DVD and Blu-ray Details: Anchor Bay’s Animated Dante’s Inferno Feature

Steve Barton |

Dec 10, 2009

Anchor Bay released the details on its upcoming animated feature adaptation of the video game Dante’s Inferno, and we have all the details to walk you through every circle of hell!

From the Press Release
Film Roman, the acclaimed animation studio behind such films as Dead Space: Downfall (based on the Electronic Arts game “Dead Space”) and Hellboy Animated, took a wholly new approach to creating the circles of Hell the film’ hero Dante must navigate. Under the guidance of producer Joe Goyette and working from a story and creative vision by EA/Visceral Games executive producer Jonathan Knight, this unprecedented project enlisted some of the best animation studios in the business to create unique visions of the underworld, including such noted Asian animation studios as Production IG (Kill Bill animated sequence), Dongwoo (Batman: Gotham Knight), Manglobe (Ergo Proxy, Samurai Champloo), JM Animation (“Avatar: The Last Airbender”), and more.

Highlighting the feature’s unique artistic signature, the Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic DVD and Blu-ray boasts six limited edition customized covers specially created by the six participating animation studios.

Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic is just one piece of a new project spearheaded by Electronic Arts, which also includes the highly anticipated videogame and a previously released six-issue comic series from DC Comics/WildStorm. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic expands this franchise with a must-see feature that soars on high-octane energy and amazing visuals – combined, of course, with a story that has haunted dreams since Dante Alighieri wrote it down almost 700 years ago. This amazing journey takes viewers along with the warrior Dante, and his spectral guide Virgil, into the legendary and frightening nine circles of Hell. Join Dante as he travels through Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery, all in search of his one true love, Beatrice.

By employing a range of animation studios steeped in the anime tradition, Film Roman and EA created a completely unique vision of Dante Alighieri’s 14th Century masterwork The Divine Comedy, with each circle of hell having a distinct look and tone. While this gives it a modern twist, the feature still stays true to the original elements of the poem that is known to most as “Dante’s Inferno.” Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic is sure to delight all gamers and fan boys, but voice-over work by Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Victoria Tennant (Legend of the Mummy), Vanessa Branch (Pirates of the Caribbean), and Graham McTavish (“Prison Break”) as Dante gives this production extra dramatic depth; and the literary source material makes this a project that will appeal to an unusually broad range of adult audiences.

Film Roman, which along with Anchor Bay Entertainment is a division of Starz Media, first worked with EA on 2008’s Dead Space: Downfall. The venerable animation studio also provides the animation production for Fox/Gracie’s “The Simpsons” and Marvel Entertainment’s new hit “Super Hero Squad.”

Bonus features will include the EA game trailer and animatics from the film. Dig the six covers below along with the trailer, and look for the feature on DVD and Blu-ray February 9th, 2010.