Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010) User Reviews (56)

Blazes A trail of Blood and Guts. So full of Fiery Passion but fizzles near the end

[xamtaro · 7/10 · 11 February 2010]

How far would you go to save the soul of an innocent loved one? Would you travel to the very depths of hell(or "the inferno" as it is referred to in this show) to slay the devil himself? Dante's Inferno, an anime movie adapted from the video game(itself inspired by the classic "Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri) chronicles the epic journey of the titular troubled Knight, a veteran of the Bloody Christian Crusade, who returns home to find his wife murdered and her soul spirited away by the devil Lucifer. Claiming to have been steadfast in his faith and his love for his wife, Beatrice, Dante travels through the nine levels of Hell, guided by the spirit of Virgil the poet, to challenge all sorts of horrors beyond imagination just to return her to salvation. But perhaps the greatest horror lies within Dante himself and the sins of his past that he so vehemently denies.

Like most anime adapted from video games, the story is a straight forward tale for which its only purpose is to conveniently propel Dante from one level of Hell to the next. True to the spirit of a video game, each level of Hell has its own blade fodder troops and "stage boss". Throughout the linear and somewhat simplistic main story, the more intriguing back-story is fleshed out in flashbacks. It seemed that Lucifer challenged Beatrice to a bet that Dante would never betray her trust or fall into sin while he was away fighting the war. Naturally The pure-hearted Beatrice, so full of faith in her husband, accepted that bet with her soul as the prize. As the show progresses and as Dante gets nearer to his goal, Lucifer delights in utterly shattering Beatrice's faith first in God, then in mankind and ultimately in her husband who's sinful past deeds are stitched to his chest in the form of a blood red cross.

Animated by 5 animation studios and 6 directors, Dante's Inferno no doubt suffers from some inconsistency. Film roman's work opens the movie and where it lacks in artistic detail, it makes up for it by having the most fluid character movements in the whole film. Designs maintain the simpler contemporary western animation style similar to other Direct-to-Video animated movies like Planet Hulk yet preserves the game's dark gritty setting. Upon entering the level of Limbo, Studio Manglobe(famous for their work on Samurai Champloo) takes over animation with director Shukou Murase (whose works include animation design for Gundam Wing and directing the anime series Ergo Proxy) at the helm. Boasting the most incredible amount of art detail, a nightmarish Gothic feel and great looking character designs, Manglobe's segment is impressive to behold. No small cutesy characters, big kawaii eyes or bright cheery colors that so many Japanese productions suffer from.

From gritty Gothic the show transits to the amazing animated visuals of Dong Woo Animation (justice League Unlimited, Masters of the Universe 2002) and director Jong Sik-Nam(Batman Gotham Knight: Deadshot). Balancing beautiful artwork with slick animation, a leaner meaner Dante slashes through the levels of "Lust", "Gluttony" and "Anger" which are rendered in a stylish American graphic novel look not unlike 2009's "Tales of the Black Freighter" from Warner. Sadly from here on, the animation takes a slow dive in quality.

JM animation handles the next 2 segments and one thing they can never get right is the mouth movements of characters. The first segment, taking place in the level of "Violence", boasts a buff, muscular Dante and a stylized design more suited for a Saturday morning action anime than a dark gritty horror piece. At this point even the story, which started off like a blazing bonfire, starts to sputter and ebb. This is followed by the level of "Fraud", supposedly the start of the film's climax. But by now, the story has descended so much into a brainless hack and slash that the ultimate resolution to the climax is a big letdown. Complex and intriguing themes that were hinted upon earlier in the film are discarded in favor of moving the action along. For example, the running theme of repentance and forgiveness is trivialized into a kind of "magic spell" that can redeem lost souls by waving a silver cross at them.

Lastly, Dante's Inferno goes out with a sad fizzle thanks to a sub-par rush job by Production I.G. It boggles the mind how the studio responsible for Ghost in The Shell, Sky Crawlers and other beautifully animated productions could turn up such a thing. The final showdown with Lucifer is an appropriate closure for Dante's spiritual journey but the animation presented is only mediocre, the artwork simplistic and the character designs, laughable. Dante is now a disproportionately wide oaf who looks more fat than muscular and Lucifer himself conjures up memories of some lost Digimon.

Not many may appreciate the unnecessarily convoluted narrative or the inconsistent visual styles. The characters tend to fall into hero/damsel/villain/hero's guide stereotypes even though the stellar voice cast play their roles with such burning passion. On first viewing, Dante's Inferno may satisfy fans of violent horror anime like Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust or Hellsing. The bloody action never fails to please though the more conservative types may be put off by the religious musings and sexually graphic visuals (that level is not called "Lust" for nothing). It might seem like all style over substance at first but if one were to read in between the lines, Dante's Inferno presents a tragic tale of love, loss, faith and redemption; unoriginal themes for sure but themes that anyone can easily relate to.

Hell not so hot

[FilmFlaneur · 6/10 · 5 April 2010]

High culture collides with low in this anime, a spin-off from the imminent computer game from EA. Whether or not you take to it will depend on your view of Dante, Japanese animation, and video game tie-ins, as well as more generally on the cross-fertilisation between different cultural artifacts - always a contentious subject. Most of those in the target market for Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic will not be over-familiar with the original source, but there's no need to climb on any literary high-horses, though general observations are worthwhile. Purists, however, may wish to stay clear of it.

Dante's original, one of the great epics of world literature, has been the inspiration of much work by writers and artists down the centuries. IMDb lists four or five screen works with the title. Animated versions have been rare, although no doubt there's a comic book version lurking somewhere. Such is the nature of things that this present version appears in a year along with a rival animated production titled more succinctly 'Dante's Inferno' - one shorter in length, but apparently superior to this in its fidelity to the original. The most notable live-action version has always been that of 1935 with Spencer Tracy, an even freer adaptation than the one we have here, in which the horrendous visions are compressed into 10 minutes of a much longer narrative.

By contrast, the present version spends most of its running time on these elements, depicting at length Dante's journey through the nine circles of hell to reach his beloved Beatrice. Perhaps sensing a need for variety between the titanic battles that this progress involves, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic breaks up the hero's progress with several flashbacks, not in the original, during which the true state of affairs and Dante's real moral stature becomes more and more explained.

The character of Beatrice has been changed as part of this new narrative device, giving her a more dynamic role in the narrative as well as providing the romantic core. Whether or not Dante would have appreciated his ideal love appearing briefly as the bride of Lucifer, or his reflective protagonist-self metamorphosing into an axe-wielding warrior figure more Conan than Christian, one can only conjecture; but a target audience will respond to the changes. Only Dante's guide, the poet Virgil, keeps some of his original quiet dignity.

Given the EA game standing behind the release, it's no surprise that Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic has action and a plot structure more reflective of that more commercial source than Dante's leisurely writing. Much of the moral depth and complexity of the book has been jettisoned thereby in favour of arcs of swift movement. The original contained a more sophisticated and extended version of damnation than the mere nine circles of doom rather simplistically imagined here, each becoming just another test for our hero to reach, then duly pass through. The original's spiritual shock and awe has been replaced by a gamer's inevitable level-creep, where it is never really in doubt that Hell is likely to be overcome. It's a considerable reduction of the medieval original's salutary purpose, even if the ending of the film attempts to have it both ways.

The original Inferno, one part of the three-part Divine Comedy, makes particular use of allegory throughout, in ways an educated medieval reader would be expected to follow. Understandably feeling that allegory is not something that modern audiences will sit through at great length without growing restless, and with the imperatives of a game franchise to support, one imagines Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic was always going to be obliged to substitute breathless action for contemplation, sketched in typical anime style.

Suffice to say that the animation on offer here is certainly vivid even if, by comparison to the Shrek-like pictorial quality of the game (a trailer for which is helpfully included as an extra on the disc), the line-drawn work seems dated in style. Some, incidentally, have noticed a lack of continuity in the rendering of Dante's features. At first I thought each of the nine circles cleverly had its own subtle visual identity, but no: it's just because eight studios and directors from America, North Korea and Japan all had input. It's an inconsistency that's a little distracting; one indication perhaps of a rushed production, tied to release dates elsewhere.

Japanese fantasy anime and manga have a tradition of dealing with the matter of monsters and shadow worlds, often with their own original mythologies and shock tactics - so much so that they sometimes give censors pause for thought. It was one reason why they acquired such a cult following. But there's no tentacle horror intruding here; no stomach-churning changes of form, no real depravity, while the sexual content is reduced to occasional titillation.

Hell, one would hope, ought to be the most alarming and appalling spectacle of all, an updated warning to all who behold it, a moral imperative to reform, a presentation of the most terrible of terrors. But the horrors of Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic leave us frankly un-aghast and un-chastened. Whether or not the creators have been constrained by deference to the august original or just the mass-market demands of their sponsors is hard to say; but for a real walk on the dark side you would be better off with something like the now elderly Devil Man (aka: Debiruman) or, most memorably, the notorious Urotsukidôji.

Based on a game, not on the epic poem

[siderite · 6/10 · 12 May 2010]

Someone else chose the film, so I expected nothing. I had a vague idea that it might be an animated movie based on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. It was not. It is actually based on a video game also released in 2010.

That being said, Dante is not looking for God, as in the poem, he is in Hell to find the soul of his beloved Beatrice, whom he betrayed and therefore was taken by the Devil, right after his whole family was killed, mostly because of him. What can I say, the woman bet with the Devil that in three years in the Crusades, her guy never touched another woman. Girls really believe these things.

Anyway, each circle of Hell is animated differently, I guess by different animation teams. The styles are all what I call "American Rock and Roll", though, something like an early offshoot of Disney animation, that then got bad ass and full of anger. I mostly liked the animation and if only for that Dante's Inferno is watchable.

The story is another matter entirely. The guy enters Hell and kills everything he gets his eyes upon, barring his mother and girlfriend, including demons and even Satan (twice! :) ). I was watching the film and I was wondering how could Alighieri have written something that feels like Rambo in Hell. Only afterward did I find that the plot is based on a video game.

So, based on the animation (and on the fact that most animation movies now are crap) I give it a slightly above average. Plot: ridiculous. Therefore the resulting below average mark.

The Journey of Dante to Hell

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 10 September 2010]

After fighting in the Crusades for three years, Dante rides back home to his family estate to reunite with his beloved Beatrice and his father. Dante sees a rider following him, but out of the blue, the man vanishes with no trace. When he arrives home, he sees the servants slaughtered, his father murdered and Beatrice near death. When her soul is going to the heaven, Lucifer takes Beatrice to hell, telling that Dante has betrayed her. Dante meets Virgil that guides him to hell, and the poet explains that Beatrice had bet with Lucifer that Dante would be faithful to her while in the holy war. In return, Lucifer would protect Dante and bring him back home safe and sound. In the arrival in hell, Dante learns that he needs to cross nine circles to reach Lucifer: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, the Tombs of Heresy in the City of Dis, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. In his painful journey, he discovers who doomed his family to suffering in hell.

"Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic" presents the journey of Dante to hell based on a video game and not on the poem of Dante Alighieri. The animation follows the Japanese style with few movements and is entertaining even for those that do not know the game. The screenplay is messy and in the end both Dante and his father deserve to be in hell since Dante is evil betraying his beloved Beatrice; slaughtering the prisoners in Jerusalem; permitting that his brother-in-law be blamed and hanged for his crime and his father is a brutal man abusive with his wife. However, Dante incoherently is able to save the souls of his mother and his beloved Beatrice using the cross she had given to him when she went to the Crusades. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Dante's Inferno"

video game

[Kirpianuscus · 11 March 2017]

a disturbing film. for one as me, far by video games, admirer of Dante Divina Commedia, expecting a reasonable adaptation of the old book for a new generation. every expectation was destroyed, in precise manner. and he only verdict remains - it is the perfect choice for the fans of video game. nothing bad but almost predictable. this Inferno did part from a large genre who propose myths and legends and classic stories in a manner so bizarre , than , for old men like me, it is not easy to understand the deep purpose of this real industry. sure, the word blasphemy is precise to define it for many motifs. the graphic is impressive and the story so complicated than could be accepted. monsters, fights, crumbs of old Medieval novels, the hero and the Evil. and nothing more.

Purdy, just don't question it

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 7/10 · 15 February 2011]

Dante, a knight, returns from the crusades only to find that Something Bad Happened while he was gone. He goes to Hell, going through all nine levels(including the sewer one), engaging many creatures(most from other mythologies than the Christian one... and this *does* criticize the theology some, if I'd have liked it to do so to a greater extent)... fortunately for him, he can cut through most of them with his sword or a scythe... getting to the deepest one where the devil wants to marry his wife, because apparently even the lord of evil can't screw someone if there isn't a ring on that finger... hey, don't ask me. This is based on a game I've never played and barely know anything about. The voice acting is OK, but I wish they'd speak up, or turn the volume down on the otherwise good FX. It is fun, fast-paced, and has good action, except for when you can't tell the dimensions or where people are in relation to one another. Epic? Sure, if that doesn't require an actual story. The animation varies, partially because they keep changing who does it. There is a ton of bloody, gory violence and disturbing content and some nudity and sex in this. I recommend this to fans of bad-assery that has to do with religion in some way. 7/10

Low-Key P BA

[mikayakatnt · 7/10 · 6 November 2019]

Story loosely, loosely based on the book. Turn off your suspension of reality and enjoy the blood-and-guts action of this animated film.

3.5/5. 3 on a bad day. Was recommended by a friend and it was a fun watch. Though, the movie itself is quite forgettable.

Of Epic has nothing, but not bad.

[miguelneto-74936 · 6/10 · 8 January 2017]

I was fascinated by the story of Dante Alighiere's Divine Comedy, and came the game Dante's Inferno, even with great changes in relation to the book I found the game excellent, then I was very excited by the animation Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic, more disappointed me Very, first the script is weak, it is very rushed, it should be a series or at least a 2:00 movie, a serious problem, the animation is mute, at some point the animation changes, sometimes Dante is strong, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic does not even come to the forefront of the game, but it's a bit of a hassle. Be bad, but there are many problems, and unfortunately it is not an Epic animation. Note 6.5

Disturbing but fun to watch all the same

[breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com · 9/10 · 20 May 2012]

Reading about Dante's Inferno and the nine levels of hell really can be a trip. Trying to imagine what each level is like alone, is a big task. But once this film has been viewed, their will be no other way of thinking about them. It took six directors to make this film come together and they did a swell job with it too. There are some small tid-bits that need to be addressed but overall this film will leave a long lasting impression.

The story starts off with Dante returning home from a battle to see his family and fiancé, Beatrice, slain. It is to his own eyes that he witnesses the devil take his fiancé's soul into hell. From there it spirals down to where Dante goes through each level of hell to save Beatrice. This is where things get interesting. The animation and art crew who designed what the levels of hell look like are very surreal and quite imaginative. Each level of hell has its own trait that makes it specifically different and more horrifying than the one before it.

The voice cast for this movie was good too. All the voices sounded pretty neat for whatever role they were portraying. The one most distinctly known was Mark Hamill's voice, mostly because his voice sounded like The Joker. But seriously, who doesn't like hearing that voice? My favorite character was Virgil, voiced by Peter Jessop. I just enjoyed how Virgil was nonchalant about the whole situation of being in hell with Dante, as if he didn't care! Graham McTavish acted Dante's voice and he did a good job as well. The only thing that viewers could dealt without is Dante's repetitive and obsessive use of the word "Beatrice". I understand that he wants to save his loved one but it gets annoying to hear it in every other sentence.

The other elements that I could not relinquish from my mind were the grisly images that I saw. This film comes off as an action/horror genre epic. That's what I couldn't grasp about it. Reading Dante's Inferno is more like a stroll through hell and this film didn't allow any contemplation. It was more focused on Dante saving his girl from hell. There's plenty of blood and guts to go around though. I can't even begin to think of how much fake blood would have to be used if this was converted to live-action. While watching, it brought me back to when I saw Dead Alive (1992), which also was a gore-fest. Ahhh those bloody memories.

Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic may be a little more oriented to the action genre but there is still an abundance of horror meshed inside. Also kudos to the animation and art crew for their distinctive take on Dante Alighieri's journey through hell.

Not epic but good enough. Using different art styles for each layers of hell is interesting.

[TreeOfWolf · 7/10 · 7 September 2016]

I didn't play the game... I'm scared of religious fanatics. But I am glad that this movie showed me the story. It's better than expected, it actually denounces the abuses done by the catholic church. So I liked the twists as it revealed Dante's memories every time he met someone he knew.

Dante's girl gets kidnapped by Lucifer and he needs to go to the deepest layer of hell to fight him and get her back. But it's actually more original than it sounds...

My first thought is that there was something weird with the animation style... and then it changes at every layers of hell, with completely different directors, teams, and Dante's clothes even look different.

So I think that this movie was made as an art form, and that makes the fact that the animation wasn't perfect acceptable.

It's not the best I've seen, I liked Bayonetta more but it's probably because I played that one. I don't feel the urge to play the Dante game, but I wouldn't mind watching the movie again eventually.

Well "Epic" isn't the exact word I would use to describe this.

[Rectangular_businessman · 3/10 · 8 April 2012]

Based in a video game (Which is also loosely based in "the Divine Comedy" by Dante Aliegheri) which I never played in my life, "Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic" it's a deeply flawed production with a very few interesting elements.

This movie is divided in chapter, each one of them with a different style of animation: However, this is not an anthology film, since it follows in one linear story-line. During the first part of the movie, the animation and the designs keep a good level, but as the story advances, it turns more generic and bland, being not much better than any average anime series.

The same goes for the plot: The elements from the Divine Comedy from Dante gives this movie some level of interest, sadly, those elements doesn't seem to be very well developed, so the internal conflicts of the main character seem way too shallow or forced. The Beatrice character is just plain and uninteresting in comparison with her literary counterpart, being just a typical damsel in distress. And don 'get me started on Lucifer, which here is just merely a stereotypical villain, not so different to any guy from Naruto or some Saturday morning cartoon.

Even the spiritual and historical elements that are added in this story just seem superfluous or being put in order to establish some vague connection with the poem in which the game was inspired. In many ways, this is just another story of a hero that must save her love interest; it is just the setting which gives this some sort of interest. To get it worse, this is not even very funny to watch, being way too heavy-handed in order to enjoyable as a simple entertainment, but at the same time, it is way too banal to be considered as a serious work.

Despite the interesting premise and some few moments of good animation, this film feels just flat and forgettable. It's just neither entertaining nor satisfying enough to be considered something worth watching.

the book still casts a great shadow

[EchoMaRinE · 9/10 · 2 March 2010]

This is the animated, softened in language and shortened in content version of Dante's Inferno but nevertheless a great movie to see. You may find the story familiar from the book but it is a great experience to see it as an animation. It is indeed showing the journey of Dante in nine circles of the hell to rescue his beloved Beatrice from Lucifer. You see all nine circles and their purpose but the sub-parts of the circles are not detailed since the movie focuses on the epic fight of Dante. Most of the characters and the story is there but it could have been better to make the movie in Italian. One needs to give credits to the soundtracks, they were quite good. As a conclusion, the book still casts a great shadow on anything that can be done along this lines but this is a nice movie as such.

Many different art styles

[Angels_Review · 6/10 · 7 August 2014]

The story line is a little different then the actual game and the language is a bit forced. They used old time language which means its heavy in old English. But the voices are perfect and don't change from what they should be.

The worst parts that they changed the facts of who sowed the cross on Dante's chest. It meant more when Dante was the one that placed it on him self. It showed he was willing to look at his sins where when it was placed on by some supernatural creature, then it shows he is forced to look at what has happened. It is a little bothersome that they had to change the whole reasoning for that.

The art style changes a bit threw the show like each circle was drawn by a different person, and I think it's because there were way too many people working on this one movie. Each director pretty much got a piece of hell to work with and I guess they never shared the design of the main character with one another because Dante and Virgil really do not look the same though out the show. The only style that feels like it belongs is the first one, mostly the reason why I had kept watching. The first one shows a style much like a American Comic Book character. Normally I didn't like that style, but I like it for this one. It has a rather nice idea of a hero who had to overcome everything for the one he loved.

As the story keeps going, sadly, some of the circles seem to be cut short and its sad because some of the areas could of just excluded a bit to give them equal time.

How Virgil acts, it seems that he is trying to make Dante destroy Hell. Take it as you will on that but it's what it feels like to me. For all it's worth, It is a good one even if the art style changes.

The worst adaptation and yet the worst movie ever?

[zorionak · 1/10 · 26 June 2018]

Boring as all the hells it represents, no story, no cadence, no nothing after an eternal wait. You will feel you are in the all of the hells for the good hour and a half it lasts. Do not watch it.

What is this place ?!

[rls0812 · 24 September 2011]

I have no idea how to review this anime hybrid. It's all over the place.

Let's start with the good. This anime has good visual art, and is mostly well animated. The audio is good.

.... and it's the only movie I have ever watched were some one back flips while riding a horse.

The plot line is simple, and straight forward, but the way they execute the movie is very confusing.

While our hero ( or is he? ) makes his way threw hell, things jumps out as making no sense, and out of place. Things like character actions, to character design change radically from one layer of hell, to the next.

It doesn't help there is a lot of random plot convenience thrown in.

Who? What? Why did that happen? The presentation of this anime is jarring, and distracting.

It's an OK anime, if you ignore the details, and focus on the action, but for me it's one "What is going on" after the next.

Dante's Pathetic Journey

[jordiojoystar · 6/10 · 31 January 2014]

Based on Electronic Arts' video game entitled, Dante's Inferno – taken from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy comes an epic gameplay battle through the hounds of hell.

Dante's Inferno – An Animated Epic is an essential walk-through on animation platform. Each scenes has a different chapter title similar to the game and the written book.

The scene begins with Dante returning from the Third Crusade to find his home in a bloody mess, his father died. And his beloved Beatrice was on her last breathe. Then she turn into a spirit and before she could ascend to Heaven – a demonic shadow: Lucifer appeared and take her away into Hell.

The film is like an indirect walk-through to the game. Setting on a journey to save the soul of your love because you betrayed your trust. I mean "you" as the character itself.

Battling foul demons and all those sinners via the stages of Hell and lastly Lucifer himself. Each chapter was directed by various directors and you can see the difference of the animated art in it. Fascinating doesn't it?

However, if you have not played the game – watching this does not give you real kick because not everything on the game is on the animation.

It isn't perfect but is definitely worth watching

[kevin_robbins · 7/10 · 28 December 2021]

Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010) is a movie I recently rewatched for the first time in a long time on Amazon Prime. The storyline follows Dante's wife taken to hell by the devil himself and Dante finding a way to chase her down there with hopes of rescuing her.

This movie is directed by Mike Disa (Hoodwink too! Hood vs Evil) and contains the voices of Graham McTavish (The Hobbit), Vanessa Branch (the Cell), Steve Blum (Cowboy Bebop), Mark Hamill (Star Wars) and JP Karliak (The Boss Baby).

The animation for this is awesome. The monsters, ghosts and settings were excellent and the kill scenes, gore and blood splatter was remarkable. Hell's torture elements were very well presented and the storyline evolved perfectly. The conclusion fit the movie perfectly and kept the appropriate tone and darkness that overshadowed the entire movie.

Overall this is a very well done animated picture based on a video game. It isn't perfect but is definitely worth watching. I would score this a 6.5/10 and strongly recommend seeing it.

OK, kind of...

[neil-476 · 7/10 · 9 March 2011]

I quite enjoyed this animated feature version of Dante's Inferno (An Animated Epic, it says here modestly), but I wouldn't pretend that it was 100% successful. My knowledge of Dante's poem is sketchy, so I can't comment on how closely (or not) this film followed it. I'm even less familiar with the video game which gave rise to this so, again, I can't comment.

Taken on its own, the visuals are very striking - impressively so - but they suffer from the fact that multiple animation houses have been used. That was something which worked well in The Animatrix and Gotham Knight, where the standalone nature of the individual episodes facilitates - embraces, perhaps, a diversity of animation styles. Here, a switch of styles loses the continuity which a single narrative requires.

The voice performances are not well served by the script: both tend towards the melodramatic at worst and the merely functional at best.

Even so, if you are an animation fan and you have a leaning towards the fantastic (and the gory and the mildly sexual) you may well find there is a moderate amount to enjoy here.

Inconsistent journey full of blood

[aronharde · 6/10 · 12 November 2023]

Before reading this review you should know that I have never played the game and I'm also not a fan of animated movies. However I'm a huge horror movie fan and this was one of the movies I hadn't seen until yesterday.

Here we follow Dante who is traveling through the nine circles of hell in search of his wife Beatrice who was murdered while he was away. The nine circles of hell are portrayed in different sequences by a total of 5 animation studios and six directors. This ensures some inconsistencies but also serves the movie with a variety of stylistic and visual choices.

Overall I wasn't blown away by this but I had a good time watching Dante slash his way through. And when I say he slashed his way through I mean it, it felt like none of the threats were really bothering him and he was handling each task with ease, which. Actually kind of disconnected me from his character a little bit because he felt unkillable. But apart from that I think this was a decent animated flick and if you like movies like this you will probably enjoy it. [5,6/10]

This film was crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AlyssaWaybridge · 10/10 · 10 February 2010]

I'm a girl but I love violent action Japanese animation. If you like LOTS of action, anime tentacle sex movies, blood and guts, and horror stuff, you'll love this! Haha I love these types of movies. Cool animation, cool story, blood n guts, naked girls, FUN! I am a big anime fan, watch it all the time. :) :)

I didn't know there was a game, I don't play them but I want to after seeing this.

The story was action packed. I watched a lot of BORING ANIME lately, and this is not. It moves fast, and the animation is really cool to look at, it never gets old. Sometimes you watch OVA and they talk and talk. BUT THIS KICKS BUT! And the violence is craaaaaazy. :) :)

This film was really crazy. I was expecting a normal movie, cause its American made. but it was way more interesting than I was expecting. After finishing watching it i read they want to make a Hollywood movie with real actors but I don't know how they can top this. Hehehe!

Could have been rated X. Lots of blood. If you like action, a cool story, monsters, CHECK DIS OUT!!!

The animation looks like Japanese style, but there is also Korean and American too. Watch this if u want to see something really different. :) :)

Don't know what the bad reviews were expecting.

[acastle-75346 · 6/10 · 23 January 2024]

I guess the negative reviews are coming from people what watch anime and take it seriously. As someone who just finished watching "event horizon" and then saw a suggestion offering "cartoon hell", I got what I wanted. It is a fun slash through the pretty imaginative circles of hell.

What was kind of annoying, slightly amusing, but frustrating as well, was how hard it was to believe Dante cared that much about the utterly unloveable Beatrice. She's even nagging him while he fights through hell to save her, the prize at the end if he succeeded would be a living hell being married to this ungrateful nagging harpy.

Go on, say Beatrice one more time, I dear you!

[Anti-Self · 2/10 · 2 March 2010]

So I watched Dante's Inferno, and thank God it's over!...No pun intended. It was completely unwatchable. It seriously made my head hurt, and before it even hit the half way mark, I found myself browsing the Internet while it played. I had really been looking forward to this film, too, because I am a huge fan of The Divine Comedy. I've read it three time, and I have always wanted to see a visualization of the poem in order to bring the beautiful gore to life.

Dante's Inferno: An Epic Animation, was not that.

I was so happy when it started as the film quoted the poem line by line for the first couple of minutes, then it went astray. Betrayal is the worst sin according to Dante, and this film was a betrayal of Inferno.

I admit, I even feel slightly insulted that the makers of this travesty would insult Dante Alighieri by soiling his character/person. He was a great literally artist, and produce a piece of work that is suppose to stimulate the mind in making one contemplate human nature and life.

Nothing about this film flattered Inferno. The only thing that was kept canon was the level's layout. The whole idea of The Divine Comedy was turned around on it's ass, as the original message of the poem is that the world's problems can be solved peacefully instead of by committing murder and violence....well, Dante in the movie decided to kill Charon because he told him that a living soul could not enter in Hell.

Oh yes, and I should also mention that they left out one of Dante's most famous line, "All ye abandon hope who enter here".

So, the whole movie is basically Dante running around killing people and things. I am sure they did this because they wanted to make it an action movie and to keep the viewer entertained, but there's enough violence in the original story/poem that they didn't need to bastardize Dante and add this bullshit storyline in there about him. For example, they left out the Harpies and Farfello, as well as the part about the father killing his whole family.

The few things I did enjoy about the film were the different styles they used throughout it, as well as seeing the army of dead babies...that was pretty much it...oh yeah, and Satan's one design was really kawaiidesu to me, but that's probably just because I love goats.

The main thing that I loved about Inferno was the philosophy in it, and that was all omitted and replaced by an added love story between Dante and Beatrice...yes, Dante was traveling to fetch Beatrice in the original, but they completely MILKED that and....uh...made her be captured in Hell....so then it became this annoying damsel in distress story too.

I give this movie a 2/10.

Oh yeah, and lets not forget the lip syncing did not match AT ALL! Sigh...I really hope someday someone makes a GOOD Inferno film.

AMAZING MOVIE and AWESOME STORY! I WAS Surprised!!

[Oomayu · 10/10 · 10 February 2010]

I really didn't know what to expect. Dante's Inferno is beautifully animated film with a cool story. Loved the music! Much more violent than I was expecting, but if you like adult animation, could be your thing. I don't usually watch this kinda thing, but my roommate bought it and the game.

A really fun, interesting, visual ride that is more like the poem than you would think. I studied it in college two years ago and remember it well. There are sights, monsters and even characters straight out of the poem, so that made me happy. Sure, it's based more on the game, and there were parts I didn't care for, but I was very surprised. The animation is beautiful and the story was FAR better than I expected for an animated film. Great dialogue, interesting twists and turns, I didn't know what to expect.

Spoilers: The story is about a knight who returns home from the crusades to find his wife (I think wife?) dead. He discovers her soul has been taken by the devil, so he chases her into hell.

There is a lot of dark stuff, and its kind of gross at times, but I was impressed!!

A reckoning of faith

[Sh31kh_H0kv5 · 7/10 · 13 January 2023]

Described by the movie or animation, yet I've come to realize what it means to fight for something, that could be anything it wasn't risk even with all the best odds stacked up against you one still finds the resolve to keep movement despite all the obstacles, taking them merely as s stepping stone not up nor down but a lead way to your designed destination, in actually the effort and script writing not even the orator was short of talent, the feeling came up with that of the show must go on, with every opinion derived from my observation this was good as the Lord would have it and in my conclusion the cut was made and i appreciate it.

An Animated Epic Fail!

[dragoniawriter · 3/10 · 4 December 2010]

Based off the video game of the same name (which in turn is based on the first part of the Divine Comedy), the game is essentially retelling the story of Dante's Inferno, imagining Dante as a Templar Knight. A good concept and certainly worth a look at. The film itself was used as a companion piece to this movie, I guess to boost sales.

Now, as a general rule of cinema, video game adaptations to movie don't do so well, for whatever reason. Sadly, this film is no exception.

First of all, the good points. It follows the storyline of the game very closely, in the sense that Dante gets to travel through the nine circles of Hell to fight demons. So if you've played the game, you'll probably be pleased at how closely it follows the general way the game is done. Next, the voice acting is actually pretty good. Dante is voiced by Graham McTavish (mostly known for his work in British TV), and he does a pretty good job - though his voice is usually limited to talking quietly or screaming. The other actor worthy of note is Steven Blum as Lucifer. Blum is a brilliant voice actor who has an extensive career mainly includes animation and video games. He has a real deep voice which is suited to villain roles - so he's great for this part.

Now, the bad parts. Firstly, the nine circles of hell themselves. While the overall design of them is great (and they keep in the major encounters from the game), they don't really develop them in the way they do in the game. As this is a 70 min movie, the general execution feels rushed and we don't get a chance to really soak in the atmosphere of each circle, so in the end it doesn't really give the feeling of dread and terror that the game does.

But my biggest problem is the animation. Six studios did the animation for this film, each taking on a different part of the story. The problem with this is that the characters designs change with each animation. And the animation itself ranges from the mediocre to the just plain ridiculous. Dante and the others characters are constantly changing and it becomes really jarring. I think the worst case of this are the last two sections, where Dante and the devil just look terrible! Another problem with this is that the continuity suffers. Example, in one section, Dante remembers how he murdered a group of prisoners during the war. When it changes to the next animation studio, they play out the exact same scene almost word for word! Another part remembers Dante's father as greedy, evil man, but later on, it shows Dante's father trying to protect her, claiming her to be innocent. This just makes the story hard to follow and, to be honest, it becomes really boring after a while.

And don't even get me started with the lip sync. Sometimes the characters mouths don't even move at all and they still talk! It's such a shame as this could have been a good film, but these little things ruined it for me. If you're a fan of the game, then you can check it out for yourself, but personally, I'd stay away from this one. It's a wasted opportunity.