2004’s “Hellboy”, directed by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, was a faithful but forgetful adaptation of the comic book series by Mike Mignola. It was a valiant effort on del Toro’s part to bring to screen one of the most inventive and entertaining characters to grace the comic book medium in recent years, but the film suffered from trying to fit to much backstory and character development into one film. It didn’t help that most moviegoers had never heard of Hellboy, and the movie seemed to be another half hearted effort for Hollywood to cash in on the comic book craze. But after gaining notoriety for “Pan’s Labyrinth” in 2006, del Toro was ready to tackle Hellboy again, this time starting from scratch, and in working along side Mignola, released the far more superior “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” in 2008. While the first Hellboy took inspiration from Indiana Jones, H.P. Lovecraft and pulp magazines, it’s sequel serves as a direct tribute to the legacy of Jim Henson, from the Muppets, to the Storyteller cycle and Labyrinth.
While most films dealing with prosthetic makeup and the supernatural tend to suffer from overwrought, arcane dialog (read: Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series), Hellboy maintains fresh, witty dialog spoken by characters that exist in the same world as ours. So what if Hellboy (portrayed brilliantly by Ron Pearlman) is a demon summoned by Nazis to spur on the Apocalypse, he was still raised in Brooklyn, possesses a street-savvy dry wit, and maintains a passion for Cuban cigars, Mexican beer, and kittens. Abe Sapien (played and voiced by Doug Jones), an amphibious telekinetic, loves classical music and Chinese century eggs, but still doesn’t know how to talk to women. Jeffrey Tambor (best known for his role as George Bluth Sr. on ‘Arrested Development’) gets more screen time in this film, in the role of Tom Manning, Hellboy’s overseer who is constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown from the stress of keeping Hellboy’s existence a secret from the public. A fresh addition to the film’s eclectic cast of characters is Johann Krauss, voiced by Seth Mcfarlane (a great departure from his now-stale frat boy humor in shows like ‘Family Guy’), Krauss is a German scientist whose ectoplasmic being must be contained in a clunky suit. His by-the-book boy scout sensibilities clash, hilariously, with Hellboy’s bigoted views of the Germans.
The main plot of the film is almost superfluous, but enables del Toro to further showcase his unique visions. In the tradition of Magical Realism, he places these scenes in the middle of our own world, opening up doors to wondrous market places under the Brooklyn Bridge and hidden kingdoms under the foothills of Ireland, filled with even more colorful characters made up of Trolls, Elves, and creatures that del Toro and Mignola themselves probably don’t have names for (Though keep an eye out for a thinly disguised Elder Thing of Lovecraft lore in the marketplace scene).
But once again, the real draw of the film is the actors, who, despite being hidden behind hours of prosthetics and makeup, are able to fill their characters with the type of warmth and energy that I haven’t seen since Jim Henson and Co. were giving us characters like Kermit, Gonzo and Yoda. Del Toro paces the film beautifully, giving the actors room to breath and interact with one another, and their playful banter is what gives the movie such life. My personal favorite scene involves Hellboy and Abe getting drunk in a library and singing along to Barry Manelow, it doesn’t move the plot forward in any way, but instead takes a moment to pause the movie and allow us to give credit to Guillermo del Toro as a man rarely seen in Hollywood today – a director whose love of making movies is only surpassed by his love of watching them.
