Rating: 
Summary: Good little animated prequal. Horrible DVD.
Review: This is a 4 star movie and a 2 star DVD. Van Helsing The London Assignment is a half hour animated prequal to the Van Helsing live action movie. The movie staring Hugh Jackman was a fun action romp that so exciting and entairtaining. So I quickly found intrest in this. Hugh Jackman does the voice of the animated Van Helsing which adds credibility. It deals with his tracking of Mr. Hyde before the events of the movie. It has a lot of action and doesn't shy away from being quite bloody. Probably more so then the PG-13 movie. The animation is quite good especially combined with computers. Some elements don't quite make sense like wear all those zombies came from but it is a fun little movie that will satisfy fans of the movie. The DVD is pretty bad however. Worst thing it is widescreen but not anamorphic encoded. While many websites advertise it as anamorphic watch the movie and it is clearly not. What is otherwise a great video transfer with a clean print and high bit rate (due to the short length) is ruined by the lack of anamorphic encoding. They might as well did this is 1.33 fullscreen if there not going to take advantage of anamorphic encoding. Dumb move by Universal. Almost as dumb is the lack of chapter stops. Making continueing the movie from any spot in the middle a pain. Also the extras are also minimal. While there a a lot of extras most are for the live action movie and video game. Extras on The London Assignment are very minimal. Less then two minutes in length. Warner gave The Animatrix a similar project great DVD treatment Universals The London Assignment is cheapened out and a huge dissipointment DVD for a pretty good cartoon.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't watch it. Just watch the making of.
Review: This reminded me of an afterschool special. You'll apologize to your friends I know I did. But watch the making of featurette.
Rating: 
Summary: Setting the Stage.
Review: VAN HELSING: THE LONDON ASSIGNMENT fills in the rest of the story that makes up the introductory sequence to the movie VAN HELSING. In this animated story, Van Helsing is sent to London to find out who is responsible for several recent killings of young women of the night. Van Helsing soon finds out that the killer is a brutish monster who calls himself Hyde who has some sort of connection to Queen Victoria's personal physician, the mysterious Dr. Jeckyl. The Doctor is up to something no good and Van Helsing is going to find out exactly what.VAN HELSING: THE LONDON ASSIGNMENT is not a cartoon meant for the really young. It shows a lot of violence and includes some sexual induendo. Were it a live action piece, it would garner a PG-13 movie rating. When viewing the piece as a whole, it seems somewhat choppy and spliced together as though it were a television show. Which in fact is what this animated feature is intended to be. THE LONDON ASSINGNMENT isn't just a prequel to the successful movie, it's also the pilot for a planned animated series. The DVD includes several extra features: a "Behind the Scenes" look at the movie, movie storyboards for the animated story, a making of look at the animated story, and a making of look at the Van Helsing video game. The extra features might not seem like much, but for a 33 minute cartoon, it's quite a lot of stuff. Overall, a nice gift for anyone who likes VAN HELSING.
Rating: 
Summary: Yet Another Monster Remix
Review: Well, there's nothing unusual about turning a reasonably successful film into the centerpiece of a marketing campaign. So, naturally, there will be a game, action figures, tee shirts, and this time there is even an animated half hour short.
The story this time is set as a prequel, although there really isn't anything that requires that you even know about the film. Prophecying the first 10 minutes of the film, this tidbit has the 'other' monster, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, walk out of Robert Louis Stevenson's pages and start hunting through London's streets (as a thinly disguised Jack the Ripper) stealing souls in order to restore Queen Victoria to her youth and make off with her. Van Helsing, of course, to the rescue.
The action is furious, with train chases (trains seem to play an important part in this), balloon rides, trips through the sewers and the dark streets of London. Blood flies, damsels are distresses (and slain), rooftops are leaps, and, in general, a good time was had by all. The dialog seems to be mostly quips, wisecracks, and growls, but action films never really are about verbal communications.
Animation is several notches above Snow White, but in some strange way the approach and animation style remind me of the Disney era more than they do of the Yu-Gi-Oh and Scooby era. For those of us spoiled by high end anime The London Assignment seems a bit dated artistically. So it's a good story with unexceptional artwork. And the wrong amount of violent - too graphic for the youngest audiences, and to lame for more mature viewers.
There is a very good 'making of the movie' film included, but otherwise the extras are lackluster. My overall feeling is that this is an entertaining 30 minutes to rent, but not really worth the cost of keeping it around.
Rating:
Summary: Van Helsing (animated)
Review: While some of the scenes were breath-taking, the animation beautiful, the action well-done, and the actors from the movie voiced their characters in this short, the plot and story were completely lacking. It's like they were aiming for weird instead of cool and good. The full length theater movie is much, much better. I am very glad I just rented London Assignment instead of wasting $10 by buying it.
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