Hellboy: The Director's Cut (DVD)

Before you run out and upgrade your 2-disc edition of Hellboy that you bought only three months ago remember the quote I used in my original review of the 2-disc release in which del Toro is discussing the deleted scenes: The extended version of the movie will include this and many other scenes. I feel that for those that are curious and love the movie and want to know more about the characters it's a perfectly permissible scene, but for the people that are not familiar with the project or the comic or are having a first taste of Hellboy it was far too long... He also has other comments saying, "It got in the way of the rhythm of the movie."

That quote can be considered for all the new footage in this release and taking that into consideration should help you in deciding whether or not you even want to entertain the idea of buying this 3-disc director's cut, which includes 13 minutes of added footage.

Since you are still reading I will let you in on what is new, but to get an idea of the rest just read the other review, because to go in-depth all over again would only waste your time and I don't think you would make it to the end of the review.

So, first let me say that disc one and disc two are pretty much the first release of this DVD except for a couple of differences; the feature-length commentary by Guillermo del Toro is brand new, and there is a commentary by composer Marco Beltrami on a track with an isolated score, plus the storyboard comparison track now has way more images than the first release had. The only feature missing from both disc one and disc two that was on the original release is the "From the Den" Hellboy recommends... feature of Gerald McBoing Boing animated shorts, which isn't a big deal considering I didn't even notice it until a RopeofSilicon reader let me in on the difference.

Disc Two is very similar to the original release, making disc three the primary source of new goodies, which if you were saying that disc one doesn't have the cast commentary of the film like the first release, you would be right, but you can find it here in a video feature, in which you watch the cast comment on the film while it runs in a tiny box in the lower left hand corner.

As for the disc three highlights my favorite features started with the "Makeup and Lighting Tests," which goes into all the different techniques they used to figure out how to light Hellboy and if you are any kind of movie buff this is a section you will love.

I also enjoyed the Q&A taken from the 2002 Comic-Con panel in which Guillermo del Toro, Ron Perelman and Mike Mignola discuss Hellboy and take questions from the crowd. It is a much more uncensored look at the creators of this movie and more relaxed atmosphere as they discuss a comic book movie with a comic book crowd.

Speaking of comics, the featurette with Scott McCloud discussing comics and their roots is also interesting, and will be interesting to those that don't read comics, but love the movies based on them.

There are also several other additions such as more photo galleries, Mike Mignola pre-production art, production workshops, conceptual art galleries and comic book artists pin-ups, which show you a look at several other comic book artists renditions of Hellboy.

Along with the three discs you will also get a small collectible that is actually quite cool, an excerpt from the diary of Grigori Rasputin, which was created by Mike Mignola and gives you several pages looking exactly like what you see in the film.

If you couldn't tell already the highlight of this set is the special features as the additional 13 minutes of footage really are nothing new, especially if you watched the deleted scenes on the first release.

Personally I think the quote above gives you an idea if you want to buy this version or not. I you have the tie to sit through hours of special features, you probably already own the first release and if one more disc is incentive enough to buy this one then by all means do so. However, I think if you already own the two-disc edition I wouldn't recommend you spend your money on this release, unless you are a sucker for special features.