Van Helsing : Mission à Londres

This is a good piece of anime. It's short and it contains a lot of nonstop action, awesome animation, and reasonably good dialog. Hugh Jackman did a wonderful job in lending his voice to the character Van Helsing. It explains the beginning in the Van Helsing movie.

I love it. It's better than sitting down and watching a long movie. Since this movie lasts only 33 minutes, it's definitely something to do when you have nothing to do. The plot isn't that complicated, so it doesn't require much concentration to unscramble the story.

Overall, this is an excellent prequel to the original Van Helsing movie.

I'll give this movie an 8/10 and a pat on the back.

There's this so called one word review: awesome!

This is a good model by how short animes should be made. Lots of action, very nice scenes featuring some more interactive combat action. Hugh Jackman made a good choice by lending his voice to the main character, Van Helsing and as I'm seeing this the day after I saw the full movie piece at the cinema, it just feels incredibly well done, Carl, Gabriel, all it's characters are in shape, just as I would imagine them myself animated.

Just see this, I did love it, but perhaps it might be because I saw the full piece yesterday, I don't know. Anyhow, this is a remarkable piece in the short anime category section, well worth it's 30 minutes!

It is an excellent short movie. Van Helsing look much better than the live action movie. And In the animated short movies Van Helsing already have all those weapon what he used latter in the live action movie. I just like it. But I think instead of a short animated movie, they should made a full length animated movie. They could have tell the doctor story about how he started his laboratory and research. How he met the queen of England. They could have told the story about how Van Helsing become a monster hunter. There is just so many story to tell. If they could just make a animated series of Van Helsing, it would be much much better. I have seen many short movies but Van Helsing: The London Assignment was one of the best. Universal Picture should consider to make an full length animated movie based on Van Helsing. People would love it.

It occurs to me that Universal missed a trick with "Van Helsing: The London Assignment" - this animated featurette may as well have been released with "Van Helsing" as a supporting feature. On the other hand, that might not have been the best idea, since this is considerably easier to get through than the overblown and underinteresting movie... if only because there's less of it.

Essentially setting up the Parisian showdown between Van Helsing and Mr. Hyde that kicks off the live-action extravaganza, the short subject indulges in the same advantage-taking of famed fictional characters as the movie - like the appalling Anthony Perkins vehicle "Edge Of Sanity," writers Judith Reeves-Stevens and Garfield Reeves-Stevens take the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and add a bit of Jack the Ripper to the mix - and the same over-the-top action, only with plenty of Asian-flavoured animation in its scenes of violence and murder.

Having Hugh Jackman, David Wenham and Robbie Coltrane repeating their roles from the movie (our hero, his assistant Carl and Mr. Hyde respectively) helps, and it's dramatically done, but the movie's biggest plus is that it's more straightforward and less determined to throw everything into the mix than the movie. It passes the time, but with the necessarily abrupt ending and the feeling that this is little more than a(nother) tie-in, it's hard not to be relieved that there won't be a sequel or a followup TV series. Then again, there's a sequel to "Baby Geniuses"...

Van Helsing – The London Assignment (2004)

Universal – DVD – D: Sharon Bridgeman – 3 / 4

An evil murderer is stalking the streets of London killing women and stealing their very life essence. Mr. Hyde is doing the handiwork for his doctor alter ego Jekyll who is using the lifeforce to make his beloved Queen Victoria young again. The Vatican sends out its' secret weapon Gabriel Van Helsing to handle the beast and save the man. I wasn't too fond of the Van Helsing film but I did enjoy this animated prequel more. The animation is decent the singular plot of Mr. Hyde is better than the convoluted and constipated form of the sequel.