''Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom'' is a 2017

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

direct-to-video film based on the

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

of the same name. The inspiration comes from the writings of American horror author H. P. Lovecraft. The sequel to 2016 film '' Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom'', itself was followed by sequel '' Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness'' in 2018.

Plot

After the events of the ''Frozen Kingdom'', Howard Lovecraft is now home. A terrible curse is placed upon his loved ones and he must travel to the Undersea Kingdom in order to free his mother who has been captured by an old foe. On his quest he gains help from Dr. Armitage, his father Winfield, and his best friend Spot.

Production

On January 18, 2017, it was announced that Mark Hamill,

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...

and

Jeffrey Combs Jeffrey Alan Combs (born September 9, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for starring in horror films, such as ''Re-Animator'', and appearances playing a number of characters in the ''Star Trek'' and the DC animated universe television fr ...

and

Doug Bradley Douglas William Bradley (born 7 September 1954) is an English actor and author, best known for his role as the lead Cenobite "Pinhead" in the ''Hellraiser'' film series and for narration on various Cradle of Filth albums. He is also starrin ...

would be joining the voice cast in this animated feature. Mark Hamill was cast as Dr. Henry Armitage while Christopher Plummer and Doug Bradley reprise their roles as Dr. Herbert West and

Nyarlathotep Nyarlathotep is a fictional character created by H. P. Lovecraft. The character is a malign deity in the Cthulhu Mythos, a shared universe. First appearing in Lovecraft's 1920 prose poem " Nyarlathotep", he was later mentioned in other works by ...

. Shout! Factory had acquired the distribution rights to the series including theatrical, digital, broadcast, home entertainment.

Cast

- Dr. West * Mark Hamill - Dr. Henry Armitage *Kiefer O'Reilly - Howard Lovecraft *

- King Abdul * Ron Perlman - Shoggoth *

Scott McNeil Scott McNeil is an Australian-born Canadian actor. He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the best-known Canadian voice actors of all time, McNeil has provided voices to many characters in animated shows, most notabl ...

- Dagon/Govlins *

- Nyarlathotep *Sean Patrick O'Reilly - Spot *Harmony O'Reilly - Innes *Michelle O'Reilly - Sarah Lovecraft *Phoenix O'Reilly - Twi'i *Summer O'Reilly - Gotha *Tyler Nicol - Winfield Lovecraft

Release

The film was released on October 1, 2017. It also was screened at H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Oregon, FearNYC Film Festival and Hot Springs International Horror Film Festival.

Home media

Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

on December 5, 2017 by Shout! Factory which is a part of their three feature distribution deal with Arcana Studio.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

has an approval rating of 40% and it has a weighted average vote of 7.5/10 out of 392 votes on

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

. Critics says ''"Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom'' does a lot of things right; it’s fun, packed with high adventure, and manages to soften the Lovecraft mythos to make it palatable to younger viewers (...) the story is muddy in some areas with a myriad of story points going on simultaneously over a rather short runtime". Fans and viewers of the film praised the voice talent of the movie but have criticized about the quality of the animation in the film

Accolades

The film took home Best in the Festival: Scifi at Hot Springs International Horror Film Festival and Best Director at FearNYC.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, howard_lovecraft_and_the_undersea_kingdom 2017 films 2017 computer-animated films Animated films based on comics Arcana Studio titles Canadian animated feature films Canadian sequel films Cthulhu Mythos films Films based on Canadian comics Films directed by Sean Patrick O'Reilly 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films