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Guillermo del Toro did deliberately include some references to classic movies in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. "Every movie that I referenced in the film, Harryhausen, Creature [of the Black Lagoon], Wizard of Oz, American Werewolf, whatever it is, those are movies I called my 12-year-old movies, because the idea of Hellboy II was, 'Can I shoot a movie like a 12-year-old?' I am 43, I’ve done X number of movies, but can I learn to just devolve emotionally into a guy who is so in love with these things that I shoot it with that much emotion," explained del Toro.

"I wanted very much, very much for this movie to have that, I wouldn’t say innocence, but that wide-eyed view of the creatures - when you have that love for monsters that is unbridled and untampered by any adult concern in the emotional aspect."

Asked if that childlike innocence is what drew him to his next project, The Hobbit, del Toro replied, "I believe so, you know to a point, because The Hobbit like this movie, every movie has to be balance between the two. Pan’s Labyrinth is the same thing. It had a lot of that awe, but at the same time it is a more adult theme and a more adult tone. The theme and the tone of The Hobbit are very different from this movie. Just aesthetically it can’t be as poppy as this movie, so the approach will be different."

"The Hobbit is an 11 year old book and I read it when I was 11 and it hit me right at that moment, so I tried to honor that feeling. It would be my most sincere hope that somewhere at some point on the Hellboy II exhibition, there is a 10 year old or 11 year old with his or her parents that fall in love with one of the creature forever - like Wink or the Angel of Death or something - because we created those monsters…every guy that was involved, every girl that was involved in creating those creatures, I asked them to come from a place of love.

I did it like animation, which is not very customary in movies like this. I said to each of the guys, 'Which is the character that enthralls you? Grab that character and run with it.'"

"Instead of assembly lining the monsters, we gave a guy one monster and that guy created him from mache all the way to final realization, wardrobe, sculpting, painting, like you give a lead animator a character in an animated film, because I felt you needed that level of commitment in the creation of the creatures in the movie. There is [one guy] who did only the octopus fish vendor - that was the only guy who did it. That was an entire shop that just did that creature. It is a very uncommon approach. I’m not sure that it is economically great, but it was creatively."