Year:
2004
Studio:
Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios
Feature: 4/5
Extras: 5/5
Disc 1 Special
Features
1. Director's Cut Commentary with Director Guillermo Del Toro
Del Toro just talks: about the history of Hellboy, the background to
the movie, his childhood, his friendship with Hellboy creator Mike
Mignola, comics books, pulp stories, mythology and Hellboy's
antecedents and lots of other things. He lets the action in the movie
inspire what he talks about. Very interesting though not very
informative of the movie itself, but there are other commentaries that
do that.
2. Isolated Score with Commentary by Composer Marco Beltrami
I find isolated scores kind of boring since for most movies the
background music is rather uninspiring by itself. It's the same for
Hellboy, though there are some real songs used in the movie. Beltrami
doesn't speak much since that would ruin the whole point of an isolated
score. But he does have some interesting things to say about how the
music was made and what to look for in various pieces.
3. DVD Comics
You can activate the feature so that during the movie you can branch
out to various comic pages. These are usually one screen of comic book
art, mostly from the comics or at least Mike Mignola art, with running
text giving more background on the subject. I don't like DVD branch out
features but at least this time you can access all the comics from this
menu.
Ragnarok: The Gate of the Dragon
Abe Sapien
The Samaritan
Pancakes (an animated comic book version of the Mignola story)
Hellboy's Belt: The Talismans
Hellboy Scrapbook
Rasputin: A Short Biography
Kroenen
4. "The Right Hand of Doom" -- Set Visits
Another set of branching features, but it also has an index. These are
behind the scenes shorts, mostly showing the filming of specific scenes
and sequences. Nobody is actually talking to the camera.
Abbey Ruins (2:54) -- rehearshing Kroenen's fight
Broom's Office (2:04) -- Hellboy cradling Broom's body
Machen Library Alley (2:12) -- Hellboy and Myers behind the dumpster
Subway Station (1:58) -- Hellboy with a box of kittens
Subway Tunnels (2:20) -- Agent Clay fighting Kroenen
Kroenen's Lair (3:10) -- Hellboy over the spiky pit
Egg Chamber (2:11) -- Myers and Liz walk into the egg chamber
Catacombs (1:35) -- Hellboy in stocks
5. Storyboard Track
Shows the storyboard along with the film.
6. DVD-ROM Extras
Printable Original Screenplay -- as 125 one-screen RTF files
Script Supervisor's Notebook -- as 135 JPEG files
Excerpts from Del Toro's Director Notebook -- as 3 JPEG files
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Disc 2 Features
1. Introduction by Selma Blair
2. Egg Chamber
Deleted Scenes (3) with Director's Commentary
Breaking the Ice Wall (0:28)
Cab Ride (1:24)
Russian Warehouse (2:33)
The commentary indicates that these were deleted scenes included in the
first DVD release. The last two scenes are mostly in the Director's Cut.
Documentary -- a 2:22 hour-long feature. Unnarrated and somewhat
haphazard, includes interviews and lots of behind the scenes tidbits,
lots of filming scenes.
Pre-Production
From Graphic Novel to Film
Clay Monsters/Comic-Con '02
Creating Conditions and Atmosphere: The Look and Stunts of
Hellboy
Principal Photography
Day 1: John Hurt, Hellboy's Pop
Day 6: Resurrecting the Dead
Day 10: Reconstructing Liz
Day 12: Power Over Grace: Wire Stunt Work
Day 14: Westside Highway: Digital Effects
Day 21: Machen Library: Practical Effects on Display
Day 24: "Ron is Hellboy": Prosthetic Make-Up Effects
Day 35: Constructing The Mecha-Glove
Day 38: Screaming Nazi Skull: Digital Effects
Day 58: Translating Conceptual Art to Film
Day 60: Abraham Sapien: Prosthetic Make-Up Effects
Day 70: Piecing Kroenen Together: Prosthetic Effects
Day 73: The Right Hand of Doom
Day 75: Sammael, The Desolate One: Creature Effects
Day 78: Digital Fish Man: Character Animation Pt 1
Day 82: Clothes Make The Boy: Costume Design
Day 85: Monster Brawl: Subway Platform Stunts
Day 103: Giving The Devil His Due: The Cinematography of Hellboy
Day 109: Ditigal Hellboy: Character Animation Pt 2
Day 113: Sketching Out The Bridge Sequence with Del Toro
Day 114: "Something Big": Digital Effects
Second Unit
Day 8: Digital Demon: Character Animation Pt 3
Post Production
Sound Design, ADR & Scoring
The Premiere
Filmographies & Character Biographies
Guillermo Del Toro (Writer/Director)
Mike Mignola (Creator/Co-Executive Producer)
Guillermo Navarro (Director of Photography)
Ron Perlman (Hellboy)
Selma Blair (Liz Sherman)
John Hurt (Professor Broom)
Doug Jones (Abe Sapien)
Jeffrey Tambor (Dr Tom Manning)
Rupert Evans (Agent John Myers)
Karel Roden (Grigory Rasputin)
Lawrence Gordon (Producer)
Lloyd Levin (Producer)
Mike Richardson (Producer)
Patrick Palmer (Executive Producer)
Marco Beltrami (Composer)
The filmographies are rather short and incomplete lists. The character
biographies on the other hand have both a short "newspaper comic" style
version and a multi-page character writeup by Del Toro.
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