, gothic tale goes back and forth from the present day to 1939, when a young Professor Broom first faced off against a powerful female vampire named Erzsebet Ondrusko. Decades later, it seems that someone is trying to bring her back and Broom (John Hurt) wants to investigate the worrisome development himself. However, Hellboy (Ron Perleman), Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and other agents from the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense take it upon themselves to tag along and end up getting more than they bargained for as they battle werewolves, ghosts, harpies and Erzsebet herself.
Blood and Iron is the second animated Hellboy movie, the first being Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms. On both films, Stones collaborated on the story with franchise creator Mike Mignola. Mignola also serves as a creative producer on the animated pics, along with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who directed the 2004 live-action Hellboy feature and earned an Oscar nomination for critically acclaimed fantasy film Pans Labyrinth.
DVD bonus features will include the featurettes Reversal of Fortune: Professor Broom’s Story and The Iron Shoes: The Animated Debut, as well as an alternative ‘crappy’ ending, audio commentary from Mignola, Stones and Vic Cook, a Mike Mignola e-comic exclusive titled Pennangalan and an exclusive, 32-page Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron comic book. This DVD will be available on June 12 at the suggested retail price of $19.98.
