It tells of the events before the film, in which monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing travels to London to investigate a series of horrific, and decidedly supernatural murders, being committed by the mad scientist Dr. Jekyll, in the form of his evil alter-ego, Mr. Hyde.
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Reviews
Such a frustrating disappointment
How sad is this?
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
"The London Assignment" is an animated short film that runs for roughly half an hour and came out almost the exact same time as the movie about the title character Van Helsing. Hugh Jackman also does the voice acting in this one here and there are a couple more familiar names such as Robbie Coltrane from the Harry Potter movies or Tara Strong who has been extremely prolific in voice acting for a long time now. Unfortunately, I was not impressed really by any of the aspects in this film. That includes the story, the characters and the animation. The only thing that director Sharon Bridgeman sort-of succeeded with was making this a fairly atmospheric watch and it was an interesting combination of the supernatural aspects and very traditional aspects history-wise such as Queen Victoria. But that's pretty much it. I would recommend this only to the most hardcore fans of Van Helsing. Everybody else does not need to see it.
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.
Van Helsing The London Assignment (2004)Universal DVD D: Sharon Bridgeman 3 / 4An 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.
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"...