Howard Lovecraft & the Frozen Kingdom (2016)

Howard aka HP Lovecraft uses a book he got from his father to cross over into another realm and close the passages between their world and ours.The film follows much of the historical data. Howard was from Providence, Rhode Island. His father Winfred was in a mental institution and died when Howard was eight. Lovecraft wrote as if our world is in constant battle with ancient evil forces. The film allows us to introduce the dark writings of Lovecraft's ancient demons to eight year old kids in a whimsical fashion, something someone more religious than I am might find very objectionable... yet conversely treating Lovecraft's work as a cartoon, might take the wind out of the sails.The reason why I gave the film 2 stars has nothing to do with beliefs or the portrayal of Lovecraft, but on the entertainment value. Over half of the film was boring conversation and kid's games. The action wasn't great. Kiefer O'Reilly was less than acceptable as the voice of Lovecraft while they went all out with Ron Perlman, Christopher Plummer, and Doug Bradley for the support cast.I like the idea and support cast, but thought the script and execution lacked.

As a 30 year old man I like to watch the movies my nephew is gonna watch later, so I know he's not watching some stuff that's not for kids. Then I saw "Lovecraft" in the title and I was like "wow... really? Gotta watch this, maybe it's not 100% for kids".Sadly, I was wrong, it's a movie targeted 100% for kids. So:1.- Yes, totally safe for kids, let them watch it and stuff. 2.- CHEAPEST animation I've seen in YEARS. As awful as the bad 3D models you've seen in DisneyXD on their pilot episodes. 3.- Keeping item 1 in mind, as it is for kids, it feels like an insult to the Lovecraft stories, which are definitely not for kids.

First off, let me say that it was suggested this production company adds positive reviews for their work. Keep that in mind. Judge for yourself if this is the case by the dates the reviewers joined.Now to the review: I did enjoy this film more than I should have. I really liked it. Why? This is probably one of the best (only) Lovecraft stories for children that I've seen. The other notable and best was "The Real Ghostbusters" Cthulhu episode. What works: The animation style is charming, relaxed and easy to see. Lots of contrasts enable you to follow the action without distraction. The talent: Fantastically voiced by the actors, notably young Howard. The themes: reasonably loyal to Lovecraft's characters - but obviously you can't do that and still have a children's' show. I liked the compromises made. The artistic designs - wonderfully modelled characters do a nice job of making you feel the 1920's feel. What does not work: The actual animation - several times I saw trees floating in air, parts of the ground missing (though this could have been deliberate). The flow seems a bit jerky at times, but I don't imagine this picture had a massive hardware budget, so it's forgivable. This has the feel of being created around the same time as "Starship Troopers - Roughnecks". The voice of Spot: very, very badly voiced by a producer. No inflections, difficult if not impossible to understand for most of the show. You might as well remove all of Spot's dialog and just have him grunt. The pacing: This show could have used the experience of a professional director / editor and chopped about 30-45 minutes out of it. The action pauses so many times during the 'intense' scenes that it's like they tried to lengthen the film by adding 10 seconds every minute. Perhaps the distributes demanded it be a certain length and they simply didn't have the content. The price: This is a show I think you should buy - but only as a $5 digital download. Currently its price-point is excessive and preventing widespread sales. I hope the producers make this change before it is downloaded for free via torrents. Overall this is something that should have been sold on STEAM, not destined for theatres. It does not have broad appeal and selling it as a $20 bluray is a pipe-dream.That being said, I'd love to see this as a television series. I think it would be reasonably well received. Like I say, I really enjoyed it, but I'm starving for new HP Lovecraft content and this will have to do.

Never in my life would I think I would be writing a review of a kids movie, but being a life long Lovecraft fan I have to. When I first heard about this, I did a double take. I have seen lots of different takes on Lovecraft but this one takes the cake! The basic premise of the movie is Lovecraft as a child unwittingly uses the Necronomicon and opens a portal to the Frozen Kingdom where he is trying to find a way back home. The In a way, it reminds me of older holiday cartoon specials with a really strong Lovecraft feel to it. If you are looking for a fun and creepy movie to share with your little deep ones, this is the movie for you.