Wow

Two weeks ago Cartoon Network annoyed the (ahem) hell out of me by airing the second Hellboy Animated movie, Blood and Iron, without having advertised it sufficiently to let me (or Scott) know that it was going to be on.
I only inadvertently discovered it while flipping through the channels and finding it already well underway.
A quick search of the Media Center guide showed that there were to be no future airings within the next couple of weeks.
Fortunately, thanks to the wonders of Usenet, I didn't have to wait for the DVD release in May, and I just managed to watch a copy I downloaded.
Wow.
I was duly impressed by the first movie, Sword of Storms, thanks in no small part to the involvement of Hellboy creator, the supremely talented Mike Mignola, and the director of 2004's live-action Hellboy movie, Guillermo Del Toro, and to the fact that many of the live-action movie's cast members reprised their roles to provide voice for the characters.
Sword of Storms was a fun, action-packed romp, that brought several classic scenes from the comic to (animated) life.
It was great stuff.
Blood and Iron, however, while retaining the action and the appropriate sense of humor, really ratcheted up the intensity and the horror, delivering a movie that was genuinely creepy and disturbing (but still fun). I'll admit it: I had to turn the lights on while I was watching it.
So yeah. Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron. Check it out when it comes out on DVD.
And people behind Hellboy Animated? Keep the movies coming. They're just what I need to tide me over until we finally get the live-action sequel in 2008.