The animated series in 2006

[WallCrawl]

Just a guess:

Hellboy: The Animated Series

Or, maybe, just "Hellboy".

It won't really be a show, per se. It's two direct to DVD animated movies that will also appear on Cartoon Network. They'll probably be given separate tag names, similar as to how the Hellboy volumes have different names to differentiate them.

 

[Unleashed]

Just a guess:

Hellboy: The Animated Series

Or, maybe, just "Hellboy".

AWW HOW CUTE, HE'S TRYING TO BE FUNNY.

THEY WONT AIR A SHOW OR MOVIE ON CARTOON NETWORK WITH THE WORD HELL IN IT.

 

[Elijya]

....

you've clearly never heard of Adult Swim

 

[WallCrawl]

....

you've clearly never heard of Adult Swim

He definitely hasn't watched Boondocks either. Cartoon Network is not Malaysia.

 

[Riven]

I'm dissapointed they're going with this style... It looks too much like Matsuda's designs for "The Batman" and I don't like those either... How hard could it have been really, to do it in a style close to Mignola's? I mean, it'd be hard to keep that level of brilliance, but Mignola draws pretty cartoonish, it could have worked.

Too bad. I'm not sour on the whole idea of an animated show though, I'm really looking forward to it. Just wish the style was different.


http://hellboyanimated.typepad.com/hellboy_animated/

 

[WallCrawl]

I'm dissapointed they're going with this style... It looks too much like Matsuda's designs for "The Batman" and I don't like those either... How hard could it have been really, to do it in a style close to Mignola's? I mean, it'd be hard to keep that level of brilliance, but Mignola draws pretty cartoonish, it could have worked.

Too bad. I'm not sour on the whole idea of an animated show though, I'm really looking forward to it. Just wish the style was different.


http://hellboyanimated.typepad.com/hellboy_animated/

I would have prefered it to be in a more traditional Mignola style as well, but what can you do. The designs are still cool in and of themselves, and if you've read the blogs its clear how dedicated they are to the source material.

So if the character style isn't Mike's and the background style doesn't feature lines and inky blacks, where does the Mignola come in? Most importantly, it's the stories. Mike cowrote the stories so you'll get the real goods. Read all the Hellboy TPBs and you'll see several facets to his adventures.

There's monster bashing action, Lovecraft/Ashton Smith type ancient races (Ogdru Jahad), Celtic folklore (the Faerie guys), Eastern European folklore (Baba Yaga, vampires), spirit lore (talking skulls and ghosts) and weird science (floating heads in jars and cyber apes). Guillermo del Toro hit the first two in the first movie. Last year at Comicon, Mike hinted that HB2 would be in the Celtic vein. Our movies deal in the folklore area with smatterings of spirit stuff. It'll be awhile before I can say more but it's pretty darn cool.

But there's more to putting Mignola on screen than subject matter. Normally a director imposes his own style on the material. What I want to do is translate Mike's style into film. That means his insert panels, his staging, compostitions, whatever we can pull out of the comics. Hellboy is a quirky comic; it's the quirkiness that makes it unique. So by going back to the source we hope to capture the same magic.

Now if we had the schedule of a Disney feature, I know that we could control every frame. But unless you'd like to contribute twenty five million or so to the cause, most of this we have to pick up on the fly. To that end I've made pages like the attached to guide the storyboard artists. The first movie is being directed by me and Phil Weinstein. Phil is doing a great job at fitting the Mignola compositions into the TV frame.

Will all this make for a great movie? Geez, I hope so!
--Tad

 

[WallCrawl]

edit: double post.

 

[Riven]

Cool !

 

[Spider Ham]

AWW HOW CUTE, HE'S TRYING TO BE FUNNY.

THEY WONT AIR A SHOW OR MOVIE ON CARTOON NETWORK WITH THE WORD HELL IN IT.

You are clueless.


Goodnight.

 

[WallCrawl]

Cool !

I'm very pleased to see that a lot of work is going into this. Despite the character designs being different, I just hope the end result still feels like Hellboy. I hope the personalities of the characters and the tone of the animated films stay relatively the same. By the look of those notes, it certainly looks like they're trying.

 

[Hellmistress]

I'm very pleased to see that a lot of work is going into this. Despite the character designs being different, I just hope the end result still feels like Hellboy. I hope the personalities of the characters and the tone of the animated films stay relatively the same. By the look of those notes, it certainly looks like they're trying.

Abe, for one, is far more like Comic Abe than Movie Abe. He isn't telepathic for a start, and his design looks much like some of the early designs for Movie Abe, back in the beginning. I have high hopes for this, and Tad (Stones, supervising director/producer) is a real HB geek who loves the whole premise.

Ron and Doug have both recorded their roles for both films, so it's rolling along nicely. I can't wait.

HM

 

[WallCrawl]

What does everyone think of Liz's redesign?

This appears to be the most radical of the redesigns so far, as the animated Liz looks quite different from both the original comic and movie versions. She also appears to be younger, as well; kind of has a Kim Possible thing going on. I wouldn't be surprised if her character became more physical as well.

That's the vibe I'm getting from the re-design. I could do without the nose stud, it screams spunk, for spunk's sake. It's extremely self-reflexive.

 

[TheVileOne]

That looks like middle school Liz. I'm not really digging that design. But I do like Abe's for the most part.

 

[Hellmistress]

That looks like middle school Liz. I'm not really digging that design. But I do like Abe's for the most part.

I would much rather have seen Kate Corrigan turn up in the animated movies - I always preferred her to Liz.

HM

 

[TheVileOne]

I prefer Kate as well, but Guillermo Del Toro doesn't like the character. Now the movie would've been truly interesting instead of white bread, plain jane John Myers, you bring in Kate Korrigan and you have a love triangle situation with Kate, Hellboy, and Liz .

For one thing, there's never been Liz/Hellboy in the comics, it always hinted at Kate/Hellboy. For Liz...I see more Liz/Abe.

 

[WallCrawl]

That looks like middle school Liz. I'm not really digging that design. But I do like Abe's for the most part.

Same here, it's my least favorite so far.

As for Kate, I've been reading the comments on the blog site and it just doesn't look like Kate's going to make an appearance. Same goes for Roger or Lobster Johnson. Although, Tad has mentioned that if these movies do well and it eventually turns into a series, they have 5 Lobster Johnson episodes already thought up.

I wonder how that Amazing Screw-On Head movie is coming along.

 

[Hellmistress]

I prefer Kate as well, but Guillermo Del Toro doesn't like the character.

Although he's coming around to thinking she's okay. Liz I always found to be so bloody depressing. Kate's feisty, tough, intelligent, yet has a very gentle side to her. I think she's great, I have to say.

But yeah ... I always felt it was an Abe/Liz thing ...

HM

 

[TheVileOne]

Although he's coming around to thinking she's okay. Liz I always found to be so bloody depressing. Kate's feisty, tough, intelligent, yet has a very gentle side to her. I think she's great, I have to say.

But yeah ... I always felt it was an Abe/Liz thing ...

HM

He should've came around to her in the 90's when he decided to make the movie .

 

[J.R.]

I'm pretty happy with the designs. I'm just happy to see some new Hellboy stuff.

 

[TheVileOne]

Thank GOD Hyde Pierce isn't voicing Abe. He totally ruined the character.

 

[WallCrawl]

Thank GOD Hyde Pierce isn't voicing Abe. He totally ruined the character.

To be fair, it's not all his doing. He was just playing the part that was offered to him, changes to the character and all.

Hopefully the Abe of the series will be closer to the original than the movie version. From the look and feel of the original animation character designs, it looks like they're letting go of the bookworm aspect the film created.

 

[Spider Ham]

Thank GOD Hyde Pierce isn't voicing Abe. He totally ruined the character.

Right. Ruined him by playing him perfectly. Of course.

 

[TheVileOne]

Right. Ruined him by playing him perfectly. Of course.

If perfectly is turning him into Niles Crane which as far away from Abe Sapien as possible, you're right.

 

[Hellmistress]

The animated movies are much more inclined towards the comics, and this is definately Comic Abe with a few tweaks - he isn't telepathic, for example, and the designs are more Mignola-esque. I think Cheeks Galloway has hit it just right, and Doug's voice will work very well with the character. I think his voice would've worked brilliantly in the movie too, but that's not what we're talking about, is it?

HM

 

[Spider Ham]

If perfectly is turning him into Niles Crane which as far away from Abe Sapien as possible, you're right.

He nailed the character as he was written.

And he was written pretty much just like the comic.