听 A demon conjured by Nazis makes for an unlikely superhero in Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy. Ron Perlman dons the devil horns and red face paint while Selma Blair plays his human love interest in this "richly imaginative" yarn of good vs evil - an epic tussle also played out at the box office. It knocked The Passion Of The Christ off the US top spot after nearly two months, only to be cast out by Gibbo's JC flick the following (Easter) weekend. Ah, the irony...
Beneath The Underworld
The centrepiece of this two-disc DVD is the documentary The Seeds Of Creation, which at two-and-a-half hours, is longer than the film. "I was instantly in love with it!" raves Del Toro as he explains the process of adapting Mike Mignola's comicbook series for the big screen. His enthusiasm is transmitted to cast and crew through the gruelling 114-day shoot where even the downtime between takes is entertaining eg Perlman repelling Blair with a guttural burp just before a romantic scene. Only slightly less disgusting is an inside look at visual effects, including the mechanics behind the bog people.
You can access more behind-the-scenes footage during the film along with story subplots in the form of digital mini-comics illustrated by Mignola. Simeon Wilkins' storyboards are also available in a split-screen track and there's even more artwork on Disc Two. A selection of galleries break down key scenes from the initial "doodling" stage through to animated storyboards and board-a-matics (essentially a live action comic book).
Devil May Care
Deleted footage includes a scene explaining the origins of the rock which Rasputin (Karel Rodin) uses as a portal to the underworld. However, as Del Toro explains in his commentary, most of the excised footage has been held back for the Director's Cut DVD, which is due for release in coming months.
Del Toro teams up with Mignola for an affable feature commentary that goes into depth about the mythology of Hellboy, although greater pearls of wisdom lay hidden as an Easter egg in the extra features menu of Disc One. Click on the left-hand side and you'll be privy to "quotes overheard at the monitor", where Del Toro spouts such gems as, "The penis is a very ugly organ, it looks like a depressed mole," and, "Tie back his testicles so we can shoot!"
Ron Perlman and Selma Blair head the cast commentary, a laidback but equally scandalous affair in which Perlman confesses that, when del Toro called to offer him the part of Hellboy, "it was Passover dinner and I was eating pork". Draw your own conclusions.
All that's lacking in this selection of extras is a specific focus on production design along with the use of CGI and other special effects - certainly warranted for a film as visually arresting as this. Even so, Hellboy remains a monster package on DVD.
EXTRA FEATURES
The Hellboy DVD is out to buy on Monday 10th January 2005.
