How LoveHoward Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom
Director: Sean Patrick O’Reilly
Cast: Ron Perlman, Christopher Plummer, Jane Curtin
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons

After decades of being ignored by the world at large and having the most devoted (but small) cult of fans, H.P. Lovecraft and his most famous creation, Cthulhu, seem to be all the rage these days. TV shows, movies, video games, cartoons, magazines, lots and lots of books and anthologies, t-shirts, toys, tons of board, card, and role-playing games, internet memes, and even comic books about Lovecraft and his brand of weird fiction are now plentiful. It has even become a joke that for anything to sell you now just have add the word Cthulhu. That does seem to be the case, as there are now some in the genre that for years have turned their noses up to Lovecraft and his fans, but now, for the case of quick sales (and not for the love of the material), have become “experts” in that niche field. But that’s a soapbox to stand on another time — the point of all that is you now can’t toss a tentacle without hitting something Lovecraft related, and not all of them are worth your time. So, what is the case of this, the first feature length animated film based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, which first began as a trilogy of comic books? Well grab your elder sign and your favorite copy of the Necronomicon and let’s find out.

The story revolves around young Howard Lovecraft, who is as pale-skinned, dark-eyed, sullen and misunderstood as any character in a Tim Burton movie. After visiting his father in an insane asylum (which is a bit of fact about Lovecraft’s life that made it into this cartoon), he reads his dad’s journal and is whisked away to snowy world called R’lyeh (okay, if you are a devout member of the Lovecraft cult and that one sentence alone is already getting your blood up, this might not be the movie for you, as it is only the start of the liberties taken with the source material). Soon Howard finds a big, green, dragon-winged, tentacle-faced horror he calls…Spot. Then the two play in the snow for a while, make a really way-past-its-expiration-date reference to the Matrix, and then go on a journey to meet the queen in a castle more at home in Game of Thrones than the living nightmare that is the corpse city of R’lyeh, but whatever. From there, Howard and Spot embark on an epic quest to save R’lyeh from Cthulhu (uhm, what?) by getting the Necronomicon. Here’s hoping Howard remembers the magic words, klaatu barada nikto, unlike that other guy.

Now to the nitty gritty. The CGI animation here isn’t horrible, but neither is it anything to brag about; it is serviceable at best. The child voice actors are almost universally bad, and that unfortunately goes for the lead playing Howard as well. There is some celebrity stunt casting, such as Jane Curtin as the queen, Christopher Plummer as narrator and head doctor (Dr. West, get it?) at the Akrham Asylum, Doug “Pinhead” Bradley as a mysterious masked messenger (three guesses as to who he is, Lovecraft fans), and Ron Perlman as the shoggoth. It’s almost worth the price of admission to hear Hellboy go Tekeli-li a few times. And let’s not forget all the nods and name drops to Lovecraft. Fans should have fun playing spot-the-reference, if nothing else.

On to the extras and goodies on this new Blu-ray/DVD combo pack from Scream Factory. There is an audio commentary with writer/director Sean Patrick O’Reilly that was both entertaining and informative. There is a very short behind-the-scenes featurette that runs three and a half minutes. There is also a trailer. And, that’s it. So it’s not bare bones, but there could have been a lot more done for this disc and it is a bit disappointing that it wasn’t.

Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom is not a great movie, but it is fun and full of nods and winks to Lovecraft’s literacy legacy that fans should get some laughs from, as long as they’re not too uptight about such things. If you are a Lovecraft lover and a parent who wants to introduce your own gibbering spawn to the Cthulhu Mythos in as cute and non-frightening way as possible, this will do that for you. So if you are looking to add some Cute-thulhu into your life, consider picking this up when it comes out September 27th.

About Brian M. Sammons

Brian M. Sammons has penned stories that have appeared in the anthologies: Arkham Tales, Horrors Beyond, Monstrous, Dead but Dreaming 2, Horror for the Holidays, Deepest, Darkest Eden and others. He has edited the books; Cthulhu Unbound 3, Undead & Unbound, Eldritch Chrome, Edge of Sundown, Steampunk Cthulhu, Dark Rites of Cthulhu, Atomic Age Cthulhu, World War Cthulhu and Flesh Like Smoke. He is also the managing editor of Dark Regions Press’ Weird Fiction line. For more about this guy that neighbors describe as “such a nice, quiet man” you can check out his infrequently updated webpage here: http://brian_sammons.webs.com/ and follow him on Twitter @BrianMSammons.

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