The film was made carelessly, cheaply. I know it's a TV project, not a theater movie. But not a series of a hundred episodes, after all! And some spots of computer graphics against the background of deliberately primitive drawing look alien - so it seems, for example, at the very beginning of the film, that a three-dimensional helicopter will punch the "butt" with the mansion drawn and fly further.
The atmosphere of the comic, here, alas, does not feel - the source is much more gothic, and in the cartoon we see a bright color scheme quite typical for superhero adventures. Toward the end, the gloomy atmosphere typical of Hellboy was remembered and a psychedelic insert with dark music was made. Beautiful, but not quite the place.
The main claim to drawing is not even primitive – my childhood was at a time when computer animation was just in its infancy and didn’t look too impressive, so I don’t scare with 2D faces. But the characters are simply drawn unsuccessfully - what are the thin legs of Hellboy (but the animators transferred the face and facial expressions of the comic character to the screens well) and the egg-headed Lisa. Funny thing is, the secondary characters are more like people. And the least like himself Abe Sapien - not only that he is unsuccessfully, in my opinion, drawn (although horizontally moving eyelids are a find), so he also turned into some ninja, right in the introduction famously ripping off the monster's head, and then heroizing in the same spirit. Despite the fact that in comics and movies he was mainly an analyst, and fought poorly.
The plot is simple. It would just be enough for one series of animated series, but for a full-length tape this is not enough. Added "for avant-garde" confused flashbacks do not save the situation.
Another problem is the names of the characters. When I heard that the villain’s name was Elizabeth Ondryushko, I even had to pause to laugh. Why equip a completely historical Countess Bathory with a fictional surname, and even very comical for the Slavic ear sounding? The goddess Hecate is also hiding under a pseudonym. Are the names of these characters registered trademarks?
However, the cartoon is not bad in its own way. Reminiscent of old animated series about Ghostbusters - an ancient mansion, an ancient mystery, ghosts, a modern squad of researchers and fighters with the undead. Surprisingly, the censorship is not censored, blood is present (which is vital for vampire horror), and secondary characters are quite mortal. There is also a suspense, but the balance is still shifted towards action. Well, the latter, in principle, not bad - although in the comics there were issues without any muzzle at all.
Bottom line: a good teenage animated action movie about Hellboy. Not as atmospheric as a comic, not as spectacular as a movie - but you can see from nothing to do. Lovers of superhero cartoons and “Ghostbusters”. But in general, it pulls only on the series for the series, and as a separate work - weak.
6 out of 10
Original