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Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood Review

I've only just recently gotten a chance to see the theatrical version of "Watchmen", and while as a fan of the graphic novel, I was a little dismayed to see that the "Tales of the Black Freighter" comic-within-the-comic was not a part of the movie, I was glad to find it -- along with an in-universe documentary based on the comics' text supplement featuring sample chapters from "Under the Hood", the memoirs of Hollis Mason, aka the original Nite Owl -- had been released as a direct-to-DVD supplement to the film.

For all it's horror and violence, in it's tale of a doomed sea-captain who in his quest to protect his seaside village from the pirates who murdered his crew and sank his ship becomes as horrible a monster as the pirates, the Black Freighter is an odd and complicated counterpoint to the Watchmen story. In some ways it mirrors every shade of the moral greyness of the main story, but in other ways it seems more simple. It manages to captures, in a distilled yet more potent way, the theme of Watchmen, how even the most morally upright person trying to make the world a better place can, if they hyperfocus too much on their goal, fall to the level of the antagonists they face. The animation, a combination of hand-drawing and computer graphics, might seem a little simple, but it fits the style that the original comic presented, which was deliberately cruder and a bit garishly colored when compared to the drawing style of the main story. Gerard Butler, the voice of the doomed captain, gave his performance just the right level of despairing hope and madness.

"Under the Hood" almost can stand by itself, but I felt the Black Freighter feature, as excellent a piece as it is, seemed to fall a little short without the Watchmen story to both frame and mirror it. The one is as much a counterpoint to the other and separating them. Much as I enjoyed watching it in this format, I'm really looking forward to seeing the director's cut version of the full movie.

Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood Overview

Theyre in the book. And on this disc. From the director of Watchmen and 300 come two tales from the celebrated graphic novel that do not appear in the extraordinary Watchmen Theatrical Feature. Tales of the Black Freighter (featuring the voice of 300s Gerard Butler) brings to strikingly animated life the novels richly layered story-within-a-story, a daring pirate saga whose turbulent events may mirror those in the Watchmens world. Stars from the Watchmen movie team in the amazing live-action/CGI Under the Hood, based on Nite Owls powerful first-hand account of how the hooded adventurers came into existence. Two fan-essential stories. One place to watch the excitement. Watching the Watchmen begins here.

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Customer Reviews

Awesome Order! - James Blevins - Inverness, Florida USA
Everything was exactly as I hoped it would be! So pleased with this purchase!

WATCHMEN FAN MUST HAVE!!!! - Explorer -
As a newly introduced fan to the Watchmen Comic novel, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the Captain's tale against the Black Freighter but I appreciated the story even more so in the "Watchmen Motion Comic" because one could see the parallels in both stories. That of the captain and the watchmen.

"Under the Hood" was also pretty good. For those of you who have only seen the movie, you will enjoy it because it tells the story of the original super heroes "The Minute Men."

So again, watchmen fan, must have. Not that big of a fan, not so much!!!!!

You decide....

Good Watchmen bonus - J. Alford - Atlanta, GA. United States
This is an original animated feature which takes all the material from the actual Watchmen comic, and comprises it into a single short-movie. This OVA('original video animation" to you non-otaku)is one of several animated video tie-ins to theatrically released live-action flicks like The Dark Knight, Van Helsing, and Chronicles Of Riddick. The parts of it that pertain to the film were left out for time, but mainly because they had no direct relevance to the main story. If you were to get the Watchmen Motion Comic, you'd see it as it was in the comic in relation to the events going on around the reader, who is a geek that uses pirate comics as a way to escape the sense of doom the world is heading towards in this "doomsday clock" alternate 1985.

Tales Of The Black Freighter is a straight-up pirate/horror story about a sea captain who is the lone survivor of an attack on his vessel by a possibly-undead band of buckaneers. He makes it to a deserted island, along with the floating remains of alot of his crew including his first mate. The captain makes a raft out of the corpses, and heads home to warn of them of the mysterious Black Freighter which threatens to destroy their town. After seriously tripping out on some bad seawater, the captain makes it back home, but under the delusion that the town has already been sacked by the pirates. He subsequently murders two innocents he believes sold his people out, and bludgeons his wife(maybe to death)who he thinks is a pirate that's invaded his home. The captain then heads out to sea while being chased by the townsfolk, only to find the Black Freighter waiting for him. This played out like a great Tales From The Crypt-styled horror comic set in a pirate world. The animation is very well done too, a little different from the type your probably used to from Bruce Timm's style though.

The other feature on this is Under The Hood, which is a live-action documentary about the life of Hollis Mason who was the first Night Owl(aka: "Night Owl I"). This is formatted like a TV news show from 1985 which looks back at an interview they did with Mason(Stephen McHattie)back in 1977 when his book tell-all book about being a superhero was released. They talk with Mason about being in the original Minutemen, which was the Golden Age superhero team that preceeded the Watchmen. They also have the original Silk Spectre too played by the totally fine Carla Gugino, who looks hot even back in the 70s. Plus, Matt Frewer(Max Headroom)as the retired supervillain Moloch is particularly creepy. This is a great secondary feature that compliments the rest of the Watchmen movie. There's also a documentary which partially goes over the regular Watchmen movie, and the making of Under The Hood. Also included is the first episode of the Watchmen Motion Comic.

From novel to comic to screen - Luigi Ermini -
Being a fan of Alan Moore and Watchmen, buying the movie blue-ray, "Tales of the Black Freighter" cannot miss in my videoteque.
As transposition from a comic inside the novel to animated movie, loses much pathos and meaning, thru, who wich had red the novel, has clear in mind what's the story reflects.
The narrating voice of Gerard Butler is pretty amazing but I don't think it gives the right athmosphere to the context.
After all is a movie to be watched having in mind the graphic novel so I propose : read the book before watch this.

Regarding "Under the Hood" I found it really enjoyable, very nice reconstruction of the ambietation and characters, the whole blue-ray deserve to be buyed just for this.

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 20, 2010 08:56:05

Animation

Friday, August 20, 2010