Tad Stones, producer of two Hellboy Animated features slated to run on Cartoon Network later this year and next, told Superhero Hype! on Friday not to expect a full-blown B.P.R.D. reunion in the upcoming movies. These stories, while containing popular characters from the Mike Mignola universe, are very much about the big red demon hunter.
“We’re not building the Justice League,” said Stones. “We’re not building the team. It is still about Hellboy.”
Stones said that Kate Corrigan and Sidney Leech (the human metal detector) are in the second movie. Dr Manning is there as well. But there is no Johann, Lobster Johnson or Roger.
“We talked about Roger, but his story is so big we elected not to have him,” said Stones. “He’s a strange character and his story really merits its own movie, so who knows.”
The storyline for the first feature, “Storm of Storms,” is an Alice in Wonderland tale, according to Stones. Hellboy falls down a well and ends up somewhere else.
“What he doesn’t know is that there is a bad guy moving chess pieces – in the form of Japanese-styled monsters – as obstacles to block his way,” he said. “The most he is told is the hang onto the sword and head east. There is a conundrum where… wait, I can’t really tell you that!”
Ron Perlman, who played Hellboy in the live-action feature, provides the voice for the animated Hellboy. Also returning from the live-action movie is Selma Blair as Liz, John Hurt as Broom and Doug Jones – the actor that played Abe Sapien – providing the voice for Abe. Stones said it was not a coincidence that the same actors are back.
“Ron is Hellboy,” said Stones. “The reason we have a lot of the same cast as the movie is because we asked them and they said ‘yes!'”
The Hellboy Animated features sport a very different look from that of Mike Mignola’s artwork, and that is by design. Not only did the likeness need to be different for rights issues, but also Stones said Mignola is a big fan of seeing other artists draw his creations.
“Mike likes to see different interpretations of his work,” said Stones. “His work is very unique on the page and takes a long time to do. He looks at each page like a separate work of art.”
Cartoon Network secured the rights for Hellboy Animated for seven years and Stones is hopeful that success with the first two offerings will spawn additional animated Hellboy films for years to come.
Source: Blake Wright
