A Love Letter to Mignola

Rating: Null/10 (27 March 2004)

Ron Perlman said at the sneak preview I saw last night that Del Toro's movie is a "love letter" to Hellboy and Mike Mignola. I completely agree and I've even come to think now that Mike must have always had Perlman in mind when he
was creating the character of Hellboy. Perlman realizes Del Toro's vision
fantastically, truely embodying Hellboy as Mignola designed the character AND giving him some of his own personality. That's one of the best things about this film - it stays incredibly true to the comic book, but also allows the actors (and plot/story) to breathe a bit: David Hyde Pierce as the voice of Abe Sapien seems a bit odd at first, making the character a bit effeminate, but it does work as Pierce (and Doug Jones in the costume) is able to flesh out and humanize such an odd being in the relatively short time he is onscreen.
This is accomplished through what is one of the keys to this film's great success: humor. Not comedy per se, but the humor the characters have in their lives.
This is right from Mignola's comic, as Hellboy is confronted with all manner of mind-twisting monsters, that would threaten anyone's sanity, and evil beings like Rasputin spouting fantastic prose on the Apocalypse...and all Hellboy says is "Aw, crap." Mignola's genius is creating fabulous heroic characters who are
incredibly down to earth and all they really want after a day beating back
Cthullu, is a cold brewski. Del Toro gets all of that and more up on the screen.
All I can say is I AM SO HAPPY THIS MOVIE CAME OUT SO GREAT!
YA-FREAKIN-HOO! I can't wait to see the next one.
"When strangeness threatens to engulf the world, a strange man will come
along to save it."