Whether or not you liked Universal’s big-budget effects extravaganza Van Helsing, you’ll want to check out Universal Home Video’s animated prequel, which lands on video shelves today. Van Helsing: The London Assignment may not be on par with Warner Home Video’s excellent animated treatment of the Matrix saga, The Animatrix, but it is a fun little introduction to Stephen Sommers’ new vision of Bram Stoker’s famous vampire slayer.
Style-wise, London Assignment falls somewhere between anime and a Saturday morning action cartoon. The artists don’t take the same sort of liberties with anatomy that make anime characters so distinctive, but the action sequences are well staged and the violent opening sequence lets viewers know the video is not for young children.
Directed by Sharon Bridgeman and exec produced by Sommers and Van Helsing producer Bob Ducsay, The London Assignment has Van Helsing (voiced by Hugh Jackman) sent to London by the Knights of the Holy Order to capture a demonic creature that has been murdering young women in the dark of night. Van Helsing works to unravel the mystery of the sinister being known as Mr. Hyde, voiced by Robbie Coltrane, who also voices the CG Hyde character in the Van Helsing theatrical feature.
The pursuit rages through 19th century London, hitting such landmarks as the city’s newly built underground railway system. There, 2D and 3D are masterfully blended as Van Helsing battles Hyde atop a moving CG train. Other locations include Buckingham Palace and the under-construction Tower Bridge.
The animation, produced by Universal’s animation division and Korea’s Sunwoo, at times shows signs of being done on the cheap, but there are enough beautiful, atmospheric shots and well-executed "camera" moves combined with great art direction to keep the flick visually interesting. It also moves along at a good clip so that none of the 33-minute running time is wasted on heavy exposition or mundane dialogue.
One gripe is that the bonus features do more to promote the Van Helsing feature than explore the animation process. There is a nice animatic-to-finished sequence comparison, but the rest of the space is devoted to interviews with Jackman and behind-the-scenes looks at the making of the live-action movie and the Vivendi Universal video game.
Van Helsing: The London Assignment is not rated and lists for $14.98. Look for our interview with the writers of the animated prequel in the July issue of Animation Magazine. Also see our June cover story on the visual effects in Van Helsing.
